Amber Rapid dal 13 al 25 Marzo. Grischuk sostituisce Morozevich.
AMBER con Carlsen e Kramnik. Morozevich rinuncia.
E' notizia di pochi giorni fa che il russo Alexander Morozevich dovrà rinunciare per motivi personali al super torneo Amber che inizia il 13 Marzo e termina il 25. Si tratta di una competizione con 12 invitati che si confrontano ogni giorno in 2 partite rapid (25'+10") e 2 partite alla cieca ( 25'+20''). Il posto di Morozevich sarà preso dal suo connazionale e Campione Russo in carica Alexander Grishuk.
Tra i presenti Kramnik che vanta numerose vittorie ( 1996 -1998-1999- 2001-2004-2007) e due secondi posti nelle ultime due edizione. A contendergli lo scettro il Norvegese Magnus Carlsen, n° 1 del tabellone e che ha un 1° posto a parimerito nel 2009 e due secondi posti a parimerito nel 2007 e 2008. Tra i plurivincitori vanno annoverati anche Aronian (sue le ultime due edizioni 2008-2009) e Morozevich (2002-2004-2006). Ivanchuk ha una alloro datato 1992, mentre ha una ricca collezione di medaglie d'argento (ben 5).
L'Azerbaigiano Gashimov, dopo l'esordio recente al supertorneo di Linares, scende per la prima volta in campo anche all'Amber. Esordio anche per Ponomariov, Dominguez a Smeets.
INVITATI all' AMBER 2010
N°
Nom
Pays
Elo
1
Carlsen, Magnus
NOR
2810
2
Kramnik, Vladimir
RUS
2788
3
Aronian, Levon
ARM
2781
4
Gelfand, Boris
ISR
2761
5
Gashimov, Vugar
AZE
2759
6
Ivanchuk, Vassily
UKR
2749
7
Svidler, Peter
RUS
2744
8
Ponomariov, Ruslan
UKR
2737
9
Morozevich, Alexander assente, Grischuk al suo posto
The 19th traditional TopGM’s blindfold and rapid tournament in Nice, France will be held from March 13th to 25th.
Players: Levon Aronian (Armenia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov, Jan Smeets (The Netherlands) and Peter Svidler.
Am Samstag beginnt in Nizza das 19. Amberturnier, ein kombiniertes Blind- und
Schnellschachturnier der Weltelite. Am Start sind: Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir
Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand,
Vassily Ivanchuk, Vugar Gashimov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Sergey Karjakin, Leinier
Dominguez und Jan Smeets. Ursprünglich war Alexander Morozevich eingeladen,
doch er musste kurzfristig aus privaten Gründen absagen und wird nun von
Alexander Grischuk ersetzt. Das Turnier wird von der Association Max Euwe
organisiert und von Joop van Oosterom gesponsert. Austragungsort ist das
Hotel Palais de la Mediterranée an der Promenade des Anglais in Nizza. Der
Preisfonds beträgt 216.000 Euro. Offizielle Seite...
Alexander Morozevich has withdrawn from the Amber tournament, which starts in six days from now in Nice, France. The Russian is replaced by his compatriot Alexander Grischuk. To get you a bit in the mood already, today we present a video with footage from 2008 and 2009.
The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place at the Palais de la Mediterranée in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco. The total prize-fund is € 216,000.
The world’s number one player, Magnus Carlsen, is the top-seed in Nice. Also present are Levon Aronian, the winner of the past two Amber tournaments, and Vladimir Kramnik, who won the Amber tournament a record six times.
The following twelve grandmasters will take part (between brackets their country and their rating in the March 1, 2010 world rankings): Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2813), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2790), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2782), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2756), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2750), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2750), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2748), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 2740), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2737), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2725), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 2713) and Jan Smeets (The Netherlands, 2651).
Every day four sessions will be played, two blindfold sessions and two rapid sessions. The first session starts at 14.30 CET. The fourth session finishes around 20.00 CET. The final round on March 25 starts at 12.30 CET. March 17 and 22 are rest days. The rate of play is 25 minutes per game per player. With every move made in the blindfold games 20 seconds is added to the clock, with every move made in the rapid games 10 seconds is added.
Below you’ll find an appetizer video. Like in previous years, many more will be posted on the official website during the tournament. Besides, you can expect something new this year: live chess with audio commentary, streaming footage from the playing hall and live commentary sessions with the top GMs!
Today is the 75th birthday of the legendary Bent Larsen, the strongest Danish grandmaster in history and together with Bobby Fischer the “Best of the West”, before this title went to Jan Timman. We’re congratulating with unique photos from the past and present.
Photo: Peter Heine Nielsen
His full name is Jørgen Bent Larsen. He was born March 4, 1935 in Thisted, Denmark. Larsen has been a six-time Danish champion, and a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on four occasions: 1965, 1968, 1971, and 1977. He won three Interzonal tournaments: Amsterdam 1964, Sousse 1967, and Biel 1976.
Larsen is considered to be the strongest chess player ever born in Denmark, and strongest in Scandinavia at least until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen. Larsen won several dozen major international tournaments during his career, and was awarded the first Chess Oscar in 1967. Since the early 1970s, he has lived for part of the year in Las Palmas and in Buenos Aires, with his Argentinian-born wife.
Larsen became an International Grandmaster in 1956 with his gold-medal performance on board one at the Moscow Olympiad. He scored his first major individual international success by winning Mar del Plata 1958 with 12/15.
In the early 60s Larsen diversified his style, switching over to risky and unusual openings in some of his games, to try to throw his opponents off balance; this led to the recovery of his form and further development of his chess.
Clare-Benedict tournament, Copenhagen 1977, teammate IM Svend Hamann is looking on | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund
He experimented with e.g. Bird’s Opening (1. f4) and 1.b3, which is called the Larsen Opening or the Nimzo-Larsen Attack. Next Saturday a big rapid tournament will be held in the center of Copenhagen, with amongst others GM Lars Bo Hansen, GM Jonny Hector and GM Sune Berg Hansen. All games in the first round must start with 1.b3.
Larsen reached his top rank in the Elo rating system at the start of 1971, equal third in the world (with Korchnoi, behind Fischer and Spassky) with a rating of 2660. In the same year he famously lost the Candidates semi-final match in Denver 0-6 to Fischer, who went on to win the title.
Holding a Chess Informant at a lecture, appr. 1980 | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund
Larsen later claimed in a Kasparov.com interview (1998) that his one-sided loss to Fischer was due in part to his condition during the match: “The organizers chose the wrong time for this match. I was languid with the heat and Fischer was better prepared for such exceptional circumstances… I saw chess pieces through a mist and, thus, my level of playing was not good.”
Together with Fischer, Larsen was clearly the strongest tournament player from the West in the years 1965-1973. Victories include Le Havre 1966, Havana 1967, Winnipeg 1967, Palma de Mallorca 1967, Monte Carlo 1968, Palma de Mallorca 1969, Lugano 1970 and Teesside 1972. In the USSR vs Rest of the World match at Belgrade 1970, he played first board for the World side, ahead of Fischer, and scored 2.5/4 against Spassky and Leonid Stein.
In Buenos Aires, January 2010 | Photo Peter Heine Nielsen
Larsen has continued to play occasionally in tournaments to the present day. In 1999 he finished 7th of 10 in the Danish Championship, but in the 2000 event he was forced to withdraw when he became seriously ill with an edema, requiring brain surgery. He has played in only a few tournaments in Buenos Aires since then. In 2008 he playes his first tournament in four years, and avoiding theory in every game, the famous Dane only played very exotic openings and scored… 0 out of 9. It inspired us to ask the organizer of the Chess960 tournament in Mainz to invite Larsen.
For this article we used Wikipedia which has a large entry with much more details on Bent Larsen.
In 1950 Skakbladet had an annotation competition, and the winning game had the honour of being annotated game no. 2,500 in the magazine since its inception in 1904. The winner was Bent Larsen, and the editor with great political correctness told how, by a strange coincidence game no. 2,500 was won by an ordinary, totally unknown representative of the ordinary Danish club players. The winner was Bent Larsen – and the editor was never allowed to forget!
Ahead of the World Junior Championship in Copenhagen 1953, arguably the strongest ever, IM Jens Enevoldsen suggested a training match of six games between him and Larsen. He told me later that his plan was that it should end as a 3-3 draw so you historically you could say, that the old master passed the scepter to the future.
Enevoldsen was in fact very lucky that the match was still equal ahead of the last game which was a seasaw game with the players alternately better. Larsen went wrong in a better position, and disaster threatened Enevoldsen – he had a clear win, but if he won, who would ever remember the match.
So, he offered a draw that Larsen of course accepted though he didn’t understand a thing. Explanation followed when Enevoldsom immediately demonstrated the forced win, and even if a well behaved Larsen never said anything, Enevoldsen knew that he was furious, – and I never think that he forgave me!
I have had many experiences with Larsen, and I published his tournament book about the great victory in Manila 1973 on my small hobby publishing firm. It is but a very small part of a fantastic production of books and articles that still continues. Imagine what it means to a small country to have had authors like Niemzowitsch, Enevoldsen, and Bent Larsen ….!
Larsen emigrated from Denmark after a controversy with tax people and a growing dissatisfaction with the way the Danish state moved politically but he never quit his good relations to the ordinary Danish chess players – or his bad relations to the Danish Chess Federation that probably has never treated him like the world star he has been and is until these latest years.
There are lots of other memories but I would like to share one of his lesser known openings with you, played as white against Miguel Quinteros in Orense 1975. Never move you pawns too often in the opening. You know that but what do you think about…
White won from this position as a matter of simple tecnique.
Svend Novrup,
President of Association Internationale de la Presse Echiquenne
To celebrate Larsen’s 75th birthday, the Danish Chess Federation has dedicated a special edition of Skakbladet to the great master. The magazine can be downloaded at http://www.dsu.dk/skakblad/sb2010/larsen.pdf (in Danish only).
Tonight Larsen will be celebrated both in Copenhagen, Aarhus and in Koege in various arrangements. We already mentioned the rapid tournament next Saturday. In connection with the strongest chess tournament in Denmark, the Politiken Cup, GM Peter Svidler (Russia) and the leading Danish player, GM Peter Heine Nielsen, will play a combined rapid and blitz match in honour of Bent Larsen. The match takes place in Elsinore August 2-5. From October 11 till 22, ten Grandmasters will play Bent Larsen’s 75th year birthday tournament in Koege. The players are still to be announced.
Three points ahead, Buenos Aires 1979
Making a speech at the closing dinner for Nimzowitsch Memorial, Næstved 1985. | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund
A portrait from 1988 | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund
Danish Championship 1994 v. IM Klaus Berg | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund
In a boxing-ring with heavyweight World Champion Brian Nielsen, 1996 in Copehagen | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund
Member of honour, 1998, with The Danish Chess Federation at that time, Søren Bech Hansen | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund
With the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Niels Helveg Petersen (a strong amateur chess-player himself), 1999 | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund
In Buenos Aires, January 2010 | Photo Peter Heine Nielsen
Veselin Topalov briefly took the #1 spot during the Linares Super GM tournament, but then fell back off Magnus Carlsen (2813, +3) to remain in the #2 spot. The World Champion challenger is behind Carlsen by mere percentage points on the unofficial live list. Unfortunately, Linares did not make the calculations and the official list shows him eight points back (2805, +0). Topalov is gearing up for his big match with World Champion Viswanathan Anand (2787, -3).
GM Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) Photo by WGM Yana Melnikova.
Vladimir Kramnik (2790, +2) has supplanted Anand at the #3 position. He had a strong showing at Corus, but that was only worth an increase of .19 points. Levon Aronian (2782, +1) holds steady at #5 while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2760, +20) vaulted into the #6 position from #11. Alexander Grischuk (2756, +20) jumped eight places on the strength of his Russian Championship.
Peter Svidler (2750, +6) and Boris Gelfand (2750, -11) are tied for 8th-9th. Gelfand plummeted in the World Team Championship after his World Cup win. Chinese #1 Wang Yue (2749, +0) has been relatively inactive since bowing out of the World Cup. The biggest winner of the top 100 is Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem (2689, +42), the winner of 2010 Aeroflot tournament. Hikaru Nakamura also saw a big gain (2735, +27).
In women’s chess, Judit Polgar remained as “Queen of the Hill” (2682, +0) with Humpy Koneru closing in (2622, +8). At one time there was almost 200 ELO points separating the top two positions. Hou Yifan (2570, -20) dropped a ton of points after the Moscow Open. One lady rising on the horizon appears to be Nadezhda Kosintseva (2554, +21) who won the Russia Women’s Championship. Zhao Xue (2490, -16) dropped under 2500 for the first time in three years and Ju Wenjun (2500, -12) is now the nation’s #2. Zhao and Xu Yuhua (2478, +0) may be preparing to make way for the wealth of Chinese talent coming through.
GM Anish Giri (Netherlands) Photo by FIDE.com.
As far as juniors are concerned, Carlsen will remain at the top for as long as he is eligible. At 2813, he is almost 100 ELO points from Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2727, -3). Sergey Karjakin (2725, +5) is on position #3 and Le Quang Liem (2689, +42) has been touted as the new young star on the scene. Wesley So (2665, +9) keeps gaining and is now the strongest Filipino player in history. So is in the #6 spot. Anish Giri (2624, +36) won Corus B and vaulted over 2600. He is the youngest on the top 20 junior list and has gained some notoriety for annotating games from the Linares tournament. Watch this young man!
Werden Bremen catches Baden-Baden in the Bundesliga
The German Bundesliga is surely the strongest team championship in the world. Just look at the names: Anand, Svidler, Gashimov, Mamedayrov, Shirov, Adams (playing on board six!). In round ten the champions OSG Baden-Baden faced the ambitious team of Werder Bremen, who snatched a surprise victory to catch the leading team on match points. There are four rounds left to play. Illustrated report and games.
FIDE publishes March 1 ratings, Linares not counted
Just a few days ago Veselin Topalov won the Linares tournament and narrowed the gap with Magnus Carlsen on the live rating list to just one point. On the March 1st FIDE rating list the Norwegian leads with a personal record of 2813 and is still 8 points ahead of Topalov.
It’s already an improvement to have six rating lists a year instead of four, but today we are reminded again of the fact that a monthly, or even weekly official list might be even better. While Carlsen and Topalov are just one (in fact 0.7) rating point away from each other on the “live list” by Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website), on the official list the distance is 8 points because Linares hasn’t been counted yet.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand lost his third place to Vladimir Kramnik; between them there are just three points. This means that the upcoming World Championship match in Sofia will be played between the current world’s number 2 and 4.
Vugar Gashimov was Azerbaijan’s number one player briefly, but he’s out of the top 10 again. His 6th place is now occupied by his compatriot Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who is back among the elite after a lesser period. Grischuk and Svidler climbed to spots number 7 and 8.
Vassily Ivanchuk is out of the top 10 again; he dropped slightly from 8 to 11. Hikaru Nakamura saw a strong period awarded with a 17th place. Alexander Morozevich’ decline continued; the former World’s number 2 can now be found on spot 24. There are now 37 players with a rating of 2700 or higher.
In the women’s list nothing much changed. The difference between Judit Polgar and Humpy Koneru decreased a bit further, from 68 to 60 points. Below you’ll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the first two lists including the changes with the previous lists. All data courtesy of FIDE.
FIDE MARCH 2010 RATING LIST: TOP 100 PLAYERS
Legend:
black color – player remained on the same position
green color – player moved up in the list
red color – player moved down in the list
blue color – player is new to the current Top list Old represents player’s position in the previous period list
In what was probably the strongest Bundesliga match ever, OSC Baden-Baden Saturday lost for the first time in more than three years, against their biggest rival Werder Bremen. The two teams are leading the standings, together with SG Solingen, with 20 points out of 11 matches. Games, photos and a video.
In the 10th round of the Schachbundesliga, Werder Bremen won 5-3 against Baden-Baden. It was the first loss in more than three years for the German champion. The match took place last Saturday at the Kongresshaus of the Stadthalle in Heidelberg, and match winners were Alexander Areshchenko and Michael Roiz who defeated Michael Adams and Arkadij Naiditsch respectively. All other matches ended in a draw.
ICC Chess.FM’s Macauley Peterson was in Heidelberg too this weekend and made the following video on the victory for the ‘Green Shirts’.
On Sunday Baden-Baden recovered and easily defeated Hamburger SK with 1.5-6.5. On board 1 Anand beat Kempinski with a nice combination. Shirov, Movsesian, Naiditsch and Heine Nielsen also scored full points. Werder Bremen did even better by crushing host club Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim 7.5-0.5. Winning 2.5-5.5 against SK Turm Emsdetten, SG Solingen managed to reach a shared first place together with Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen.
SV OSG Baden-Baden lost their 100% record in Round 10 when they were beaten by Werder Bremen in spite of having an Elo advantage on every board
and the World Champion on top board.
Rounds 10 and 11 take place 27th-28th of February 2010.
This weekend the 10th and 11th round of the Schachbundesliga are being played. On board one of the top match between Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen, Vugar Gashimov (Werder Bremen), who travelled from Linares to Heidelberg, plays the World Champ, Viswanathan Anand.
In the 10th round of the Bundesliga the German champion OSG Baden-Baden faces the most serious contender Werder Bremen. It will be the most exciting match in the history of the Schachbundesliga, and both Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen will play with their nearly best possible lineup. The elo average of Baden-Baden is 2717 and of Bremen 2679. Both teams will have only top 100 players from the current world ranking at their disposal. Bremen will play on the first two boards with the Azerbaijani GMs Vugar Gashimov and Shakhriyar Mamedayrov, both known for their uncompromising style.
Laurent Fressinet and Tomi Nyback will also defend the “green-white coloured”. After nine rounds they belong to the five top scorers of the league.
Undoubtedly the biggest attraction of the whole weekend is World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Two months before his match against Veselin Topalov in Sofia he makes a “break” in his preparation to support his team in Germany. For many years he’s maintained friendly relations to the environment of Baden-Baden so his appearance doesn’t come as a big suprise.
