On his 41st birthday Vasily Ivanchuk defeated Jan Smeets 1.5-0.5 at the Amber tournament in Nice. Because Magnus Carlsen won one and lost one against Sergey Karjakin, Ivanchuk is now half a point ahead of Carlsen and Gelfand, who beat Aronian 2-0.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 5

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Round 5 report

Vasily Ivanchuk grabs lead on 41st birthday
In round 5 of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk, who celebrated his 41st birthday today, grabbed the sole lead in the overall standings with a 1½-½ win over Jan Smeets. Magnus Carlsen saw a winning streak of seven consecutive wins interrupted by Sergey Karjakin. The Norwegian top-seed is now in second place together with Boris Gelfand, who defeated Leinier Dominguez 2-0 (scoring his fourth consecutive win in the process).

Yesterday the participants of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament enjoyed a free day. Some of them stayed at the hotel to recharge their batteries, others joined an excursion to Gourdon, an age-old mountain village perched on a rock 780 meters above sea-level with a splendid view of the surrounding natural scenery and of Nice at a distance of some 10 kilometres (the ride there was obviously longer and lasted about an hour). The excursion included a visit to the local museum and a relaxed lunch on the outside terrace of Le Nid d’Aigle.

At the end of the afternoon the players who took part in the excursion returned to the Palais de la Méditerranée, where in the evening they were joined by their colleagues at a Quiz evening. The theme of the evening was Movies (with questions about chess interspersed) and we can reveal that Ruslan Ponomariov, who was on the winning team, astounded all and sundry with his passionate rendition of We Are the Champions. And then today, at 14.30 it was back to chess again with the games of the fifth round.

After he had won the blindfold game against Leinier Dominguez, Boris Gelfand was full of praise for his opponent’s opening play. Without going into any detail (he preferred the telling stock phrase ‘future games will have to shed more light on this variation’) Gelfand explained that the complications had been big and that he was suffering a pawn down at the ‘end’ of the opening. But Dominguez’ problem was to find a way to convert his material and this proved not so easy. And searching for a plan he got confused by the sudden advance of Black’s e-pawn that started marching down the board. Things were still fine for White, but the Cuban panicked and before he knew it he was lost.
The opening in the rapid game again was highly complicated and although in various instances the computer prefers Black, Gelfand had full confidence in the white side. To his mind his opponent went astray with 24…Rd8, where he could have stayed in the game with the ‘beautiful idea’ (Gelfand’s words) 24…Rd3 25.Nf2 Rxf3 26.gxf3 f5. Now things went rapidly downhill for Black and after 30.Qa4 Gelfand believed that he was close to winning. The game lasted another 36 moves, but indeed the result was never in any doubt and Gelfand scored his fourth consecutive win.

Vugar Gashimov and Alexander Grischuk conducted a tense battle in the Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Najdorf, with White going for the less usual 8.Qd3. White seemed to have a promising initiative and Gashimov’s hopes were rising, when Grischuk found the beautiful defending move 28…Kh7, that essentially saved the draw.
In the rapid game they also repeated the opening they had played in Linares last month and with Gashimov behind the black pieces it’s no big surprise that we saw another Benoni. The novelty came on move 12, when instead of 12…Nh5, the Azeri grandmaster now played 12…b5, an improvement he was most pleased with. Black got a fine game, but White remained ambitious and in the end it was the Russian’s wish to keep on playing on that did him in. After he had repeated moves several times (in different positions) Grischuk finally fell for the trap that Gashimov had spied many moves ago and when White proceeded 43.Bb5, Black’s answer 43…Rxc7 came very quickly.

Vladimir Kramnik scored a convincing win against Ruslan Ponomariov in their blindfold game, although he wasn’t too impressed by his achievement. To his mind Ponomariov had simply forgotten to play 6…d6 (as Ponomariov was happy to explain he had already played this exact variation without …d6, way back in 1997 against Volkov amongst others; ‘it used to be one of my specialties at the time’), which gave White a considerable space advantage. He also was critical of Black’s 10…dxe5 and believed that Black’s best chance on move 