Etienne Bacrot and Germay’s number one Arkadij Naiditsch will also play for Baden-Baden. They belong to the five best performers of the whole league so far in this season.
Here are the line-ups and the pairings of the match Baden-Baden – Werder Bremen:
Saturday, 27th of February 2010, 2 pm Playing venue: Kongresshaus Stadthalle Heidelberg, Neckarstaden 24, 69117 Heidelberg
OSG Baden-Baden – Werder Bremen
1 Viswanathan Anand 2788* Vugar Gashimov 2740
2 Peter Svidler 2741 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2721
3 Alexei Shirov 2730 Pavel Eljanov 2717
4 Etienne Bacrot 2709 Zahar Efimenko 2654
5 Sergei Movsesian 2711 Laurent Fressinet 2658
6 Michael Adams 2682 Alexander Areshchenko 2667
7 Arkadij Naiditsch 2685 Michael Roiz 2658
8 Peter-Heine Nielsen 2687 Tomi Nyback 2615
*Rating at the beginning of the season
This match and of course all other matches of the Schachbundesliga will be covered live on the internet. At the day of the matches you can get access via the website of the Schachbundesliga.
Here are all matches of the 10th and 11th round of the Schachbundesliga.
10th round: Saturday, 27th of February 2010, 2 pm Playing venue Heidelberg
OSG Baden-Baden – Werder Bremen
SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim – Hamburger SK
Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – Bayern München
SF Katernberg – Erfurter SK
Playing venue Solingen
SG Solingen – SV Wattenscheid
SC Remagen – SK Turm Emsdetten
Playing venue Trier
SG Trier – SF Berlin
SC Eppingen – SK König Tegel
11th round: Sunday, 28th of February 2010, 2 pm Playing venue Heidelberg
Hamburger SK – OSG Baden-Baden
Werder Bremen – SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
Playing venue Mülheim
Bayern München – SF Katernberg
Erfurter SK – SV Mülheim Nord
Playing venue Solingen
SV Wattenscheid – SC Remagen
SK Turm Emsdetten – SG Solingen
Playing venue Trier
SF Berlin – SC Eppingen
SK König Tegel – SG Trierem>
SC Remagen – SG Solingen (5pm)
Bundesliga 0910 | Current Standings
Teams
1. OSC Baden-Baden
1 Anand, Viswanathan GM IND 2788
2 Carlsen, Magnus GM NOR 2772
3 Svidler, Peter GM RUS 2739
4 Shirov, Alexei GM ESP 2732
5 Bacrot, Etienne GM FRA 2721
6 Movsesian, Sergej GM SVK 2716
7 Adams, Michael GM ENG 2699
8 Naiditsch, Arkadij GM GER 2697
9 Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2693
10 Nielsen, Peter-Heine GM DEN 2680
11 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2675
12 Caruana, Fabiano GM ITA 2670
13 Gustafsson, Jan GM GER 2622
14 Dautov, Rustem GM GER 2596
15 Doettling, Fabian GER 2571
16 Schlosser, Philipp GER 2560
17 Dinger, Florian GER 2391
18 Hager, Joshua Aarasch GER 2217
9. SF Katernberg
1 Volokitin, Andrei GM UKR 2678
2 Chuchelov, Vladimir GM BEL 2598
3 Firman, Nazar IM UKR 2571
4 Seel, Christian IM GER 2493
5 Bischoff, Klaus GM GER 2551
6 Halkias, Stelios GM GRE 2564
7 Glek, Igor V GM GER 2528
8 Zaragatski, Ilja IM GER 2472
9 Senff, Martin IM GER 2469
10 Ris, Robert IM NED 2421
11 Thesing, Matthias IM GER 2436
12 Siebrecht, Sebastian GM GER 2458
13 Scholz, Christian IM GER 2373
14 Hoolt, Sarah WIM GER 2240
15 Rosen, Bernd FM GER 2355
16 Geilmann, Ulrich GER 1837
17 Kotainy, Jens GER 2270
2. Werder Bremen
1 Gashimov, Vugar GM AZE 2740
2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar GM AZE 2717
3 McShane, Luke James GM ENG 2620
4 Eljanov, Pavel GM UKR 2716
5 Efimenko, Zahar GM UKR 2654
6 Fressinet, Laurent GM FRA 2667
7 Meier, Georg GM GER 2658
8 Areshchenko, Alexander GM UKR 2651
9 Roiz, Michael GM ISR 2658
10 Nyback, Tomi GM FIN 2627
11 Hracek, Zbynek GM CZE 2608
12 Babula, Vlastimil GM CZE 2566
13 Llaneza Vega, Marcos IM ESP 2521
14 Fish, Gennadij GM GER 2508
15 Skripchenko, Almira IM FRA 2450
16 Knaak, Rainer GM GER 2484
17 Lichman, Peter GER 2317
10. SK Turm Emsdetten
1 Mchedlishvili, Mikheil GM GEO 2592
2 Giri, Anish GM NED 2518
3 Spoelman, Wouter IM NED 2546
4 Hector, Jonny GM SWE 2556
5 Feygin, Michael IM GER 2546
6 Janssen, Ruud IM NED 2527
7 Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2525
8 Bellon Lopez, Juan Manuel GM ESP 2445
9 Brandenburg, Daan IM NED 2463
10 Breder, Dennis IM GER 2435
11 Fiebig, Thomas GER 2426
12 Pruijssers, Roeland IM NED 2401
13 Kabatianski, Alexandr IM GER 2425
14 Richter, Christian FM GER 2417
15 Zumsande, Martin IM GER 2403
16 Bosman, Michiel FM NED 2356
3. SC Eppingen
1 Tiviakov, Sergei GM NED 2674
2 Postny, Evgeny GM ISR 2647
3 Berkes, Ferenc GM HUN 2647
4 Balogh, Csaba GM HUN 2595
5 Gyimesi, Zoltan GM HUN 2591
6 Ruck, Robert GM HUN 2561
7 Acs, Peter GM HUN 2550
8 Braun, Arik GM GER 2529
9 Bindrich, Falko GM GER 2516
10 Medvegy, Zoltan GM HUN 2547
11 Guliyev, Namig GM AZE 2555
12 Muzychuk, Anna IM SLO 2542
13 Paehtz, Elisabeth IM GER 2474
14 Mann, Christian IM GER 2454
15 Vogt, Lothar GM GER 2422
16 Dekan, Hans GER 2179
17 Noe, Christopher GER 1798
11. SF Berlin
1 Nataf, Igor-Alexandre GM FRA 2529
2 Markos, Jan GM SVK 2555
3 Miezis, Normunds GM LAT 2572
4 Lauber, Arnd IM GER 2517
5 Polzin, Rainer GM GER 2491
6 Kraemer, Martin IM GER 2481
7 Schneider, Ilja IM GER 2508
8 Berndt, Stephan IM GER 2442
9 Agopov, Mikail IM FIN 2442
10 Brynell, Stellan GM SWE 2471
11 Thiede, Lars IM GER 2452
12 Thinius, Marco IM GER 2375
13 Degtiarev, Evgeny FM GER 2373
14 Rudolf, Henrik FM GER 2353
15 Wintzer, Joachim Dr. FM GER 2384
16 Lundin, Jan FM SWE 2382
17 Abel, Dennes GER 2328
18 Glantz, Robert GER 2239
4. SV Mülheim-Nord
1 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam GM UZB 2672
2 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime GM FRA 2703
3 Motylev, Alexander GM RUS 2710
4 Tregubov, Pavel V. GM RUS 2652
5 Landa, Konstantin GM RUS 2655
6 Fridman, Daniel GM GER 2665
7 Potkin, Vladimir GM RUS 2619
8 Golod, Vitali GM ISR 2599
9 Malakhatko, Vadim GM BEL 2570
10 Berelovich, Alexander GM GER 2550
11 Levin, Felix GM GER 2491
12 Hausrath, Daniel GM GER 2519
13 Saltaev, Mihail GM UZB 2505
14 Schebler, Gerhard GM GER 2486
15 Litwak, Aleksej FM GER 2268
16 Kaufeld, Juergen FM GER 2274
17 Wittenberg, Andreas GER 2129
18 Kahleys, Kevin GER 1986
12. SG Trier
1 Lupulescu, Constantin GM ROU 2620
2 Bobras, Piotr GM POL 2568
3 Cyborowski, Lukasz GM POL 2498
4 Haslinger, Stewart GM ENG 2538
5 Gordon, Stephen IM ENG 2537
6 Jaracz, Pawel GM POL 2539
7 Erdoes, Viktor GM HUN 2565
8 Flumbort, Andras IM HUN 2507
9 Gonda, Laszlo IM HUN 2499
10 Galyas, Miklos IM HUN 2457
11 Seger, Ruediger IM GER 2405
12 Kolbus, Dietmar IM GER 2383
13 Cioara, Andrei Nestor IM ROU 2437
14 Goriachnik, Dmitry MDA 2324
15 Rat, Dan Ovidiu FM ROU 2315
16 Jeitz, Christian LUX 2221
17 Korman, Maxim GER 2172
5. SG Solingen
1 Stellwagen, Daniel GM NED 2630
2 Smeets, Jan GM NED 2632
3 Nikolic, Predrag GM BIH 2602
4 Buhmann, Rainer GM GER 2603
5 Werle, Jan GM NED 2575
6 Edouard, Romain GM FRA 2597
7 Jussupow, Artur GM GER 2570
8 L’Ami, Erwin GM NED 2593
9 Ragger, Markus GM AUT 2563
10 Ernst, Sipke GM NED 2598
11 Naumann, Alexander GM GER 2522
12 Hoffmann, Michael GM GER 2502
13 Gabriel, Christian GM GER 2507
14 Drabke, Lorenz Maximilian IM GER 2455
15 Wegerle, Joerg IM GER 2430
16 Schaefer, Markus IM GER 2378
17 Hobusch, Alexander GER 2103
18 Hannewald, Anton GER 1931
13. FC Bayern München
1 Bezold, Michael GM GER 2517
2 Bromberger, Stefan IM GER 2510
3 Schenk, Andreas IM GER 2509
4 Marcelin, Cyril GM FRA 2498
5 Boensch, Uwe GM GER 2511
6 Stangl, Markus GM GER 2455
7 Reiss, Tibor IM HUN 2414
8 Renner, Christoph IM GER 2431
9 Belezky, Alexander IM UKR 2446
10 Meissner, Bernd IM GER 2410
11 Meister, Peter IM GER 2396
12 Reich, Thomas IM GER 2368
13 Rodewis, Thomas Dr. GER 2367
14 Unzicker, Ferdinand Dr. GER 2332
15 Deglmann, Ludwig FM GER 2329
16 Lentrodt, Thomas FM GER 2304
17 Jorczik, Julian FM GER 2352
18 Graf, Felix GER 2291
6. Hamburger SK
1 Wojtaszek, Radoslav GM POL 2637
2 Kempinski, Robert GM POL 2601
3 Ghaem, Maghami Ehsan GM IRI 2589
4 Baramidze, David GM GER 2527
5 Adly, Ahmed GM EGY 2548
6 Rogozenco, Dorian GM ROU 2541
7 Hansen, Sune Berg HDEN 2554
8 Rasmussen, Allan Stig GM DEN 2536
9 Ftacnik, Lubomir Dr. GM SVK 2525
10 Mueller, Karsten Dr. GM GER 2523
11 Heinemann, Thies IM GER 2484
12 Chevelevitch, Evgueni Dr. IM GER 2461
13 Reeh, Oliver IM GER 2442
14 Huschenbeth, Niclas IM GER 2416
15 Sebastian, Dirk GER 2443
16 Van Delft, Merijn IM NED 2360
17 Carlstedt, Jonathan GER 2309
18 Bracker, Frank GER 2280
14. Erfurter SK
1 Romanov, Evgeny GM RUS 2589
2 Haba, Petr GM CZE 2533
3 Michiels, Bart IM BEL 2451
4 Kuczynski, Robert GM POL 2505
5 Casper, Thomas IM GER 2395
6 Votava, Jan GM CZE 2561
7 Enders, Peter GM GER 2467
8 Mueller, Matthias IM GER 2410
9 Voekler, Bernd FM GER 2393
10 Schoene, Maria WIM GER 2274
11 Troyke, Christian IM GER 2350
12 Schuetze, Norman GER 2278
13 Brueggemann, Joachim IM GER 2356
14 Krueger, Rainer Dr. GER 2211
15 Troyke, Doreen WFM GER 2105
16 Duzy, Stefan GER 1545
17 Friedt, Marius GER 1885
7. SV Wattenscheid
1 Vitiugov, Nikita GM RUS 2681
2 Najer, Evgeniy GM RUS 2663
3 Macieja, Bartlomiej GM POL 2612
4 Bartel, Mateusz GM POL 2619
5 Czarnota, Pawel GM POL 2530
6 Rustemov, Alexander GM RUS 2532
7 Johannessen, Leif Erlend GM NOR 2553
8 Appel, Ralf GM GER 2552
9 Holzke, Frank Dr. GM GER 2526
10 Handke, Florian GM GER 2513
11 Souleidis, Georgios IM GRE 2435
12 Dinstuhl, Volkmar Dr. IM GER 2417
13 Tereick, Benjamin FM GER 2378
14 Straeter, Timo FM GER 2347
15 Thiel, Thomas FM GER 2280
16 Gohla, Ulf GER 2181
17 Koerber, Matthias GER 1898
15. SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
1 Ikonnikov, Viacheslav GM RUS 2556
2 Svetushkin, Dmitry GM MDA 2607
3 Ginsburg, Gennadi GM GER 2537
4 Gurevic, Vladimir GM UKR 2470
5 Chernov, Vadim IM ROU 2433
6 Solomunovic, Igor IM GER 2421
7 Gerigk, Erasmus FM GER 2335
8 Schwalfenberg, Joerg FM GER 2317
9 Maier, Christian IM GER 2347
10 Vatter, Hans-Joachim FM GER 2302
11 Syska, Albert FM GER 2268
12 Nippgen, Georg GER 2272
13 Roos, Jean-Luc IM FRA 2250
14 Neunhoeffer, Helmut Dr FM GER 2281
15 Pielmeier, Thomas GER 2231
16 Schott, Reimund FRA 2019
8. SC Remagen
1 Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2703
2 Fedorchuk, Sergey GM UKR 2655
3 Gharamian, Tigran GM FRA 2615
4 Goloshchapov, Alexander GM UKR 2580
5 Parligras, Mircea GM ROU 2557
6 Huebner, Robert Dr. GM GER 2605
7 Degraeve, Jean-Marc GM FRA 2559
8 Dgebuadze, Alexandre GM BEL 2516
9 Mainka, Romuald GM GER 2521
10 Swinkels, Robin IM NED 2516
11 Teske, Henrik GM GER 2536
12 Popovic, Petar GM SRB 2496
13 Polaczek, Richard IM BEL 2381
14 Kipper, Jens GER 2393
15 Schulz, Klaus-Juergen IM GER 2385
16 Bok, Benjamin FM NED 2360
16. SK König Tegel
1 Rabiega, Robert GM GER 2551
2 Stern, Rene IM GER 2498
3 Muse, Mladen GM CRO 2448
4 Von Herman, Ulf IM GER 2400
5 Muse, Drazen IM CRO 2374
6 Fruebing, Stefan FM GER 2305
7 Tomczak, Rainer FM GER 2287
8 Mielitz, Heinz GER
9 Sarbok, Torsten FM GER 2319
10 Breier, Andreas FM GER 2405
11 Giemsa, Stephan FM GER 2301
12 Jahnz, Fabian GER 2191
13 Jaehnisch, Frank GER 2230
14 Roth, Josef GER 2152
15 Schulz, Stefanie GER 2109
16 Rausch, Manfred GER 1689
17 Kachibadze, Georg GER 2224
Gashimov-Anand Svidler-Mamedyarov Eljanov-Shirov Live ore 14
In questo fine settimana si svolgeranno due turni del campionato tedesco a squadre, stagione 2009/10. Dopo le recenti fatiche del Corus e prima della sfida mondiale con Topalov, che si disputerà ad aprile, farà il suo esordio nella manifestazione il Campione del Mondo in carica. ViswanathanAnand occuperàla prima scacchiera del OSGBaden-Baden che sta dominando la Bundesliga: nove vittorie e 54,5/72 nelle sfide individuali! Per capire la forza del OSG Baden Baden è sufficente citare una sola cifra: 2717, media elo degli otto giocatori che saranno impiegati in questi due turni.
In vista dello scontro diretto del X turno contro il Baden Baden, che si disputerà nella città di Heidelberg, il Werder Brema (media melo: 2679) ha richiamato alle armi Gashimov e Mamedyarov, sinora tenuti a riposo. Ad inizio stagione la squadra di Brema era considerata l'unica possibile antagonista dei campioni in carica, ma il suo cammino è stato rallentato dai due pareggi ottenuti con l'Amburgo e con gli ultimi in classifica dell'Erfurt. Dopo nove turni il Werder è terzo in classifica dietro il SG Aljechin Solingen (Smeets e Nikolic), vera sorpresa di questo campionato e che sinora ha perso, di misura (3.5-4.5), solo con i primi della classe.
Nei precedenti due turni la squadra del OSG Baden Baden ha schierato Fabiano Caruana. Potrete trovare i visori delle due vittorie di Caruana ed altre informazioni nell'articolo di Scacchierando pubblicato il 6 febbraio.
Gashimov-Anand e Svidler-Mamedyarov, due sfide di altissimo livello
Il poster del Werder Brema, edizione 2005 della Bundesliga. Sicuramente l'avrete riconosciuta, lei è Almira Skripchenko
Le due partite del OSG Baden Baden
Decimo turno, sabato 26 febbraio, ore 14
OSG Baden-Baden
Werder Bremen
1
Viswanathan Anand
2788
Vugar Gashimov
2740
2
Peter Svidler
2741
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
2721
3
Alexei Shirov
2730
Pavel Eljanov
2717
4
Etienne Bacrot
2709
Zahar Efimenko
2654
5
Sergei Movsesian
2711
Laurent Fressinet
2658
6
Michael Adams
2682
Alexander Areshchenko
2667
7
Arkadij Naiditsch
2685
Michael Roiz
2658
8
Peter-Heine Nielsen
2687
Tomi Nyback
2615
Undicesimo turno, domenica 27 febbraio, ore 10
Hamburger SK
OSG Baden-Baden
1
Robert Kempinski
2616
Viswanathan Anand
2788
2
Ehsan Ghaem Maghami
2579
Peter Svidler
2741
3
David Baramidze
2532
Alexei Shirov
2730
4
Dorian Rogozenco
2541
Etienne Bacrot
2709
5
Thies Heinemann
2484
Sergei Movsesian
2711
6
Oliver Reeh
2442
Michael Adams
2682
7
Niclas Huschenbeth
2411
Arkadij Naiditsch
2685
8
Dirk Sebastian
2443
Peter-Heine Nielsen
2687
NBl'elo considerato è quello che i giocatori avevano all'inizio della manifestazione
Tutti gli incontri del X e XI turno
Turno 10 27 febbraio ore 14
No.
Squadra
Squadra
Ris.
:
Ris.
1
SV Mülheim-Nord
FC Bayern München
:
2
SF Katernberg
Erfurter SK
:
3
SV Heidelberg Handschuhsheim
Hamburger SK
:
4
OSG Baden-Baden
Werder Bremen
:
5
SG Aljechin Solingen
SV Wattenscheid
:
6
SC Remagen
SK Turm Emsdetten
:
7
SG Trier
SF Berlin
:
8
SC Eppingen
SK König Tegel
:
Turno 11 28 febbraio ore 10
No.
Squadra
Squadra
Ris.
:
Ris.
1
FC Bayern München
SF Katernberg
:
2
Erfurter SK
SV Mülheim-Nord
:
3
Hamburger SK
OSG Baden-Baden
:
4
Werder Bremen
SV Heidelberg Handschuhsheim
:
5
SV Wattenscheid
SC Remagen
:
6
SK Turm Emsdetten
SG Aljechin Solingen
:
7
SF Berlin
SC Eppingen
:
8
SK König Tegel
SG Trier
:
Classifica dopo 9 turni
1
OSG Baden-Baden
9
9
0
0
18
54.5
2
SG Solingen
9
8
0
1
16
45.5
3
Werder Bremen
9
7
2
0
16
43.5
4
SV Mülheim Nord
9
6
2
1
14
44.5
5
SV Wattenscheid 1930
9
6
1
2
13
42
6
Hamburger SK
9
5
1
3
11
41.5
7
SK Turm Emsdetten
9
5
0
4
10
39.5
8
SC 1950 Remagen
9
5
0
4
10
39
9
SF Katernberg
9
4
0
5
8
32
10
SC Eppingen
9
3
1
5
7
35.5
11
SF Berlin 1903
9
2
2
5
6
32.5
12
SG Trier
9
2
0
7
4
28.5
13
Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
9
0
4
5
4
26
14
FC Bayern München
9
1
1
7
3
27
15
SK König Tegel
9
0
2
7
2
23
16
Erfurter SK
9
0
2
7
2
21.5
Regolamento
Calendario il torneo vede la partecipazione di 16 squadre e si svolge con un girone all'italiana di sola andata (15 turni). I prossimi turni si svolgeranno il 20 e il 21 marzo e il 10 e 11 aprile.
Sistema di punteggio i match si disputano su 8 scacchiere e vengono assegnati 2 punti per la vittoria, 1 per il pareggio e 0 per la sconfitta. In caso di arrivo a pari merito, si considera la somma dei punti individuali ottenuti.
Tempo di riflessione 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita più 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.
Visore
Per vedere le altre partite spostare il Visore a destra e scegliere Solingen, Muhlheim o Trier
With three more draws in round 7, the drawing percentage Saturday rose to 77% in Linares. Veselin Topalov kept his 1.5 point lead, with three more rounds to go.
The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin.
This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.
Round 7 report by Rick Goetzee
Five centuries ago
Before telling you about the happenings in today’s 7th round, we’re going back 500 years. Because that’s when the chess tradition in Linares was anticipated. Juan Huarte de San Juan (1530-1592) is the patron of Spanish psychology. He was a writer, philosopher and professor at the university of Baeza. One of his publications was Examen de ingenios in which he defined profiles of people who excelled at different professions. One of the profiles was that of a chess player, as Huarte was very fond of the game.
The Huarte de San Juan street in Linares
According to Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Huarte described personal and psychological attributes which match Kasparov’s characteristics more than 400 years later. As he was a high-profile and controversial figure the Spanish inquisition brought him to court and he was convicted. Then he promised that he would give the heritage of all of his work to the church and not to his nine children. This saved his life. His wish was to be buried in the Santa Maria church in the heart of Linares. With a twinkle in his eye Ljubo said: “It’s clear that the spirit of Huarte is still present in Linares and that’s why we have this great chess tradition.”
The Santa Maria church in the heart of Linares
I also had a word with one of the organisers, Señor Paco Albalate. After reading all the comments from people expressing their disappointment with this year’s tournament, I had to ask him a few questions.
Q: Last year the announcement was made that Dubai would organise the first half this year. What happened?
A: They made a lot of promises, also about prize money. But in the end nothing materialised and we don’t really know why. But we are working with a number of candidates for next year’s tournament. Also, next year a number of changes will be introduced but it’s too early to give any details about that.
Q: With the economic recession how difficult was it to put the tournament together this year?
A: Very easy. We cut the budget by 30%. We cut the prize money, brought the number of players down and we cut hotel costs. And what helped was that the players generously accepted the changed conditions.
Q: What about the rule of not allowing draw offers before move 40?
A: Yes we introduced a version of the Sofia rules. We wrote to all players beforehand because it was important for us that they understood why we were doing this instead of just enforcing the rule.
Q: How does it feel that people are saying that Linares is no longer the Wimbledon or the Tour de France of chess?
A: It’s clear that there are tournaments that are stronger. It’s clear that Corus is a very important tournament with a different format than we have here. It’s true that the Tal Memorial is a great tournament. But we have organised a first class tournament for 27 years. This year it may be a bit less than we are used to, but in 2011, if our projects work out, we will surprise the chess world.
There were three more draws in Linares today. Grischuk took nine minutes for his response to Gelfand’s 1.c4; eventually the Russian decided to go for 1…Nf6. The players ended up in a complicated rook ending which was drawn after 60 moves.
Alexander Grischuk pondering over his first move
Gashimov-Topalov was a Nf6/Bc5 Ruy Lopez in which Gashimov sacrificed a pawn. The game went along like Kamsky-Topalov 2009 till move 7 when Kamsky played 7.d4 followed by 7…Qe7 8.dxc5 Nxc5 9.Nc3. Svidler-Ivanchuk 2009 was followed a while longer which deviated with 10.Qxg7 Bxd4 11.Qg3 a6. At the right moment Topalov gave back the pawn and had the better chances, but a draw was agreed on move 42.
Aronian-Vallejo was the most interesting game of the round. In a Slav defence Vallejo came up with the mysterious 7…Qc7 and then 11…Qb6. It looked like a loss of tempo but eventually he reached a promising position with two rooks against the queen. Then the Spaniard won a pawn and then another, but suddenly the screen showed ½-½. What had happened? Nobody knew. Ljubo: “He is two pawns up and has good winning chances. He must have been very tired.”
Anche quest'anno Caruana al "Rising Stars Vs. Experience"!
"Caccia" al Melody Amber 2011!
E' ufficiale: Fabiano Caruana giocherà anche quest'anno il prestigioso torneo "Rising Stars Vs. Experience", che si svolgerà come di consueto presso il NH Grand Hotel Kransnapolsky di Amsterdam dall'11 al 23 agosto.
Ottimo Caruana contro Svidler nel 2009: patta con il bianco e vittoria con il nero!
Lo scorso anno la sfida - che prevede lo scontro di 5 Rising Stars contro 5 Experience a doppio girone per un totale di 10 turni - fu vinta dalla squadra Experience per 27,5 a 22,5, mentre Fabiano si piazzò secondo nella classifica delle Rising stars con 5 su 10, preceduto dall'olandese Smeets, che totalizzò 6 punti.
Il Rising Stars Team 2009: Nakamura, Caruana, Smeets, Stellwagen, Hou Yifan
L'obiettivo di quest'anno è quindi il primo posto, che gli darebbe l'accesso al Melody Amber 2011! Ma non sarà affatto facile, perchè - anche se la lista è ancora incompleta - è già chiaro che quest'anno parteciperanno i migliori giovani talenti del pianeta: Nakamura, che lo scorso anno fece solo 4 punti ma al Corus ha fatto vedere grandi cose, So, secondo alcuni il più promettente talento mondiale e Giri, dominatore del Corus B 2010!
Caruana e Nakamura analizzano dopo la sfida nel Corus 2010, terminata patta ( foto Scacchierando)
Ecco la lista dei partecipanti confermati fino ad oggi (manca un nome per ciascuna squadra):
Caruana fa il suo esordio nella Bundesliga 2009/10
Caruana - Berndtsabato Live h.14 Fruebing - Caruana domenica Live h.10
In questo fine settimana si svolgeranno tre turni (7°, 8° e 9°) del campionato tedesco a squadre, stagione 2009/10. Dopo le recenti fatiche del Corus farà il suo esordio nella manifestazione Fabiano Caruana, impegnato con lo squadrone del OSGBaden-Baden. La squadra campione in carica annovera, tra le sue file, Super Campioni del calibro di Anand, Carlsen, Svidler e Shirov, con i primi due che però non sono stati ancora impiegati.
Fabiano, che nella precedente stagione è stato utilizzato in due occasioni (due patte, con il GM Dgebuadze ed il MI Kolbus) affronterà due giocatori tedeschi: il trentaseienne MI Stephan Berndt (2442) e il MF Stefan Fruebing (2337), di 22 anni, che si sta comportando ottimamente in questa Bundesliga (3/5, performance 2574).
i due avversari di Caruana, MI Berndt e MF Fruebing
Per comprendere il livello del torneo sono sufficienti pochi numeri: 275 giocatori, 23 nazioni e 13 over 2700, anche se sinora hanno giocato solo Svidler, Shirov, Vachier-Lagrave, Eljanov, Movsesian e Bacrot. Dopo sette turni l'OSG Baden-Baden guida la classifica a punteggio pieno, tallonato ad solo un punto di distanza dal Werder Brema (Gashimov e Mamedyarov, non ancora schierati, ed Eljanov). Il Big Match si svolgerà il 27 febbraio.
Bacrot, Movsesian e Adams, prime tre scacchiere del Baden Baden in questo w-end
Nei turni precedenti precedenti segnaliamo un clamorosoinfortunio occorso al Super GM Alexei Shirov contro il GM tedesco Michael Bezold
Calendario il torneo vede la partecipazione di 16 squadre e si svolge con un girone all'italiana di sola andata (15 turni). I prossimi turni si svolgeranno il 27 e 28 febbraio, il 20 e il 21 marzo e il 10 e 11 aprile.
Sistema di punteggio i match si disputano su 8 scacchiere e vengono assegnati 2 punti per la vittoria, 1 per il pareggio e 0 per la sconfitta. In caso di arrivo a pari merito, si considera la somma dei punti individuali ottenuti.
Tempo di riflessione 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita più 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.
The final FIDE Grand-Prix tournament is set to take place on 9-25th May in Astrakhan, Russia. The event is crucial to determine who will be the second qualifier for the Candidates Matches 2010-2011. Levon Aronian has already qualified and opted not to participate - current standings.
As with the previous Grand Prix stages, the tournament format is round robin with 14 players.
Participants: Vladimir Akopian (Armenia) Evgeny Alekseev (Russia) Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine) Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan) Boris Gelfand (Israel) Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia) Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia) Peter Leko (Hungary) Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) Peter Svidler (Russia) Wang Yue (China)
The 8th and 9th round of the Schachbundesliga and three matches from round 7 will take place from the 5th to the 7th of February 2010. We provide you with the pairings at the playing venues Munich, Mülheim, Berlin and Remagen. Some famous Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar participants are joining for their Baden-Baden team…
OSG Baden-Baden is the only team of the Schachbundesliga left without any loss of points. The upcoming weekend the German champion will face the two teams of Berlin and is odds-on favourite. Under the same precondition starts the only serious competitor for the title Werder Bremen. Bremen is facing the teams of München and Erfurt. Both of them are relegation candidates. Some interesting derbies are taking place in Mülheim, where the host is facing Katernberg and Wattenscheid for the “hegemony in the West”.
All line-ups of the teams in Berlin, e.g. OSG Baden-Baden, are published two days in advance. This is carried out due to the new rule, which was implemented from the beginning of this season.
Live coverage
All games of the Schachbundesliga are covered live on the Internet. At the particular date of the matches you can get access to the games via the website of the Schachbundesliga.
8th round: Saturday, 6th of February 2010, 2 pm
Playing venue Munich
Bayern München – Hamburger SK
Erfurter SK – Werder Bremen
Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SV Wattenscheid
SF Katernberg – SK Turm Emsdetten
Playing venue Berlin
SK König Tegel – SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
SF Berlin - OSG Baden-Baden
1 Jan Markos (2565) - Etienne Bacrot (2709)
2 Arnd Lauber (2517) - Sergei Movsesian (2711)
3 Rainer Polzin (2491) - Michael Adams (2682)
4 Martin Krämer (2482) - Arkadij Naiditsch (2685)
5 Ilja Schneider (2500) - Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2664)
6 Stephan Berndt (2442) - Fabiano Caruana (2662)
7 Mikail Agopov (2452) - Jan Gustafsson (2622)
8 Lars Thiede (2450) - Philipp Schlosser (2555)
Matches of the 7th round: Friday, 5th of February 2010
Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SF Katernberg (4pm)
Playing venue Berlin
SF Berlin – SK König Tegel (4pm)
Playing venue Remagen
SC Remagen – SG Solingen (5pm)
Bundesliga 0910 | Current Standings
Teams
1. OSC Baden-Baden
1 Anand, Viswanathan GM IND 2788
2 Carlsen, Magnus GM NOR 2772
3 Svidler, Peter GM RUS 2739
4 Shirov, Alexei GM ESP 2732
5 Bacrot, Etienne GM FRA 2721
6 Movsesian, Sergej GM SVK 2716
7 Adams, Michael GM ENG 2699
8 Naiditsch, Arkadij GM GER 2697
9 Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2693
10 Nielsen, Peter-Heine GM DEN 2680
11 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2675
12 Caruana, Fabiano GM ITA 2670
13 Gustafsson, Jan GM GER 2622
14 Dautov, Rustem GM GER 2596
15 Doettling, Fabian GER 2571
16 Schlosser, Philipp GER 2560
17 Dinger, Florian GER 2391
18 Hager, Joshua Aarasch GER 2217
9. SF Katernberg
1 Volokitin, Andrei GM UKR 2678
2 Chuchelov, Vladimir GM BEL 2598
3 Firman, Nazar IM UKR 2571
4 Seel, Christian IM GER 2493
5 Bischoff, Klaus GM GER 2551
6 Halkias, Stelios GM GRE 2564
7 Glek, Igor V GM GER 2528
8 Zaragatski, Ilja IM GER 2472
9 Senff, Martin IM GER 2469
10 Ris, Robert IM NED 2421
11 Thesing, Matthias IM GER 2436
12 Siebrecht, Sebastian GM GER 2458
13 Scholz, Christian IM GER 2373
14 Hoolt, Sarah WIM GER 2240
15 Rosen, Bernd FM GER 2355
16 Geilmann, Ulrich GER 1837
17 Kotainy, Jens GER 2270
2. Werder Bremen
1 Gashimov, Vugar GM AZE 2740
2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar GM AZE 2717
3 McShane, Luke James GM ENG 2620
4 Eljanov, Pavel GM UKR 2716
5 Efimenko, Zahar GM UKR 2654
6 Fressinet, Laurent GM FRA 2667
7 Meier, Georg GM GER 2658
8 Areshchenko, Alexander GM UKR 2651
9 Roiz, Michael GM ISR 2658
10 Nyback, Tomi GM FIN 2627
11 Hracek, Zbynek GM CZE 2608
12 Babula, Vlastimil GM CZE 2566
13 Llaneza Vega, Marcos IM ESP 2521
14 Fish, Gennadij GM GER 2508
15 Skripchenko, Almira IM FRA 2450
16 Knaak, Rainer GM GER 2484
17 Lichman, Peter GER 2317
10. SK Turm Emsdetten
1 Mchedlishvili, Mikheil GM GEO 2592
2 Giri, Anish GM NED 2518
3 Spoelman, Wouter IM NED 2546
4 Hector, Jonny GM SWE 2556
5 Feygin, Michael IM GER 2546
6 Janssen, Ruud IM NED 2527
7 Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2525
8 Bellon Lopez, Juan Manuel GM ESP 2445
9 Brandenburg, Daan IM NED 2463
10 Breder, Dennis IM GER 2435
11 Fiebig, Thomas GER 2426
12 Pruijssers, Roeland IM NED 2401
13 Kabatianski, Alexandr IM GER 2425
14 Richter, Christian FM GER 2417
15 Zumsande, Martin IM GER 2403
16 Bosman, Michiel FM NED 2356
3. SC Eppingen
1 Tiviakov, Sergei GM NED 2674
2 Postny, Evgeny GM ISR 2647
3 Berkes, Ferenc GM HUN 2647
4 Balogh, Csaba GM HUN 2595
5 Gyimesi, Zoltan GM HUN 2591
6 Ruck, Robert GM HUN 2561
7 Acs, Peter GM HUN 2550
8 Braun, Arik GM GER 2529
9 Bindrich, Falko GM GER 2516
10 Medvegy, Zoltan GM HUN 2547
11 Guliyev, Namig GM AZE 2555
12 Muzychuk, Anna IM SLO 2542
13 Paehtz, Elisabeth IM GER 2474
14 Mann, Christian IM GER 2454
15 Vogt, Lothar GM GER 2422
16 Dekan, Hans GER 2179
17 Noe, Christopher GER 1798
11. SF Berlin
1 Nataf, Igor-Alexandre GM FRA 2529
2 Markos, Jan GM SVK 2555
3 Miezis, Normunds GM LAT 2572
4 Lauber, Arnd IM GER 2517
5 Polzin, Rainer GM GER 2491
6 Kraemer, Martin IM GER 2481
7 Schneider, Ilja IM GER 2508
8 Berndt, Stephan IM GER 2442
9 Agopov, Mikail IM FIN 2442
10 Brynell, Stellan GM SWE 2471
11 Thiede, Lars IM GER 2452
12 Thinius, Marco IM GER 2375
13 Degtiarev, Evgeny FM GER 2373
14 Rudolf, Henrik FM GER 2353
15 Wintzer, Joachim Dr. FM GER 2384
16 Lundin, Jan FM SWE 2382
17 Abel, Dennes GER 2328
18 Glantz, Robert GER 2239
4. SV Mülheim-Nord
1 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam GM UZB 2672
2 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime GM FRA 2703
3 Motylev, Alexander GM RUS 2710
4 Tregubov, Pavel V. GM RUS 2652
5 Landa, Konstantin GM RUS 2655
6 Fridman, Daniel GM GER 2665
7 Potkin, Vladimir GM RUS 2619
8 Golod, Vitali GM ISR 2599
9 Malakhatko, Vadim GM BEL 2570
10 Berelovich, Alexander GM GER 2550
11 Levin, Felix GM GER 2491
12 Hausrath, Daniel GM GER 2519
13 Saltaev, Mihail GM UZB 2505
14 Schebler, Gerhard GM GER 2486
15 Litwak, Aleksej FM GER 2268
16 Kaufeld, Juergen FM GER 2274
17 Wittenberg, Andreas GER 2129
18 Kahleys, Kevin GER 1986
12. SG Trier
1 Lupulescu, Constantin GM ROU 2620
2 Bobras, Piotr GM POL 2568
3 Cyborowski, Lukasz GM POL 2498
4 Haslinger, Stewart GM ENG 2538
5 Gordon, Stephen IM ENG 2537
6 Jaracz, Pawel GM POL 2539
7 Erdoes, Viktor GM HUN 2565
8 Flumbort, Andras IM HUN 2507
9 Gonda, Laszlo IM HUN 2499
10 Galyas, Miklos IM HUN 2457
11 Seger, Ruediger IM GER 2405
12 Kolbus, Dietmar IM GER 2383
13 Cioara, Andrei Nestor IM ROU 2437
14 Goriachnik, Dmitry MDA 2324
15 Rat, Dan Ovidiu FM ROU 2315
16 Jeitz, Christian LUX 2221
17 Korman, Maxim GER 2172
5. SG Solingen
1 Stellwagen, Daniel GM NED 2630
2 Smeets, Jan GM NED 2632
3 Nikolic, Predrag GM BIH 2602
4 Buhmann, Rainer GM GER 2603
5 Werle, Jan GM NED 2575
6 Edouard, Romain GM FRA 2597
7 Jussupow, Artur GM GER 2570
8 L’Ami, Erwin GM NED 2593
9 Ragger, Markus GM AUT 2563
10 Ernst, Sipke GM NED 2598
11 Naumann, Alexander GM GER 2522
12 Hoffmann, Michael GM GER 2502
13 Gabriel, Christian GM GER 2507
14 Drabke, Lorenz Maximilian IM GER 2455
15 Wegerle, Joerg IM GER 2430
16 Schaefer, Markus IM GER 2378
17 Hobusch, Alexander GER 2103
18 Hannewald, Anton GER 1931
13. FC Bayern München
1 Bezold, Michael GM GER 2517
2 Bromberger, Stefan IM GER 2510
3 Schenk, Andreas IM GER 2509
4 Marcelin, Cyril GM FRA 2498
5 Boensch, Uwe GM GER 2511
6 Stangl, Markus GM GER 2455
7 Reiss, Tibor IM HUN 2414
8 Renner, Christoph IM GER 2431
9 Belezky, Alexander IM UKR 2446
10 Meissner, Bernd IM GER 2410
11 Meister, Peter IM GER 2396
12 Reich, Thomas IM GER 2368
13 Rodewis, Thomas Dr. GER 2367
14 Unzicker, Ferdinand Dr. GER 2332
15 Deglmann, Ludwig FM GER 2329
16 Lentrodt, Thomas FM GER 2304
17 Jorczik, Julian FM GER 2352
18 Graf, Felix GER 2291
6. Hamburger SK
1 Wojtaszek, Radoslav GM POL 2637
2 Kempinski, Robert GM POL 2601
3 Ghaem, Maghami Ehsan GM IRI 2589
4 Baramidze, David GM GER 2527
5 Adly, Ahmed GM EGY 2548
6 Rogozenco, Dorian GM ROU 2541
7 Hansen, Sune Berg HDEN 2554
8 Rasmussen, Allan Stig GM DEN 2536
9 Ftacnik, Lubomir Dr. GM SVK 2525
10 Mueller, Karsten Dr. GM GER 2523
11 Heinemann, Thies IM GER 2484
12 Chevelevitch, Evgueni Dr. IM GER 2461
13 Reeh, Oliver IM GER 2442
14 Huschenbeth, Niclas IM GER 2416
15 Sebastian, Dirk GER 2443
16 Van Delft, Merijn IM NED 2360
17 Carlstedt, Jonathan GER 2309
18 Bracker, Frank GER 2280
14. Erfurter SK
1 Romanov, Evgeny GM RUS 2589
2 Haba, Petr GM CZE 2533
3 Michiels, Bart IM BEL 2451
4 Kuczynski, Robert GM POL 2505
5 Casper, Thomas IM GER 2395
6 Votava, Jan GM CZE 2561
7 Enders, Peter GM GER 2467
8 Mueller, Matthias IM GER 2410
9 Voekler, Bernd FM GER 2393
10 Schoene, Maria WIM GER 2274
11 Troyke, Christian IM GER 2350
12 Schuetze, Norman GER 2278
13 Brueggemann, Joachim IM GER 2356
14 Krueger, Rainer Dr. GER 2211
15 Troyke, Doreen WFM GER 2105
16 Duzy, Stefan GER 1545
17 Friedt, Marius GER 1885
7. SV Wattenscheid
1 Vitiugov, Nikita GM RUS 2681
2 Najer, Evgeniy GM RUS 2663
3 Macieja, Bartlomiej GM POL 2612
4 Bartel, Mateusz GM POL 2619
5 Czarnota, Pawel GM POL 2530
6 Rustemov, Alexander GM RUS 2532
7 Johannessen, Leif Erlend GM NOR 2553
8 Appel, Ralf GM GER 2552
9 Holzke, Frank Dr. GM GER 2526
10 Handke, Florian GM GER 2513
11 Souleidis, Georgios IM GRE 2435
12 Dinstuhl, Volkmar Dr. IM GER 2417
13 Tereick, Benjamin FM GER 2378
14 Straeter, Timo FM GER 2347
15 Thiel, Thomas FM GER 2280
16 Gohla, Ulf GER 2181
17 Koerber, Matthias GER 1898
15. SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
1 Ikonnikov, Viacheslav GM RUS 2556
2 Svetushkin, Dmitry GM MDA 2607
3 Ginsburg, Gennadi GM GER 2537
4 Gurevic, Vladimir GM UKR 2470
5 Chernov, Vadim IM ROU 2433
6 Solomunovic, Igor IM GER 2421
7 Gerigk, Erasmus FM GER 2335
8 Schwalfenberg, Joerg FM GER 2317
9 Maier, Christian IM GER 2347
10 Vatter, Hans-Joachim FM GER 2302
11 Syska, Albert FM GER 2268
12 Nippgen, Georg GER 2272
13 Roos, Jean-Luc IM FRA 2250
14 Neunhoeffer, Helmut Dr FM GER 2281
15 Pielmeier, Thomas GER 2231
16 Schott, Reimund FRA 2019
8. SC Remagen
1 Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2703
2 Fedorchuk, Sergey GM UKR 2655
3 Gharamian, Tigran GM FRA 2615
4 Goloshchapov, Alexander GM UKR 2580
5 Parligras, Mircea GM ROU 2557
6 Huebner, Robert Dr. GM GER 2605
7 Degraeve, Jean-Marc GM FRA 2559
8 Dgebuadze, Alexandre GM BEL 2516
9 Mainka, Romuald GM GER 2521
10 Swinkels, Robin IM NED 2516
11 Teske, Henrik GM GER 2536
12 Popovic, Petar GM SRB 2496
13 Polaczek, Richard IM BEL 2381
14 Kipper, Jens GER 2393
15 Schulz, Klaus-Juergen IM GER 2385
16 Bok, Benjamin FM NED 2360
16. SK König Tegel
1 Rabiega, Robert GM GER 2551
2 Stern, Rene IM GER 2498
3 Muse, Mladen GM CRO 2448
4 Von Herman, Ulf IM GER 2400
5 Muse, Drazen IM CRO 2374
6 Fruebing, Stefan FM GER 2305
7 Tomczak, Rainer FM GER 2287
8 Mielitz, Heinz GER
9 Sarbok, Torsten FM GER 2319
10 Breier, Andreas FM GER 2405
11 Giemsa, Stephan FM GER 2301
12 Jahnz, Fabian GER 2191
13 Jaehnisch, Frank GER 2230
14 Roth, Josef GER 2152
15 Schulz, Stefanie GER 2109
16 Rausch, Manfred GER 1689
17 Kachibadze, Georg GER 2224
Although the Corus tournament always dominates the chess news in the last two weeks of January, for one event we have to make an exception. The 8th Gibtelecom International Chess Festival in Gibraltar is on its way and in fact already four rounds have been played. Yet again the field of players is a very nice mixture, including many top female players.
The 2010 Gibtelecom International Chess Festival takes place January 26-February 4 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The rate of play in this 9-round Swiss is 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 moves in 50 minutes plus 15 minutes for all remaining moves with 30 seconds per move added from the start. Draws by mutual agreement in under 30 moves are not allowed, but genuine draws by repetition or stalemate are acceptable.
The festival is the Rock’s biggest annual international event now in its eighth edition. This year the field is stronger than ever with top names such as Etienne Bacrot from France, Sergei Movsesian from Slovakia and Francisco Vallejo Pons from Spain, participating in the tournament for the very first time. Some 41 countries are represented in this edition of the festival.
Most significant though is the very strong women’s field which has attracted the top women in the world – the current Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk from Russia, the world number two woman player Humpy Koneru from India, and the world number three, Hou Yifan from China. Almira Shripchenko, who this year made the final table of the world poker series in Las Vegas is also be playing in Gibraltar. Other competitors are GM Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), and GM Chen Zhu (Qatar), and Pia Cramling (Sweden), a previous European women’s champion.
Reigning World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is one of the many female top players in Gibraltar
The Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar again plays hosts to the Gibtelecom International Chess Festival, which also includes several amateur tournaments. The festival’s total prize fund is £112,500 (EUR 129,750, US $179,910). The Masters has £96,600 in prizes, there are two Challenger Tournaments, each lasting five days, with prizes for each of £5,500. Two five-day Amateur Tournaments are also played with prize money of £2,300 each.
The Caleta hotel, where the tournament takes place
Over the years the festival has seen some of the world’s most famous players play in Gibraltar including Alexei Shirov, Emil Sutovsky , Hikaru Nakamura and Peter Svidler. Returning again this year is Michael Adams from England, and Gata Kamsky (USA).
As always, GM Stuart Conquest provides live commentary during the rounds from the Caleta hotel, starting from 15:00 (GMT+1) for up to six hours. These are unmissable – in every sense of that word. If you have not been able to tune in to his live broadcasts, you can still hear them at your leisure. They have all been stored online and can still be watched here.
2008 British Champion Stuart Conquest provides live commentary
Yesterday afternoon (29 January) was very special indeed. You can watch five hours of commentary here and if you move to a point around 1:26 hours into the video, Boris Spassky (who celebrates his 73rd birthday today!) made an unscheduled visit to the commentary room. Seeing him in the audience, Stuart Conquest persuaded him to come alongside to talk “for a few minutes” – which turned into nearly three hours! At first Boris is off-camera (the organizers weren’t expecting him) but around 1:42 you can Boris talking about the games. After that there’s nearly three hours’ video film of the legendary ex-world champion.
After four rounds there’s no player left with a 100% score. Bacrot, Adams, Fressinet, Fridman, Gustafsson, Sandipan, Koneru, Edouard, Felgaer and Gopal are all on 3.5/4.
Gibraltar 2010 | Round 4 Standings (top 30)
Two games from round 3 caught our eye; Adam’s brilliant win over Halkias and Cheparinov being held to a draw by a 2000-player beautifully.
Gestern begann in Gibraltar das 8. Gibtelecom Masters. Seit seiner
Einführung hat das Turnier in jedem Jahr an Qualität gewonnen. Auch in
diesem Jahr dürfen sich die Organisatoren und Zuschauer über eine neuerliche
Verbesserung des Teilnehmerfeldes freuen, was natürlich auch an dem
attraktiven Preisfonds von 112.000 Pfund liegt. Durch Sonderpreise für
weibliche Spieler (Über 20.000 Pfund) sind traditionell auch viele starke
Großmeisterinnen am Start, in diesem Jahr z.B. Weltmeisterin Kosteniuk,
Ex-Weltmeisterin Stefanova, die Weltranglistenzweite Koneru u.v.m. Die
Elo-Favoriten im über 200-köpfigen Feld sind Etienne Bacrot, Sergei
Movsesian, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Michael Adams und Gata Kamsky. Jan
Gustafsson und Daniel Fridman sind die elobesten Spieler der deutschen
Gruppe. Zum Auftakt musste Etienne Bacrot gestern gegen Gulliaume Camus de
Solliers bei einer Punkteteilung einen kleinen Rückschlag hinnehmen. Als
Ehrengast eröffnete Boris Spassky das Turnier. Auch die Familie Carlsen ist
vertreten - Magnus Schwester Ingrid spielt mit. Vorjahressieger Peter Svidler
(im Bild links) ist diesmal nicht mit von der Partie.
Turnierseite... Impressionen und Partien...
L’Open di Gibilterra, che si gioca dal 26 gennaio al 4 febbraio, è uno dei tornei più ricchi del circuito con le sue 112.500 sterline di montepremi (circa 128.000 euro). Giunto alla sua 8^ edizione, il “Gibtelecom International Chess Festival” può vantare un albo d’oro notevole: l’anno scorso vinse Peter Svidler (dopo tie-break contro Milov), nel 2008 Nakamura (anche lui al tie-break, contro Bu Xiangzhi). Prima ancora Akopian, Kiril Georgiev, Shirov e Aronian, Short. D’altronde non capita spesso un 1° premio di 15.000 sterline (17.000 euro)!
Peter Svidler, vincitore dell'edizione 2009
La manifestazione non si limita al torneo principale, aperto a tutti, denominato “Gibtelecom Masters”, ma comprende anche una serie di tornei minori che permettono ai giocatori con Elo inferiore a 2250 che lo desiderano di fare una vera e propria full immersion scacchistica di 10 giorni! Infatti le partite del “Gibtelecom Masters” si giocano alle 15.00, quindi per “ingannare l’attesa” si possono giocare i tornei mattutini di 5 turni previsti dal 26 al 30 gennaio e dal 31 gennaio al 4 febbraio, denominati “Challengers” (per under 2250) e "Amateurs" (under 1800). In teoria un under 2250 può portare a casa 6.000 sterline vincendo entrambi i tornei minori ed il premio di fascia nel torneo principale!
Un torneo nel torneo sarà quello femminile, perchè è previsto un consistente montepremi riservato alle signore, con un 1° premio di ben 8.000 sterline! Ecco spiegata la presenza della n° 2 mondiale, l'indiana Humpy Koneru, Elo 2614, della n° 4, la bulgara AntoanetaStefanova (2545), della Campionessa del Mondo Alexandra Kosteniuk (2523) e di molte altre, tra le quali la nostra Elena Sedina (2335).
Humpy Koneru, n° 2 della classifica mondiale femminile
La Campionessa Mondiale Alexandra Kosteniuk
Al torneo partecipano 3 over-2700: il francese Etienne Bacrot, Elo 2713, lo "slovacco" di origine georgiana Sergei Movsesian (2708) e lo spagnolo Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705).
Etienne Bacrot
Francisco Vallejo Pons
Vediamo l’elenco degli over-2600 presenti:
GM Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2713 GM Movsesian, Sergei SVK 2708 GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco ESP 2705 GM Adams, Michael ENG 2694 GM Kamsky, Gata USA 2693 GM Fressinet, Laurent FRA 2670 GM Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2660 GM Fridman, Daniel GER 2654 GM Gustafsson, Jan GER 2627 GM Sandipan, Chanda IND 2622 GM Koneru, Humpy IND 2614 GM Edouard, Romain FRA 2608 GM Istratescu, Andrei ROU 2607
Sono previsti 10 turni di gioco dal 26 gennaio al 4 febbraio con inizio alle ore 15. Nell’ultimo turno inizieranno alle 10 solo le partite riguardanti i giocatori in lizza per il 1° premio, per permettere la disputa in giornata di eventuali spareggi. In caso di arrivo a pari merito di più di 4 giocatori la classifica finale verrà stilata in base alla performance realizzata.
Tempo di riflessione: 100 minuti per 40 mosse + 50 minuti per 20 mosse + 15 minuti per finire oltre all’incremento di 30 secondi a mossa.
E’ permesso presentarsi alla scacchiera con un ritardo massimo di 30 minuti. Entro il 6° turno è possibile prendere un turno di riposo (bye) incamerando mezzo punto in classifica, ma non è consentito fare patta prima della 30^ mossa.
If you like, on this rest day at Corus you can spend some time and learn from top grandmasters. In this post we publish both press conferences Alexei Shirov gave, after round 3 and 4, and an ICC Game of the Day video, in which Peter Svidler explains the game Short-Nakamura from round 3. Enjoy!
Amber 2010 field announced, Anand & Topalov opt out
The traditional blindfold and rapid annual Amber Super GM chess tournament will be sans Anand and Topalov this time around. With the world championship scheduled a few weeks later during April 2010, the Indian and Bulgarian Grandmaster chose to skip this event. In the just announced Amber 2010 field World No.1 Magnes Carlsen leads the interesting pack which includes Kramnik, Aronian, Gelfand, Gashimov, Ivanchuk, Svidler and Morozevich among others.
The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place at the Palais de la Mediterranée, a legendary hotel on the world-famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess baron Joop van Oosterom, who is also a former world champion of correspondence chess. Named after his daughter, Melody Amber, the tournament is usually held in March. The new World No.1, Magnus Carlsen, is the top-seed in Nice. Also present are Levon Aronian, the winner of the past two Amber tournaments, and Vladimir Kramnik, who won the Amber tournament a record six times.
The following 12 Grandmasters will take part : Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2810), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2788), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2781), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2761), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 2759), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2749), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2744), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2737), Alexander Morozevich (Russia, 2732), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2720), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 2712) and Jan Smeets (The Netherlands, 2657).
Linares(SPA), Gibilterra(SPA), Aeroflot (RUS), Amber (FRA): tutti gli invitati.
TUTTI i GIOCATORI INVITATI AI TORNEI di:
LINARES (SPA) /12-25 Febbraio
GIBILTERRA (SPA) / 26 Gennaio-4 Febbraio
AEROFLOT (RUS) / 8-19 Febbraio
AMBER (FRA) / 13-25 Marzo
Niente più trasferimenti da un continente all'altro tra Morelia ( Messico) e Linares. Infatti anche quest'anno il supertorneo di Linares si svolgerà per intero nella città spagnola dal 12-25 Febbraio 2010. In quelle tre edizioni i vincitori, ovvero Aronian (2006) e Anand ( 2007 e 2008), hanno dovuto mostrare una buona condizione fisica e capacità di adattamento a causa del modificarsi delle condizioni ambientali e del fuso orario. Tra le curiosità nell'edizione 2007 anche l'abbandono del torneo prima del primo turno di Radjabov a causa del furto in albergo dei bagagli subito in Messico. Il 2005 invece viene ricordato come il Linares di addio di Kasparov, che perse l'ultima partita anche a causa dell'emozione e dello stress emotivo ma ciò non gli impedì di trionfare nel torneo per la nona ( 9 ! ) volta. Nel 2009 invece si impose a sorpresa Grischuk che fu capace di sopravanzare Ivanchuk, Topalov e Carlsen !
Si svolgerà dal 26 Gennaio al 4 di Febbraio l'8° Festival di Gibilterra - Gibtelecom 2010. Questo il lotto dei giocatori invitati col maggior elo in campo maschile, femminile e juniores.
La nona edizione dell' Open Aeroflot avrà luogo a Mosca dall'8 al 19 Febbraio 2010 presso l'hotel Gamma Delta. Il primo premio del torneo A1 (riservato ai giocatori con elo > 2549 !!!) è di 21.000 euro. 140.00 euro è invece il Montepremi totale dei quattro tornei : A1-A2-B-C. Infine il 18 Febbraio ci sarà un torneo blitz di qualificazione per il Mondiale Blitz (Carlsen il fresco campione in carica) di Novembre 2010 sempre a Mosca. Tale torneo decreterà 6 dei 20 finalisti di tale manifestazione.
INVITATI all' AEROFLOT 2010
Bu Xiangzhi,
Alexander Motylev,
Ivan Cheparinov,
Gabriel Sargassian
Evgeny Najer
Bu Xiangzhi
ALBO D' ORO:
2002 Gregory Kaidanov (USA), 2003 Viktor Bologan (Moldova), 2004 Sergei Rublevsky (Russia), 2005 Emil Sutovsky (Israel), 2006 Baadur Jobava (Georgia), 2007 Evgeny Alekseev (Russia), 2008 Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) 2009 Etienne Bacrot (France).
Inoltre il server Playchess.com sta organizzando una serie di tornei on line,che iniziano oggi 19 Gennaio fino al 30, dove i migliori vinceranno un viaggio a Febbraio a Mosca per partecipare al torneo di qualificazione per il Mondiale Blitz:
DATE TORNEI ON LINE:
Preliminary # 1 Tuesday, 19th January 2010, 24.00 CET (midnight) Preliminary # 2 Wednesday, 20th January 2010, 18.00 CET Preliminary # 3 Saturday, 23rd January 2010, 15.00 CET Preliminary # 4 Monday, 25th January 2010, 20.00 CET Preliminary # 5 Tuesday, 26th January 2010, 18.00 CET Preliminary # 6 Thursday, 28th January 2010, 20.00 CET Final Saturday, 30th January 2010, 16.00 CET
Resi noti anche i giocatori del torneo Amber, 13-25 Marzo, competizione con 12 invitati che si confrontano ogni giorno in 2 partite rapid (25'+10") e 2 partite alla cieca ( 25'+20'').
A new year has begun, and is there a better moment to start working some more on your openings? We’ve changed our weekly PDF (+PGN!) magazine ChessVibes Openings slightly, and it might well be even more instructive…
This week on page 4 we introduced a new, interactive section called It’s Your Move: every week two exercises, of which the solutions and explanations will follow one week later. This will improve your understanding of certain opening, middlegame or even endgame themes even further.
A new year offers the chance to start all over, with new goals and new energy, also on the chess board. A bit of preparation can be of great help, and ChessVibes Openings is a fun and instructive way to keep your openings up to date.
What is ChessVibes Openings?
Every issue consists of a PDF Magazine and the accompanying PGN file. The PDF consists of four pages (A4 size) with the following contents:
What’s hot? A round-up of this week’s important opening developments, with statistics about the frequence and score of the week’s most important opening novelty (page 1)
What’s not? Which openings are not recommended at the moment, according to the top players? And why not? (page 1)
Game of the week Each week you’ll find the theoretically most important game analysed by our two IMs, with a detailed survey of the opening phase (page 2).
This week’s harvest Four more new important opening ideas from this week (page 3) revealed and described with explanation of the opening and early middlegame (page 3).
It’s Your Move An interactive element: every week two exercises, of which the solutions/explanations will follow one week later. This will improve your understanding of certain opening, middlegame or even endgame themes even further.
Which openings are hot in top level chess? Which are not? Receive the latest opening novelties right in your mailbox with ChessVibes Openings, a weekly PDF magazine (+ PGN!) covering the latest openings news, co-authored by International Masters Merijn van Delft and Robert Ris and published by ChessVibes.
This week’s issue: #53, January 6, 2010
ChessVibes Openings #53
The latest opening developments of the first week of January 2010, covering Reggio Emilia, Hastings, Rilton Cup and the World Team Championship. All about the 7.Nf3 Najdorf which was analysed in our Game of the Week Bologan-Safarli, Reggio Emilia 2010.
Other lines that are covered:
Ruy Lopez, Anti-Marshall
Sicilian, Alapin
Caro-Kann, Advance
KID, Bayonet
This week we started a new section which replaced the Opening Expert: It’s Your Move. After one year of presenting opening experts, we felt it’s time to change page 4 of our magazine and introduce an interactive element: two exercises, of which the solutions/explanations will follow one week later.
Last week’s issue: #52, December 30, 2009
ChessVibes Openings #52
The latest opening developments of the last week of December 2009, covering the Russian Championship, the Korchnoi-Spassky match, Pamplona and Reggio Emilia. All about the Ruy Lopez, Berlin Wall which was analysed in our Game of the Week Grischuk-Jakovenko, Moscow 2009.
Other lines that are covered:
Ruy Lopez, Marshall, 15.Qe2
Alekhine, 4…dxe5
QGA, 7.dxc5
KID, Mar del Plata
This week’s Opening Expert is Georgian GM Baadur Jobava.
Previous issue: #51, December 23, 2009
ChessVibes Openings #51
The latest opening developments of the fourth week of December 2009, covering the European Rapid Championship, the Russian Championship and the Korchnoi-Spassky match. All about the Fianchetto Variation of the Grünfeld Defence which was analysed in our Game of the Week Khismatullin-Svidler, Moscow 2009. Other lines that are covered:
Scotch, 4…Bc5 5.Nxc6
Berlin, 5…Be7
OSlav, 4.e3 Bg4
Chebanenko Slav
This week’s Opening Expert is Israel GM Victor Mikhalevski.
Previous issue: #50, December 16, 2009
ChessVibes Openings #50
The latest opening developments of the third week of December 2009, covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic. All about the Ragozin Defence which was analysed in our Game of the Week Kramnik-Short, London Chess Classic 2009. Other lines that are covered:
Open Ruy Lopez
Chebanenko Slav
Open Catalan
King’s Indian, 7…Na6
This week’s Opening Expert is Russian top GM and former World Champ Vladimir Kramnik.
Previous issue: #49, December 9, 2009
ChessVibes Openings #49
The latest opening developments of the second week of December 2009, covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic. All about the Open Ruy Lopez which was analysed in our Game of the Week Karjakin-Mamedyarov, World Cup 2009. Other lines that are covered:
Queen’s Gambit Declined, 5.Bf4
Queen’s Gambit Accepted
Grünfeld Indian, 5.Bd2
King’s Indian, 6.h3
This week’s Opening Expert is Russian GM Vladimir Malakhov.
Ehm… can I have a look?
Here’s what ChessVibes Openings #16 (April 22, 2009) looks like:
What’s hot? A round-up of the most important opening developments of mid-April, including statistics about the frequence and score of the Chebanenko position after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.c5 Nbd7 6.Bf4 Nh5 7.Bd2 Nhf6
What’s not? This week 1.e4 e5 was hot, as the top players categorically avoided the Semi-Open Games. Interestingly, the classical 1…d5 was also much more popular than the more modern answers to 1.d4, at the FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik.
Game of the week “I didn’t spend much time on it before the game, but I prepared seriously for this tournament and we did investigate this line”, Peter Leko said at the press conference in Nalchik, after his game against Sergei Karjakin. Page two has a closer look at this highly interesting draw in the Chebanenko.
This week’s harvest For more opening ideas from the Ruy Lopez Marshall, Sicilian Taimanov, Queen’s Indian and Ragozin Defence.
Opening expert This week Rustam Kasimdzhanov is highlighted. The former FIDE World Champion and current second of Anand has a broad repertoire, switching from hypersharp openings like Dragon and Anti-Moscow to positional Queen’s Gambit lines.
As a subscriber you’ll receive the PDF Magazine and accompanying PGN files in your mailbox every week.
A one-year subscription is € 25 (that’s less than € 0.50 per issue!) - for price in US $ click here
Please note that it’s still possible to start your subscription as a first-week subscriber. Just let us know and we’ll send you all previous issues!
July 1, 2009: Eugene Manchester reviews ChessVibes Openings for ChessCafe
In the July 1 issue of ChessCafe’s Book Review (mirror here) ChessVibes Openings was reviewed by Eugene Manchester. Some quotes:
“So, who-ya-gonna-call? Opening busters? Not quite. For the reasonable price of 25 euros per year, once a week you can receive intelligent, interesting opening surveys and analysis presented by a team lead by Dutch IMs Merijn van Delft & Robert Ris.”
“The format and presentation are consistently of high quality, with variety of coverage and opening analysis.”
“The cost per year is roughly equivalent to a good chess book. Each week you get a four- page issue packed with opening analysis, at least two thoroughly annotated games with one or more of that week’s featured openings, a glimpse into the world of the latest opening novelties, in short, a quality weekly opening report.”
May 7, 2009: GM Hedinn Steingrimsson reviews ChessVibes Openings for Chess Today
In issues 3103 (Thursday, May 7) of Chess Today, the daily chess newspaper which also comes into your inbox by email in PDF, ChessVibes Openings was reviewed by GM Hedinn Steingrimsson from Iceland. Some quotes:
“What I like about ChessVibes Openings is their focus on the trend and discoveries that are revealed in super tournaments and by very strong players. It makes sense for all tournament chess players and opening theoreticians to follow these developments and getting an overview from ChessVibes Openings definitely saves time.”
“I find it positive that there is consistency in the openings covered so that the readers will with time have a certain repertoire available based on different theoretical articles from ChessVibes about e.g. the Anti-Moscow Variation.”
“For those that really want to find out how to get a better position out of the opening and are willing to enter complications and do some homework in order to succeed, ChessVibes Openings can be recommended.”
World Team Championship 2009. Armenia ,Russia e Arzeibajan in pole position.
Mondiale a Squadre: l' India sostituisce la Cina causa forfait. Aronian, Gelfand, Morozevich, Gashimov , Radjabov, Grishuk, Mamedyarov i big presenti.
Inizia il 5 Gennaio il Campionato del Mondo a Squadre a Bursa, in Turchia. Le Nazioni che hanno acquisito il diritto di partecipare a questo Mondiale sono:
i primi tre team delle Olimpiadi 2008 di Dresda ovvero Armenia, Israele e Usa
i 4 team Campioni Continentali , che sono Brasile , Russia, Cina e Egitto,
la Turchia in qualità di Paese organizzatore
ed infine due squadre invitate dalla Fide che sono il super team dell' Arzeibajan e la Grecia.
Mancano solo alcuni top players impegnati altrove , ovvero Anand per l'India (impegnato nella preparazione del Mondiale contro Topalov ad Aprile), Kramnik per la Russia e Kamsky per glu Usa ( attualmente in gara a Reggio emilia). Saranno presenti invece tanti altri campioni ovvero Aronian che cercherà di trascinare i due volte Campioni Olimpici armeni verso l'ennesima impresa, il terribile trio Gashimov-Radjabov-Mamedyarov che tenterà di spingere i neo Campioni Europei? Arzeibajani ad un altro trionfo importante e Grischuk -Morozevich - Malakhov, il motore di una Russia che? seppur senza Svidler e Kramnik tenteranno l'impresa di riportare questo Paese ad un risultato di prestigio che manca ormai da troppo tempo. Karijakin dovrebbe in futuro giocare per la Russia, dopo aver lasciato la Federazione Ucraina per questioni di convenienza sportiva ed economica, ma a questa competizione non prenderà parte.
LE NAZIONI IN GARA? (cliccasulle bandiere per vedere tutti giocatori)
ARMENIA
Età media: 27,66? Media Elo top 4: 2704? Media Elo Team: 2671
Aronian
ARZEIBAJAN
Età media: 22,83?? Media Elo top 4: 2715 ? Media Elo Team: 2684
Gashimov
RUSSIA
Età media: 25??? Media Elo top 4: 2728 ?? Media Elo Team: 2719
Morozevich
USA
Età media: 24,83 ? Media Elo top 4: 2679 ? Media Elo Team: 2643
Nakamura
INDIA
Età Media 22.5,?Media Elo top 4 2646, Media Elo Team 2607
Harikrishna
ISRAELE
Età media: 31,33?? Media Elo top 4: 2683 ?? Media Elo Team: 2670
Gelfand
BRASILE
Età media: 32,33 ? Media Elo top 4: 2631?? Media Elo Team: 2587
Vescovi
EGITTO
Età media: 33,8?? Media Elo top 4: 2525 ? Media Elo Team: 2502
Adly
GRECIA
Età media: 32,33?? Media Elo top 4: 2603 ? Media Elo Team: 2587
Kotronias
TURCHIA
Età media: 22,16 ? Media Elo top 4: 2475?? Media Elo Team: 2464
Haznedoroglu
REGOLE di gioco del torneo :
Ogni squadra nazionale si compone di 6 atleti ( 4 titolari e 2 riserve) più il capitano. 9 turni round robin, con cadenza di gioco di 90 minuti x 40 mosse+ 30 minuti per finire+ 30 secondi di incremento per ogni mossa giocata dall'inizio. La classifica terrà conto dei punti scacchiera totali come primo criterio, in caso di parità si guarderà nell'ordine ai punti squadra, al sistema Berger e infine ad una particolare classifica che attribuirà maggior peso ai punti ottenuti sulle prime scacchiere. E' prevista la tolleranza zero (partita persa in caso di ritardo alla scacchiera) e non è possibile fare offerte di patta prima della 30esima mossa. I giocatori sono inoltre tenuti a presenziare alle cerimonie di apertura e chiusura, pena il mancato pagamento dei loro onorari.
La sede di gioco è il Centro Congressi Merinos, a soli 100 metri dall'Hotel 5 stelle Almira dove risiedono i giocatori.
CALENDARIO DEL TORNEO ( posticipato il primo turno al 5 Gennaio)
4 Gennaio 2010????????????????? 10:00 ?????????????????????????????????? Cerimonia di apertura
A Bursa, nella zona nord-occidentale della Turchia, si svolge dal 5 al 13 gennaio la settima edizione del Campionato del Mondo per nazioni. La competizione si tiene nei primi giorni del 2010, in realtà però è relativa all’anno 2009 dato che la manifestazione ha cadenza quadriennale.
Il Campionato del Mondo per nazioni ha una storia relativamente recente: nasce nel 1985 e originariamente tutte le sue edizioni avrebbero dovuto tenersi ogni quattro anni a Lucerna in Svizzera, dove peraltro si erano svolte le Olimpiadi scacchistiche del 1982. Il progetto venne abbandonato dopo quattro edizioni, trasferendo la competizione in Armenia nel 2001 e in Israele nel 2005. La formula è sempre stata quella del torneo ad inviti: dieci le squadre invitate che si confrontano in un girone all’italiana. Attualmente vengono ammesse le squadre vincitrici dei Campionati Continentali d’Europa, Asia, Africa e America (in questa edizione Russia, India che ha rimpiazzato il forfeit della Cina, Egitto e Brasile), le tre squadre meglio classificate alle precedenti Olimpiadi (Armenia, Israele e USA), due squadre invitate dalla FIDE (Azerbaigian e Grecia) e il paese ospitante (Turchia).
Le squadre in campo:
Morozevich, un giocatore scintillante!
Russia:
Alexander Grischuk 2736
Alexander Morozevich 2732
Vladimir Malakhov 2716
Dmitry Jakovenko 2730
Evgeny Tomashevsky 2705
Nikita Vitiugov 2692
Nella Russia assente Kramnik, ma anche Svidler. Fallito il tentativo di schierare per la prima volta Karjakin in una formazione russa, i regolamenti FIDE l’hanno impedito e Sergey è stato sostituito da Jakovenko. Attesa per Malakhov che ha fatto molto bene nel 2009. Sono i Campioni del Mondo per nazioni in carica avendo conquistato il titolo nel 2005 a Beer Sheva, dopo un emozionante ultimo turno, nel quale hanno surclassato i Cinesi fino ad allora in testa alla manifestazione. L’edizione del 2005 vedeva presente nella squadra femminile della Cina (fino al 2005 partecipava al Campionato anche una formazione femminile), una giocatrice che farà poi sensazione, l’allora 11enne Hou Yifan.
Malakhov, ha ricevuto consensi unanimi nel 2009
Gelfand, il vincitore della World Cup 2009
Israele:
Boris Gelfand 2761
Ilia Smirin 2668
Michael Roiz 2657
Emil Sutovsky 2657
Evgeny Postny 2648
Maxim Rodhstein 2622
La squadra del vincitore della World Cup, Boris Gelfand. Attualmente è al secondo posto nel ranking mondiale per nazioni, tra Russia e la grande assente Cina.
Rodshtein, giovanissimo secondo di Gelfand a Khanty-Mansiysk
Gashimov, finalmente n° 1 dell'Azeirbaigian
Azerbaijan:
Vugar Gashimov 2759
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2741
Teimour Radjabov 2733
Rauf Mamedov 2640
Gadir Guseinov 2614
Nidjat Mamedov 2610
Campioni Europei in carica, presenta ora Gashimov in prima scacchiera al posto di Radjabov. Quarti nel ranking FIDE (da tenere conto che nella classifica FIDE uscita il 1° gennaio 2010 mancano sia l’Ucraina che l’Argentina).
Nidjat Mamedov, tra i meno conosciuti dello squadrone azero
USA:
Hikaru Nakamura 2708
Alexander Onischuk 2670
Varuzhan Akobian 2628
Yuri Shulman 2624
Robert L. Hess 2572
Ray Robson 2570
Quinti nel ranking FIDE, senza Kamsky inpegnato a Reggio Emilia e con due giovani di notevoli ambizioni, Hess e Robson (rispettivamente classe 1991 e 1994).
Robert Hess
Ray Robson
Harikrishna Pentala
India:
Harikrishna, Pentala 2672
Ganguly, Surya Shekhar 2654
Sasikiran, Krishnan 2653
Geetha Narayanan Gopal 2584
Arun Prasad, S. 2567
Adhiban, B. 2511
Naturalmente assente Anand, rimpiazza la Cina, ma è una sostituzione di lusso, visto che gli indiani sono al sesto posto nel ranking mondiale.
Adhiban
Aronian, TopPlayer in questo WTCC 2009
Armenia:
Levon Aronian 2781
Gabriel Sargissian 2680
Vladimir Akopian 2678
Arman Pashikian 2647
Tigran Petrosian 2627
Tigran Kotanjian 2537
Noni nella classifica per nazioni 2010, ma Campioni Olimpici sia nel 2006 che nel 2008!
Arman Pashikian
Vescovi, in continua ascesa
Brasile:
Giovanni Vescovi 2660
Rafael Leitao 2620
Gilberto Milos 2618
Alexandr Fier 2601
Andre Diamant 2497
Darcy Lima 2481
Hanno vinto il Campionato Panamericano 2009 davanti a Cuba. 23esimi nella classifica FIDE.
Andre Diamant
Kotronias, esperienza al servizio della Grecia
Grecia:
Ioannis Papaioannou 2625
Hristos Banikas 2608
Vassilios Kotronias 2599
Dimitrios Mastrovasilis 2571
Stelios Halkias 2566
Athanasios Mastrovasilis 2510
Forse il loro miglior risultato come squadra è stato un pregevolissimo quarto posto al Campionato Europeo di Goteborg nel 2005. 24esimi nel ranking mondiale.
Dimitrios Mastrovasilis, l'abbiamo visto spesso giocare in Italia
Adly, una delle due "perle" egiziane
Egitto:
Ahmed Adly 2591
Bassem Amin 2544
Mohamed Ezat 2471
Khaled Abdel Razik 2468
Imed Abdelnabbi 2448
Walaa Sarwat 2386
Campioni d’Africa ma anche vincitori dei “Pan Arab Games”. 40esimi nel Ranking FIDE.
Bassem Amin, altro grande talento, ma qui sarà dura
Kivanc Haznedaroglu e il dovere di una prestazione dignitosa
Turchia:
Mert Erdogdu 2513
Baris Esen 2513
Kivanc Haznedaroglu 2498
Mustafa Yilmaz 2478
Emre Can 2442
Burak Firat 2413
Paese ospitante di questa come di tante altre manifestazioni scacchistiche di primissimo livello. Non hanno ancora una squadra competitiva (e curiosamente manca il suo giocatore più forte, Mikhail Gurevich, 2597), ma sembra che in Turchia gli scacchi siano attualmente un fenomeno di massa. 43esimi nella classifica mondiale.
Emre Can, si è fatto valere in tanti tornei giovanili
Previsti dunque nove turni, si gioca su quattro scacchiere e due sono le riserve.
Cadenza di gioco: 90’ x 40 mosse + 30’ per finire, sempre con 30” d’abbuono a mossa.
La formazione USA che vinse l'edizione 1993 a Lucerna: inconfondibile Gata Kamsky!
L'Ucraina vincitrice nel 2001: si riconoscono tra gli altri Ponomariov, Romanishin e SuperIvanchuk
Alexander Grischuk hat einige Anläufe gebraucht, um endlich auch einmal russische Meister zu werden. Entweder wurde er bisher Vize oder er nahm gar nicht teil. So musste der fünfmalige Meister Peter Svidler diesmal mit der Silbermedaille Vorlieb nehmen. Nikita Vitiugov holte Bronze und wird wohl demnächst auch einen Platz in der Liste der Supergroßmeister einnehmen. Im Frauenturnier spielten Tatiana und Nadezhda Kosintseva ausgerechnet in der letzten Runde gegeneinander. Im Falle eines Sieges konnte Tatiana noch den dritten Platz erreichen und Nadezhda einen Stichkampf um Platz Eins. Die Schwestern spielten nach einigen Proformazügen allerdings remis. Das machen sie immer so und sie sahen keinerlei Grund, in dieser besonderen Situation von der Gewohnheit abzuweichen. So wurde Alisa Galliamova Meisterin vor N. Kosintseva. Bronze ging an Valentina Gunina. Mish Savinov schließt seine Berichterstattung aus Moskau mit Bildern der Siegerehrung ab. Bericht und Bilder...
The Tal Memorial concluded in Moscow with former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik winning with 6 out of 9 and Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen close behind with 5.5 out of 9. None of the top three finishers had any losses. Current World Champion Viswanathan Anand lost in the final round to Levon Aronian to drop to 5 out of 9, leaving him tied with Aronian for fourth and fifth. Carlsen was widely expected to do much better after his incredible performance in Nanjing (see Carlsen Wins to Finish Nanjing with 8/10 and Magnus Carlsen Dominates Nanjing), but he was suffering from the flu for the first half of the tournament (which prompted Ivanchuk to wear a mask during their game) and did not recover until the halfway point. However, after finishing with two wins he not only tied Ivanchuk for second but also gained enough rating points to edge out the temporarily inactive Veselin Topalov for the number one spot on the Live Ratings List, making him the youngest number one ever. You can download all games in PGN from a number of sources, including ChessBase and the official site, or view the games online at Chessgames.com. The official tournament site is only available in Russian. Kramnik and Carlsen's next tournament will be the London Chess Classic, December 8-15.
El actual campeón estadounidense, Hikaru Nakamura, obtuvo un importante triunfo en el festival de ajedrez de San Sebastián, España. En el torneo principal se enfrentaron diez grandes maestros por el sistema todos contra todos, entre ellos los ex-campeones mundiales, Karpov, Ponomariov y Kasimdzhanov. Nakamura terminó igualado con Ponomariov, con 6,5 puntos en las nueve rondas. Nakamura se impuso en un desempate a dos partidas, el ex-campeón ruso Svidler remató en tercer lugar. El representante sudamericano, Julio Granda de Perú, no jugó un buen torneo y terminó en el octavo lugar.
Veamos la tabla:
Nº Nombre País Elo Pts. 1. Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2710 6½ 2. Ponomariov, Ruslan UCR 2727 6½ 3. Svidler, Peter RUS 2739 5½ 4. Kasimdzhanov, Rustam UZB 2672 5 5. Vallejo, Francisco ESP 2693 5 6. Movsesian, Sergei SVK 2716 4½ 7. Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2703 4½ 8. Granda, Julio PER 2647 3½ 9. San Segundo, Pablo ESP 2570 2½ 10. Karpov, Anatoly RUS 2644 1½
Esta gran actuación de Nakamura le permitirá subir alrededor de veinte puntos Elo y ubicarse entre los veinte mejores del mundo.
A continuación su triunfo sobre el gran maestro francés Vachier:
It's a familiar and classic chessboard scenario. Little-known teenager gets to play White in a major event against established top grandmaster (here a four-time Russian champion). The GM takes the game too casually, chooses some dubious moves in a misguided attempt to unbalance the position, and bang! the teenager wades in with powerful tactical shots, the rite of passage giant-killing act is completed, and the defeated GM feels a touch older.
The one unusual feature in the game below, from the just completed Russian championship, won by Alex Grischuk, is that the loser does not eke matters out, hoping that the youngster's nerves will work the oracle, but resigns so early that internet watchers speculated whether the game was incomplete. And it is true that, although Black's final position is poor and he was running short of time, most GMs would wriggle on for a few moves, if only to prevent the game being technically a miniature, that is 25 moves or less. And another result is a lop-sided commentary mainly devoted to a rationale for Svidler's premature surrender.
Black's committal h5,f6 and g5 advances created weak squares, White settled his knights at c5 and e5, then 23 c3 left Svidler plenty of choices, none of them good. Black must try to counter the threat of Nxe6 Qxe6 Ng6+ and Rxe6, but if Ne7 24 Ned7 or Bxe5 24 Rxe5 threatening both Rxe6 and Qxg5, or 23...Kg7 24 Ned7 Rfe8 25 Nxf6 Kxf6 26 Re5 with g4 to follow, or 23...Ng7 24 Bxh7 Kxh7 25 Qd3+ and Qg6, or finally 23...Rae8 24 axb5 axb5 25 Ra6 threatening Bxb5 and Qe2. So premature resignation? Arguably Svidler just saved energy for the next round.
3119 This tough puzzle (by John Nunn, 1986) acquired an unintended further hazard when both kings and queens were misplaced. The answer, which Mikhail Botvinnik, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov failed to find, is 1 e4 Nf6 2 f3 Nxe4 3 Qe2 Ng3 4 Qxe7+! Qxe7+ 5 Kf2 Nxh1 mate.
Aronian, Carlsen, Kramnik in Amber 2010, Anand and Topalov not
Hot from the press: the organizers of the 2010 Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament today announced the list of participants – Carlsen, Kramnik, Aronian, Gelfand, Gashimov, Ivanchuk, Svidler, Ponomariov, Morozevich, Karjakin, Dominguez and Smeets.
PRESS RELEASE
The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place at the Palais de la Mediterranée, a legendary hotel on the world-famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco.
The new number one in the world rankings, Magnus Carlsen, is the top-seed in Nice. Also present are Levon Aronian, the winner of the past two Amber tournaments, and Vladimir Kramnik, who won the Amber tournament a record six times.
The following twelve grandmasters will take part (between brackets their country and their rating in the January 1, 2010 world rankings): Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2810), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2788), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2781), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2761), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 2759), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2749), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2744), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2737), Alexander Morozevich (Russia, 2732), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2720), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 2712) and Jan Smeets (The Netherlands, 2657).
Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov were invited, but apparently they decided to skip this year’s event because just a few weeks later their World Championship match is scheduled. In fact half of the field of last year is different: Leko, Radjabov, Kamsky and Wang Yue also don’t play next time; new compared to last year are Gelfand, Gashimov, Svidler, Ponomariov, Dominguez and Smeets.
For the 2010 edition we should consider Aronian, Carlsen and Kramnik as the big favourites. But what about the rest of the field?
2009 was a tough year, also for the chess world. Sponsors left, prize funds were lowered and in one (quite important) event the list of participants counted just four players. But it was also an interesting year, with successes for rising stars as well as experienced grandmasters. Let’s look back at the chess year that’s behind us, in our traditional annual survey.
One of the first strong round-robins finishing in the new year is always Reggio Emilia. In 2009 the Chinese rising start Ni Hua clinched the title in the small Italian town convincingly. He ended 1.5 points ahead of number 2 Zoltan Almasi! In a very strong period Ni Hua collected enough rating points to pass the 2700 barrier, which got him an invitation for the London Chess Classic at the end of the year.
Another early winner was Peter Svidler, who won the Aker Chess Challenge in Gjovik, Norway. In the final he defeated Magnus Carlsen, who at that point had no idea yet that 2009 would go down into history as the year he would rise to the absolute top. Vassily Ivanchuk is known for his many ups and downs, but he started his chess year well with a 3.5-2.5 rapid victory against Peter Leko. Our next two items in January both provoked many comments. In the column ‘The new founding fathers in chess?’ we compared remarks by Henrik Carlsen (representing his son Magnus) and Vladimir Kramnik on the world championship cycle and their ideas for a future set-up. It was interesting to see that Kramnik’s opinion seemed diametrically opposed to Carlsen’s. The next day we reported about a 14-year-old chess player from Australia who had been caught cheating with a Playstation Portable, but instead of just bringing the news, we asked our readers the question whether cheating is always newsworthy.
The year 2009 made clear once more that successful chess players are getting younger and younger. Just before Corus the big news was that a 9-year-old player in India had beaten a GM. We’ll probably hear more about Hetul Shah soon. But of course the Corus Chess Tournament itself confirmed this trend much better: the headline of our final report, ‘Youth triumphs at Corus 2009′, said enough. It had been a wonderful success for Sergei Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So.
Also for the ChessVibes team 2009 was quite an interesting year. We tried some new things, and the first was launched just before Corus. We’re still quite proud of our very first product, ChessVibes Openings, which reached it’s 52nd issue this week! I’m not an objective person here, but when I try to forget that I’m the publisher and pretend I’m only a chess player, I must say IMs Merijn van Delft and Robert Ris have done an awesome job in keeping track of the opening developments, every week, without taking a single week off. Great stuff guys!
February was the month of Linares (as always) and the month of Kamsky-Topalov. To start with the latter: it was a controversial match for several reasons. The history of how the match finally got there is a story in itself, and how it was organized in Sofia was another matter. For the journalists who had travelled to the Bulgarian capital it was a disappointing event (they were well quarantined off from the players, taking a back seat to local television) and for several online spectators as well. They became victim of what seems like a war between the Bulgarians and Chessbase, who were threatened with legal actions if they would continue broadcasting the match at Playchess. This situation would repeat during the MTel Masters in May. Our column about copyright and chess moves provoked 127 comments. We’d almost forget that Topalov won the match after volatile play from both players. The Bulgarian thus qualified for next year’s World Championship match against the reigning champ, Viswanathan Anand.
Linares saw a slightly surprising, but no less deserved winner in Alexander Grischuk. The Russian grandmaster won on tiebreak after finishing shared first with Vassily Ivanchuk, and after Sergei Karjakin he was the second qualifier for the Bilbao Grand Slam Final in September. However, arguably the biggest news story of February was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov accusing Igor Kurnosov of cheating, just after their game in round 6 of the Aeroflot Open. As far as we know thus far Mamedyarov hasn’t apologized to Kurnosov, despite the fact that almost anybody in the chess world agrees on the simple rule that, despite feeling pretty sure about it, one should never express such accusations without proof (and comparing moves with Rybka’s choices can never be called proof).
Every year in March the crème de la crème of elite chess gathers for 11 rapid and 11 blindfold games: the Amber tournament. This year the tournament was held in Nice for the second time, and again Macauley Peterson and I made daily videos. Levon Aronian successfully defended his title. Vladimir Kramnik won the blindfold section on tiebreak, finishing shared first with 7/11 together with Carlsen and Aronian. The rapid section also ended in a tie, between Anand, Kamsky (!) and Aronian.
In 2009 I visited less tournaments and so I created less videos than the year before. However, one I quite like was created close to home, early April: about Amsterdam chess cafe the Laurierboom. If you’ve missed it you can still watch it here. In the same month a sad incident involved one of our editors, IM Robert Ris. He was one of the victims of tournament organizer Gabor Pali, who damaged both the hotel and the participants of a closed round-robin financially. The Barcza Memorial was cancelled after one round when it became clear that Pali never paid anyone and wasn’t planning to.
Later in April, the 4th FIDE Grand Prix started in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, and I was there to do videos. It was quite a nice event, but also tough and long. After 13 rounds, Levon Aronian won his second tournament in two months. He had been leading together with Peter Leko with one round to go, in which they were paired against each other. The Armenian beat the Hungarian nicely. One of the participants was Sergei Karjakin and during the tournament he announced that he and his family would move to Russia and become Russian citizens. “I need to train with good coaches” was his explanation, and in fact his coach in Nalchik was former second of Garry Kasparov: Yuri Dokhoian.
April-May was also the period of the lengthy debate on the K-factor. At the President’s Cup, a rapid event held in Baku, Azerbaijan was crushed by the ‘FIDE World’ team led by Anand and Kramnik. Pavel Eljanov had a very good year, and among his successes was his victory at the Bosna tournament. We had an exclusive interview with the Ukrainian. In a crucial last-round encounter, Alexei Shirov defeated Magnus Carlsen to win this year’s MTel Masters. Also with him we had an exclusive interview, this time on video. Together with Gelfand’s victory at the ACP World Rapid Cup it was a good month for the older generation.
Vassily Ivanchuk, who had scored badly in Nalchik and Sofia, used a medicine that only works for him: play more chess! He defeated David Navara 5.5-2.5 in a rapid match in Prague (and a month later he would win in Bazna). In a similar (rapid) format, Viswanathan Anand defeated Peter Leko 5-3 and in yet another rapid event which I visited in Leon, Spain it was Magnus Carlsen who finally grabbed a first prize.
To China’s growing number of strong grandmasters, another name was added this year. 16-year-old Ding Liren won the Chinese Championship after a surreal finish which involved an incident related to the zero-tolerance rule. Russian rising star Alexander Motylev ended first at the Poikovsky tournament. In a year with mixed results, Ivan Cheparinov had one big success: his first place at the Ruy Lopez tournament in Zafra, Spain.
After winning the US Championship earlier in the year, Hikaru Nakamura collected even more rating points in San Sebastian. The American grandmaster won the tournament using his speciality: blitz chess. He beat Ruslan Ponomariov 2-0 in the tiebreak (here on video).
After an earlier, partly successful attempt with a Silverlight game viewer, we introduced ChessTempo’s game viewer in Javascript and we’re still quite happy with it. It’s Javacript and so it works like a charm in almost any browser, including the special version of Safari running on iPhones. (And that was how the voluntary guard at the London Chess Classic was following the games: on his phone, via the live page of ChessVibes!)
A great result for the new generation was scored by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who won Biel at the end of July. His game against Morozevich was one of the gems of 2009. Nakamura continued his fanastic year so far by winning the Chess960 section of the Rapid World Championships in Mainz. Success and failure were closely connected in Mainz: on the second day of the unofficial Rapid World Championship, eleven times winner Viswanathan Anand failed to qualify for the final. An era came to an end. This one was won by Levon Aronian; Mamedyarov took the Ordix Open title.
A much more important result for Aronian, however, was his second place at the Grand Prix in Jermuk (where Ivanchuk emerged as the winner). With this result, Armenia’s number one player secured overall victory in the FIDE Grand Prix Series with one tournament still to be played. Also in August, ten world famous chess champions gathered in Zurich, where Kramnik won the rapid tournament. By now traditionally, the month ended with the Rising Stars vs Experience tournament in Amsterdam. Again Macauley and I made daily videos at the event, where the Experience team won and Jan Smeets qualified for Amber 2010.
September started with chess reaching main stream media, but as so often it wasn’t a story that improved the reputation of the royal game. At the Kolkata Open in India, French top GM Vladislav Tkachiev showed up drunk at the venue and fell asleep several times during a game. Eventually he had to be carried off. Later Tkachiev would apologize.
Then, on September 7th, a long period started in which Magnus Carlsen would make the headlines. On that day his cooperation with Garry Kasparov was made public. “The goal is to make the Norwegian, who currently ranks as the fourth-best chess player in the world, the world’s best during the course of the coming year. (…)” was written in the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang. Who would have guessed that just four months later this goal would be reached? No doubt “the world’s best” needs to be read as “World Champion” by now! In any case, we had an exclusive interview with Carlsen about the matter and later we published Kasparov’s side of the story.
Levon Aronian scored yet another success in Bilbao, where he won the second Grand Slam final. Winning four games in a row, he eventually finished five points ahead of Grischuk (one and a half according to the classical system). With our Dutch roots it wasn’t too difficult to have the scoop on the ‘Tiviakov story’: the already seriously weakened Dutch Championship lost its top seed after the third round. Tivi had prearranged a draw for his last-round game on Sunday and had told the organizers that he couldn’t attend the closing ceremony and possible tiebreaks. This was not accepted, after which Tiviakov decided to withdraw immediately. ChessVibes spoke with all people involved.
Also in September, I had the opportunity to get one player before the camera (and even ask a few questions) whom I had never seen playing before. No-one less than Garry Kasparov himself played chess again! His opponent was his old nemesis Anatoly Karpov, and the two played a rapid and blitz match in Valencia, Spain. Unfortunately Karpov wasn’t up to the challenge; Kasparov won easily (9-3).
Soon it was Carlsen, Carlsen, Carlsen again. For a while it was the only name to be heard in the chess world, but it was fully deserved. By winning the Pearl Spring Grand Slam tournament with a devastating 8 out 10 and an unbelievable 3002 performance rating, dropping just four half points with the black pieces in ten games against the world’s best, Magnus took home € 80,000 and a total of 28.8 rating points. In doing so he broke the magical 2800 barrier.
The next big event was the biggest event of 2009: the Tal Memorial. For a tournament with Anand, Aronian Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Svidler and Ponomariov we couldn’t resist the temptation – we just had to bring live coverage. It was quite successful, and we repeated the service during the semi-final and final of the World Cup, and the London Chess Classic. Unfortunately we couldn’t welcome enough subscribers to continue it as a paid service in 2010, but we will do our best to find other ways to fund it. Because it’s just too much fun not to have it. Before I forget, Vladimir Kramnik won this super-tournament in Moscow, and Magnus Carlsen took the (world) blitz title. (Not long afterwards, Carlsen unofficially ‘lost’ that title to Hikaru Nakamura at the BNBank tournament.)
For the chess fan who still had some appetite left for top chess, there was the World Cup, which lasted no less than 23 days. Few of you will hear something new when I mention the semi-finalists: Karjakin, Malakhov, Gelfand and Ponomariov. The latter two played the final and 41-year-old top seed Boris Gelfand eventually took home the first prize of US $120,000. In London Magnus Carlsen finished a fantastic second half of 2009 by winning the Chess Classic with three wins and four draws, in a wonderfully organized event where it was a joy to work and create a few more videos.
At the end of month and the year, Korchnoi and Spassky played a match in Elista that ended in 4-4 and Alexander Grischuk won the Russian superfinal.
Before I end this survey I’d like to mention the many thought-provoking columns by Arne, his book reviews, the ‘Beauty in chess’ series by Michael, the weekly endgame studies by Yochanan and the reports written by Merijn and Robert. Enough material for a second look, on a free New Year’s Day perhaps!?
With this we come to an end of this annual survey, and of the chess year 2009. The ChessVibes team thanks you for your support and your comments, and we wish everyone a healthy 2009, with happy chess and good vibes!
Last month he turned 19, and today Magnus Carlsen officialy became the official world’s number one player. On the January 1st FIDE rating list the Norwegian as a rating of 2810, 5 points more than Veselin Topalov, who had occupied the number 1 spot since October 2008.
After winning the London Chess Classic with three wins and four draws it was a fact: Magnus Carlsen would become the youngest world’s number one in chess history. Thanks to the “live list” by Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website) everyone could already see how the top rankings would look like, and today this became official due to FIDE’s publication of the January list.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand won 2 points and is still in third place; after the Tal Memorial and London Vladimir Kramnik surpassed Levon Aronian to become 4th. Vassily Ivanchuk is back in the top 10, and Wang Yue entered for the first time – the Chinese GM is now the world’s 9th player. After a successful period, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is 11th now. Leko and Morozevich dropped out of the top 10.
Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave, just two months older than Carlsen, has now entered the top 20 while another former prodigy, Sergei Karjakin, dropped out – but let’s not forget he’ll be defending his Corus title soon. Vladimir Malakhov’s successful period resulted in a rise from spot 31 to 22. Without getting too much attention, Zoltan Almasi and David Navara occupy the excellent spots 26 and 27.
A disappointing London Chess Classic cost Nigel Short his 2700+ rating but he’s still just England’s best player at 2696; Michael Adams is now one spot below him at 2694. 17-year-old Fabiano Caruana did well again and climbed no less than 30 places; from spot 81 to 51. Another young player did even better: 18-year-old Sergei Zhigalko went from 93 to 58. New in the top 100 compared to the previous list are Ian Nepomniachtchi (69th), Wesley So (77th), Viktor Laznicka (84th), Le Quang Liem (93rd) Tomi Nyback (97th) and Evgeny Bareev (98th).
In the women’s list again the top 3 didn’t change; the difference between Judit Polgar and Humpy Koneru is now 68 points. Nadezhda Kosintseva climbed from 9th to 5th while Alexandra Kosteniuk and Kateryna Lahno are back into the top 10. Nana Dzagnidze dropped out from 4th place all the way to 14th.
Below you’ll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the first two lists including the changes with the previous lists. All data courtesy of FIDE.
FIDE JANUARY 2010 RATING LIST: TOP 100 PLAYERS
Legend:
black color – player remained on the same position
green color – player moved up in the list
red color – player moved down in the list
blue color – player is new to the current Top list Old represents player’s position in the previous period list
There is a new king in the world ranking of chess. The nineteen-year old Magnus Carlsen (2810, +9) has officially vaulted over 2800 mark to become only the 5th person in history to eclipse the magical figure. It appears as if 2800 is the old 2700.
Approximately 10 years ago, there were only a handful of players having reached the 2700 level. There are currently 34 players over 2700 with a number of players having reached the mark previously and fallen below. Carlsen has had a meteoric rise to the world’s number one position and some project that he may break Garry Kasparov’s 2851 mark.
Being knocked from his comfortable perch, Veselin Topalov (2805, -5) is more focused on his upcoming match with World Champion Viswanathan Anand (2790, +2). The match will take place in Bulgaria in April 2010. Some believe Carlsen will be vying for the title in the next cycle. However, there are a lot of viable candidates in the loop.
Out of the top 20 juniors, 12 countries are represented. For the top 20 girls, two nations dominate the list… Russia (6) and China (4).
Vladimir Kramnik (2788, +16) scored a nice victory in the recent Tal Memorial placing 1/2-point ahead of Carlsen. Kramnik had dropped precipitously prior to winning the ‘Toiletgate’ match against Topalov, but has overcome ailments to regain his form. In fact, many state that he is playing more aggressively. Armenia’s Levon Aronian (2781, -5) switched places with Kramnik and dropped to the #5 spot.
Rounding out the top ten, you have FIDE World Cup winner Boris Gelfand (2761, +3) who gained only a few points are the tournament performance is added to his tally. Vugar Gashimov (2759, +1) is Azerbaijan’s #1 and in an recent interview he stated the possibility of becoming the top-rated player one day. He lead his nation to a win in the prestigious European Team Championship and they will be a favorite to win a medal at the 2010 Olympiad.
Vassily Ivanchuk (2749, +10) continues his fluctuation in and out of the top ten. He regained some points are a strong showing at Tal Memorial, but had an early exit from the World Cup losing to rising star Wesley So (2656, +14) of the Philippines (pictured left). A Chinese player has reached the top ten for the first time in history and his name is Wang Yue (2749, +15).
With his solid style and consistency, Wang continues to climb the rating ladder and can clearly be considered in the elite class. With invitations rolling in, he has had opportunities to show the talent that had been developing since his youth days. There seems to be more talent in the Chinese pipeline.
Peter Svidler (2744, -10) rounds out the top ten, but has hit skids lately. He bombed in the Tal Memorial with 3.5/9, was eliminated in the FIDE World Cup quarterfinals and just a week ago he lost in 23 moves to talented junior, Sanan Sjugirov (2610, -2).
Has GM Koneru Humpy hit her peak? Photo by Manisha Mohite.
In women’s chess, nothing has changed in terms of the order. Judit Polgar has been on top for decades and is now regaining form. Hou Yifan (2590, +2) is hot on the heels of world #2 Koneru Humpy (2614, +11).
Humpy scored a good result in the match featuring the Queens vs. Veterans, but entered in a public dispute with her federation about her contractual committments. While she continues to play primarily against women, her improvement has not been very dramatic since reaching 2600 two years ago.
Former World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova (2545, +4) has remained steady over the past year, but the new sensation in the women’s section is Nadezhda Kostineva (2533, +15) of Russia. She has vaulted over 2500 and is now the top-rated Russian woman.
Kostineva overtakes World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (2523, -6) who had held the top position since she first won the title at age 17. She will most probably keep the top board at the Olympiad regardless of the rating difference. Kosteniuk was blanked by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2741, +22) in the FIDE World Cup but helped Russia win the European Team Championship.
As the world’s number one Carlsen leads the Juniors and French #1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2730, +12) is now second and Sergey Karjakin (2720, -3) is third. All were born in 1990 and will dominate the list for a few more years. Karjakin has recently changed his federation from Ukraine to Russia.
GM Fabiano Caruana is knocking at the door of the 2700 club. Here he plays Sweden’s GM Pontus Carlsson enroute to winning Corus ‘C’ earlier last year.
Italian #1 Fabiano Caruana (2675, +33) has pilled up points at a rapid pace and is approaching 2700. He made the fourth round of the FIDE World Cup finally losing to Gashimov. Ian Nepomniachtchi (2658, +32) of Russia gained a whopping 31 ELO points in the Russia Final with 8.5/10!
Perhaps one of the junior receiving the most praise (besides Carlsen) is Wesley So of the Philippines (2656, +14). He got to the 4th round of the FIDE World Cup beating Gadir Guseinov (2614), Vassily Ivanchuk (2749) and Gata Kamsky (2693).
One of the best thing about the juniors list (and other lists) is the wide diversity of nations represented, a fact not solely because of emigration from strong nations. Out of the top 20 juniors, 12 countries are represented. For the top 20 girls, two nations dominate the list… Russia (6) and China (4). Hou Yifan (2590, +2) is the #20 junior, but the top girl.
Jorge Cori and sister Daysi of Peru.
Daysi Cori of Peru is the sole representative on the girl’s list from the Western Hemisphere. Her brother Jorge recently made headlines by fulfilling the requirements a Grandmaster at age 14 and earlier winning the under-14 title. Daysi won the under-16 girl’s title.
Here's wishing all of my readers a joyous, healthy and prosperous New Year 2010!!
There has been plenty of exciting chess news to report over the past couple of days. Several local youngsters faced stiff competition at the North American Open in Las Vegas (photo top right), and they no doubt earned the praise of many around the country. Watch for my final report in the coming days.
The biggest international story is the rise of a Norwegian teenager as the new #1 rated player in the World. At 2810, Magnus Carlsen (photo top left) becomes the youngest top ranked chess player in history!It may only be a matter of time before he also earns a shot at the official World Chess Championship. Check out the December 25 issue of Time magazine for an interview with the new "King of Chess".
E' on line il numero 501 del nostro settimanale web, Messaggero Scacchi. E' possibile leggerlo in versione html o scaricarlo in formato pdf. Il file di partite è in formato PGN zippato.
In questo numero, fra l'altro:
1 - MOSCA: GRISCHUK SUPERA SVIDLER NELLA FINALE DEL CAMPIONATO RUSSO
4 - PAMPLONA (SPAGNA): QUATTRO IN VETTA, MEIER PRIMO PER SPAREGGIO TECNICO
6 - EDMONTON (CANADA): LO STATUNITENSE FRIEDEL SUPERA MIKHALEVSKI
Grischuk & Galliamova are the new Russian Champions
Finishing with a victory and a draw, Alexander Grischuk won the the Superfinal of the Russian Championship with 6.5/9. He ended half a point ahead of Peter Svidler. In the women’s section, Alisa Galliamova finished with two draws and this was enough for clear first because the Kosintseva sisters quickly drew against each other in the last round.
At Moscow’s Central Chess Club the 62nd Russian Championship Superfinal for men and the 59th Russian Championship Superfinal for women took place December 19-30. The time control in the men’s section was 1 hour and 40 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 10 minutes to end the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the first. In the women’s section it was 1 hour and 30 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes to end the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the first. The prize fund was US $100,000 for the men and US $40,000 for the women.
Rounds 8-9
After our last report, seven rounds had been played in Moscow and in both sections still anything could happen – however not much changed in the standings. Both Grischuk and Svidler ended with 1.5/2 and so Grischuk finished half a point ahead of his closest rival. His game against Jakovenko in round 8 was yet another fine 1.e4 victory, this time against a Berlin Wall. Grischuk showed excellent preparation: thanks to a novelty on move 20, his opponent had problems from the start which he failed to solve.
Peter Svidler won an exchange against Alekseev’s Petroff, but not the game, and so he saw the gap with Grischuk increase till a full point. He did win his last game though, in an English Opening against Tomashevsky. But Grischuk, who needed a draw for clear first today, quickly equalized in a Najdorf against Alekseev, who accepted the draw offer on move 19.
Alexander Grischuk, Russian Champion 2009
Also in the women’s section nothing was decided yet after seven rounds. Galliamova’s superb 6.5/7 meant she was leading by a full point, but she had to play reigning European Champion Tatiana Kosintseva in round 8. Galliamova came under pressure, but she held the draw. Nadezhda Kosintseva defeated Bodnaruk and so she was half a point behind with one round to go.
However in this last round the Kosintseva sisters were paired against each other. Normally the two give a quick draw whenever they meet in a tournament, and this time it wasn’t different. Galliamova also drew quickly against Gunina and so the women’s tournament was decided in less than half an hour.
Tatiana (l.) and Nadezhda Kosintseva, another quick draw
Alisa Galliamova, Russian Women Champion 2009
Photos by Mark Gluhovsky and Misha Savinov – more at the official website.
Probabilmente gli estimatori di Vladimir Kramnik dissentiranno: in effetti il Russo ha condotto un’annata superba, impreziosita dalle vittorie nei SuperTornei Sparkassen di Dortmund e Memorial Tal di Mosca. Ma la travolgente seconda parte dell’anno da parte di Magnus Carlsen e la conquista del primo posto nella classifica Elo mondiale lasciano pochi dubbi su chi possa essere stato il giocatore più rappresentativo del 2009.
Corus: Wang Yue-Carlsen, il Bianco muove e vince
In effetti l’anno non era iniziato per Magnus in maniera esaltante. In gennaio a Wijk aan Zee, nel Corus A ovviamente, dopo un torneo caratterizzato da troppe patte da parte sua, nell’ultimo turno incontra Wang Yue, necessita di una vittoria per tentare di acciuffare per i capelli un risultato di prestigio, ma nel finale cade in fallo: nella posizione del diagramma a fianco Magnus ha appena giocato 60…Te5? (molto meglio 60…g6, come affermerà un Kasparov già molto attento nei suoi confronti) e il cinese trova la mortifera 61.f6! a cui è seguito Axf6 62.Rd6 Tf5 63.Cxf6+ Txf6 64.Rd7 h4 65.e7 Tf7 66.Rd8 Rh7 67.Ta6 1–0.
Linares
A Linares in febbraio le sconfitte in torneo diventano addirittura due (con Aronian e ancora con Wang Yue!) ma sono ampiamente compensate dalle vittorie su Grischuk, vincitore del torneo, e soprattutto su Anand.
A marzo Carlsen dimostra di saperci fare anche “alla cieca”, andando a vincere l’Amber di Nizza nella specialità “blindfold”, seppur a pari merito con Aronian e Kramnik.
Sofia
La crescita di rendimento da parte di Magnus sembra evidente all’M-Tel Masters di Sofia in maggio, dove strapazza un po’ tutti fino all’ultimo turno, stavolta gli basterebbe una patta per vincere il torneo, ma Shirov sfodera una prestazione maiuscola e ancora una volta a Carlsen rimane l’amaro in bocca. Qualcosa sembra sempre mancare alla grande impresa.
In giugno in verità vince il Ciudad de Leon, ma si tratta pur sempre di una competizione rapid, per quanto sia valido il lotto dei contendenti (Morozevch, Ivanchuk e Wang Yue).
Nanjing
E si arriva alla seconda edizione del Pearl Spring aNanchino in Cina a fine settembre. Si fanno sempre più insistenti le voci di una collaborazione non episodica tra Magnus e nientemeno che Garry Kasparov. L’inizio del torneo è strabiliante! 4.5 su 5 nel girone d’andata di un torneo di Cat.XXI… La seconda parte del torneo non è da meno, Carlsen conclude con 8 su 10, due punti e mezzo di vantaggio sul secondo classifica, un certo Topalov, e con una performance superiore ai 3000 punti!
Mosca
Finalmente ci siamo, finalmente il risultato stratosferico che era nelle corde. Ora necessita la conferma. L’occasione è il Memorial Tal a Mosca in novembre. Magnus gioca molto coperto, precarie condizioni fisiche non gli permettono di più, ma termina imbattuto e la vittoria finale su Leko gli consente di andarsi a piazzare subito alle spalle dello scatenato Kramnik che vince il torneo. E’ nella coda dell’evento che Magnus può giocare senza il “freno tirato”: si tratta del Campionato del Mondo Lampo, ben 42 turni con i migliori specialisti del settore, Nakamura escluso. Magnus tiene un rendimento elevatissimo nelle due giornate del Campionato, chiudendo con 3 punti di vantaggio sul secondo classificato Anand e soprattutto con un Incredibile 8 su 8 complessivo rifilato agli immediati inseguitori: Anand, Karjakin, Kramnik e Grischuk!
Magnus raggiante al World Blitz
Per Kramnik è finita, ma ci saranno altre occasioni: il duello continua
Tutto è pronto per il London Chess Center Classic in dicembre ed è subito confronto con Kramnik, la vittoria del norvegese sembra dare una mazzata al torneo appena iniziato. Nel prosieguo però Magnus evidenzia una certa stanchezza, non concludendo adeguatamente in almeno un paio di occasioni: termina comunque imbattuto e il risultato gli consente di raggiungere un Elo non ancora ufficiale di 2810 punti, il più alto al mondo in questo momento.
Grazie ai risultati ottenuti, in particolare grazie alla media Elo di luglio 2009 e gennaio 2010 Magnus si è già assicurato un posto al torneo dei Candidati per il prossimo Ciclo Mondiale.
Grandissima è l’attesa per il principale evento di inizio 2010, il Corus di Wijk aan Zee, dove si troverà ancora in competizione con Anand e Kramnik: dovesse imporsi, potremmo senz’altro dire che è finalmente iniziata “l’era di Magnus”.
Alisa Galliamova and Alexander Grischuk are Russian Champions - Russian Superfinal Championship for
Alexander Grischuk completed the year 2009 in style by winning the 62nd Russian Superfinal Championship, with 6.5 points from nine rounds, half a point clear ahead of the defending champion Peter Svidler. Two times World Championship finalist Alisa Galliamova had a dream comeback after being on a two-years hiatus from the tournament chess...
Alexander Grischuk leads the Superfinal of the Russian Championship with 5 points out of 7 games. He’s half a point ahead of Peter Svidler, who lost to Sanan Sjugirov in round 5. In the women’s section, Alisa Galliamova is on a superb 6.5/7. Report with game fragments, lightly annotated.
At Moscow’s Central Chess Club the 62nd Russian Championship Superfinal for men and 59th Russian Championship Superfinal for women takes place December 19-30. Play starts daily at 15:00 hrs Moscow time, which is 13:00 CET and 07:00 EST. The last round starts two hours earlier and the only rest day is on the 25th.
The time control in the men’s section is 1 hour and 40 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 10 minutes to end the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the first. In the women’s section it’s 1 hour and 30 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes to end the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the first. The prize fund is US $100,000 for the men and US $40,000 for the women.
Rounds 4-7
After a good start of 2.5/3, Svidler drew relatively quickly with Grischuk in round 5, but then had a terrible off-day against Sjugirov. With Black he played one of his worst games of his entire career, and after a mere 23 moves he was looking at a positional disaster. At that point already he couldn’t avoid material losses and so he resigned.
Sjugirov-Svidler, 1-0 in just 23 moves
A good professional, the next day Svidler recovered well and defeated Timofeev nicely with the white pieces. However, the most impressive chess so far has been shown by Alexander Grischuk, who plays solid chess with Black, and strong, active 1.e4 chess with White. He’s on an excellent 5/7 with two rounds to go, but his program is not easy: White against Jakovenko and then Black against Alekseev. Half a point behind, Svidler has Alekseev with White and then Tomashevsky with Black.
Alexander Grischuk, the leader with two rounds to go
Alisa Galliamova continued her fantastic form and collected no less than 6.5 points out of 7 games. Only Nadezhda Kosintseva, who is now a full point behind her, managed to draw. Today Galliamova plays against Tatiana Kosintseva, who can do her sister a big favour.
Alisa Galliamova, close to tournament victory
Photos by Mark Gluhovsky and Misha Savinov – more at the official website.
There were four decisive games in round five of the men's section, with one sensation: the leader, Peter Svidler, lost to the youngest participant, 16-year-old Sanan Sjugirov of Kalmykia. That put Alexander Grischuk, who won his game, in the sole lead. In the women's section IM Alisa Galliamova continues her rampage and is leading by a full point. Games and statistics.
Bei den russischen Meisterschaften ging es Heiligabend weiß Gott nicht
friedlich zu. Im Männer- und im Frauenturnier gab es jeweils nur eine unentschiedene
Partie. Einer der Leidtragenden dieser kämpferischen Stimmung war Peter
Svidler, der mit Schwarz gegen den 16 Jahre alten Sanan Sjugirov in einem Caro-Kann
nach der Eröffnung vom rechten Weg abkam. Nach 23 Zügen hatte Svidler
genug und gab seine trotz materiellen Gleichstands trostlose Stellung auf. Dadurch
konnte Alexander Grischuk, der mit Hilfe eines hübschen Qualitätsopfers
gegen Alexander Riazantsev gewann, mit 3,5 aus 5 die Tabellenführung übernehmen.
Bei den Frauen dominiert weiter Alisa Galliamova. Sie gewann ihre fünfte
Partie in Folge und liegt mit 5 aus 5 einen Punkt vor der Tabellenzweiten Nadezhda
Kosintseva. Turnierseite... Partien und Tabellen...
Tatiana y Nadezhda, las hermanas prodigio de Rusia
Del 20 al 30 de diciembre se están jugando en Moscú las finales de los campeonatos nacionales, en las versiones absoluto y femenino. En la rama masculina, esta es la 62ª versión. Las partidas se están jugando en el Club Central de Moscú, en el Boulevard Gogolevsky. Los participantes son los jugadores con más alto rating y los clasificados en las competiciones de las ligas. El ritmo de juego es de 100 minutos para 40 jugadas, luego 50 minutos para 20 jugadas y luego 15 minutos y 30 segundos de incremento por jugada para terminar el juego.
En caso de las tablas, rigen las llamadas reglas de Sofía: los jugadores no pueden ofrecer tablas directamente a sus oponentes. Tienen que hacerlo a través de un árbitro. El fondo de premios es 100.000 dólares EE.UU. para los hombres y 40.000 dólares EE.UU. para las mujeres.
Posición después de la cuarta ronda, rama masculina:
Puesto
Jugador
Elo
Puntaje
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
Svidler, P
2754
3.0 / 4
X
=
.
1
.
.
.
.
=
1
2
Grischuk, A
2736
2.5 / 4
=
X
.
=
1
.
.
.
=
.
3
Jakovenko, D
2736
2.5 / 4
.
.
X
.
=
1
=
.
.
=
4
Khismatullin, D
2643
2.5 / 4
0
=
.
X
.
.
.
1
.
1
5
Tomashevsky, E
2708
2.0 / 4
.
0
=
.
X
.
=
1
.
.
6
Alekseev, Evgeny
2715
2.0 / 4
.
.
0
.
.
X
=
=
.
1
7
Timofeev, Arty
2651
1.5 / 4
.
.
=
.
=
=
X
.
0
.
8
Sjugirov, S
2612
1.5 / 4
.
.
.
0
0
=
.
X
1
.
9
Vitiugov, N.
2694
2.0 / 4
=
=
.
.
.
.
1
0
X
.
10
Riazantsev, A
2661
0.5 / 4
0
.
=
0
.
0
.
.
.
X
Participantes en la rama masculina:
GM Peter Svidler 2754 GM Nikita Vitiugov 2694
GM Alexander Grischuk 2736 GM Alexander Riazantsev 2661
GM Dimitri Jakovenko 2736 GM Artyom Timofeev 2651
GM Evgeny Alekseev 2715 GM Denis Khismatullin 2640
GM Evgeny Tomashevsky 2708 GM Sanan Sjugirov 2612
Participantes en la rama femenina:
GM Tatiana Kosintseva 2522 IM Marina Romanko 2449
IM Nadezhda Kosintseva 2518 IM Elena Zaiatz 2390
WGM Natalija Pogonina 2501 WGM Tatiana Stepovaia 2384
IM Alisa Galliamova 2460 WGM Anastasia Bodnaruk 2372
WFM Valentina Gunina 2446 WGM Maria Manakova 2344
Puesto
Jugador
Elo
Puntaje
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
Galliamova, A
2460
4.0 / 4
X
.
.
1
.
.
1
1
.
1
2
Kosintseva, N
2518
3.5 / 4
.
X
1
=
.
.
1
.
.
1
3
Gunina, V
2446
2.5 / 4
.
0
X
.
1
=
.
.
1
.
4
Pogonina, N
2501
2.5 / 4
0
=
.
X
.
.
.
1
1
.
5
Bodnaruk, A
2372
2.5 / 4
.
.
0
.
X
1
=
.
.
1
6
Kosintseva, T
2522
2.0 / 4
.
.
=
.
0
X
.
.
=
1
7
Zaiatz, E
2390
1.5 / 4
0
0
.
.
=
.
X
1
.
.
8
Manakova, M
2344
1.0 / 4
0
.
.
0
.
.
0
X
1
.
9
Romanko, M
2449
0.5 / 4
.
.
0
0
.
=
.
0
X
.
10
Stepovaia, T
2384
0.0 / 4
0
0
.
.
0
0
.
.
.
X
(1) Pogonina, N (2501) – Romanko, M (2449) [B60]
Rusia ch 2009 Femenino Final Moscú RUS (1.1), 20.12.2009
Todo iba bien para las blancas. Habían recuperado el peón y tenían alguna iniciativa. Pero este peón y su compañero de ‘a7’ vienen a descompensar nuevamente la situación.
AMBER con Carlsen e Kramnik. Morozevich rinuncia.
RISULTATI e ABBINAMENTI QUI 
PARTITE IN DIRETTA QUI
The 19th traditional TopGM’s blindfold and rapid tournament in Nice, France will be held from March 13th to 25th.
Alexander Morozevich has withdrawn from the Amber tournament, which starts in six days from now in Nice, France. The Russian is replaced by his compatriot Alexander Grischuk. To get you a bit in the mood already, today we present a video with footage from 2008 and 2009.
Today is the 75th birthday of the legendary Bent Larsen, the strongest Danish grandmaster in history and together with Bobby Fischer the “Best of the West”, before this title went to Jan Timman. We’re congratulating with unique photos from the past and present.
Just a few days ago Veselin Topalov won the Linares tournament and narrowed the gap with Magnus Carlsen on the live rating list to just one point. On the March 1st FIDE rating list the Norwegian leads with a personal record of 2813 and is still 8 points ahead of Topalov.
In what was probably the strongest Bundesliga match ever, OSC Baden-Baden Saturday lost for the first time in more than three years, against their biggest rival Werder Bremen. The two teams are leading the standings, together with SG Solingen, with 20 points out of 11 matches. Games, photos and a video.
This weekend the 10th and 11th round of the Schachbundesliga are being played. On board one of the top match between Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen, Vugar Gashimov (Werder Bremen), who travelled from Linares to Heidelberg, plays the World Champ, Viswanathan Anand.
With three more draws in round 7, the drawing percentage Saturday rose to 77% in Linares. Veselin Topalov kept his 1.5 point lead, with three more rounds to go.
"Caccia" al Melody Amber 2011!
Fabiano, che nella precedente stagione è stato utilizzato in due occasioni (due patte, con il GM Dgebuadze ed il MI Kolbus) affronterà due giocatori tedeschi: il trentaseienne MI 
Although the Corus tournament always dominates the chess news in the last two weeks of January, for one event we have to make an exception. The 8th Gibtelecom International Chess Festival in Gibraltar is on its way and in fact already four rounds have been played. Yet again the field of players is a very nice mixture, including many top female players.
If you like, on this rest day at Corus you can spend some time and learn from top grandmasters. In this post we publish both press conferences Alexei Shirov gave, after round 3 and 4, and an ICC Game of the Day video, in which Peter Svidler explains the game Short-Nakamura from round 3. Enjoy!
A new year has begun, and is there a better moment to start working some more on your openings? We’ve changed our weekly PDF (+PGN!) magazine ChessVibes Openings slightly, and it might well be even more instructive…
Every issue consists of a PDF Magazine and the accompanying PGN file. The PDF consists of four pages (A4 size) with the following contents:
“So, who-ya-gonna-call? Opening busters? Not quite. For the reasonable price of 25 euros per year, once a week you can receive intelligent, interesting opening surveys and analysis presented by a team lead by Dutch IMs Merijn van Delft & Robert Ris.”
“What I like about ChessVibes Openings is their focus on the trend and discoveries that are revealed in super tournaments and by very strong players. It makes sense for all tournament chess players and opening theoreticians to follow these developments and getting an overview from ChessVibes Openings definitely saves time.”
?? RISULTATI sul Sito Ufficiale
2009 was a tough year, also for the chess world. Sponsors left, prize funds were lowered and in one (quite important) event the list of participants counted just four players. But it was also an interesting year, with successes for rising stars as well as experienced grandmasters. Let’s look back at the chess year that’s behind us, in our traditional annual survey.
Another early winner was Peter Svidler, who won the 
The year 2009 made clear once more that successful chess players are getting younger and younger. Just before Corus the big news was that a 9-year-old player in India had 
February was the month of Linares (as always) and the month of Kamsky-Topalov. To start with the latter: it was a controversial match for several reasons. The history of how the match finally got there is a 
Linares saw a slightly surprising, but no less deserved winner in 
Later in April, the 4th FIDE Grand Prix started in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, and I was there to do videos. It was quite a nice event, but also tough and long. After 13 rounds, 
April-May was also the period of the lengthy 
After 
A much more important result for Aronian, however, was his second place at the Grand Prix in Jermuk (where Ivanchuk emerged as 
Then, on September 7th, a long period started in which Magnus Carlsen would make the headlines. On that day his cooperation with Garry Kasparov was 
Levon Aronian scored yet another success in Bilbao, where he 
Soon it was Carlsen, Carlsen, Carlsen again. For a while it was the only name to be heard in the chess world, but it was fully deserved. By 
The next big event was the biggest event of 2009: the Tal Memorial. For a tournament with Anand, Aronian Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Svidler and Ponomariov we couldn’t resist the temptation – we just had to bring 
For the chess fan who still had some appetite left for top chess, there was the World Cup, which lasted no less than 23 days. Few of you will hear something new when I mention the semi-finalists: Karjakin, Malakhov, Gelfand and Ponomariov. The latter two played the final and 41-year-old top seed 
After winning the London Chess Classic with three wins and four draws it was a fact: Magnus Carlsen would become the youngest world’s number one in chess history. Thanks to the “live list” by Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website) everyone could already see how the top rankings would look like, and today this became official due to FIDE’s publication of the January list.
A disappointing London Chess Classic cost Nigel Short his 2700+ rating but he’s still just England’s best player at 2696; Michael Adams is now one spot below him at 2694. 17-year-old Fabiano Caruana did well again and climbed no less than 30 places; from spot 81 to 51. Another young player did even better: 18-year-old Sergei Zhigalko went from 93 to 58. New in the top 100 compared to the previous list are Ian Nepomniachtchi (69th), Wesley So (77th), Viktor Laznicka (84th), Le Quang Liem (93rd) Tomi Nyback (97th) and Evgeny Bareev (98th).
Finishing with a victory and a draw, Alexander Grischuk won the the Superfinal of the Russian Championship with 6.5/9. He ended half a point ahead of Peter Svidler. In the women’s section, Alisa Galliamova finished with two draws and this was enough for clear first because the Kosintseva sisters quickly drew against each other in the last round.
A marzo Carlsen dimostra di saperci fare anche “alla cieca”, andando a vincere l’
Alexander Grischuk leads the Superfinal of the Russian Championship with 5 points out of 7 games. He’s half a point ahead of Peter Svidler, who lost to Sanan Sjugirov in round 5. In the women’s section, Alisa Galliamova is on a superb 6.5/7. Report with game fragments, lightly annotated.
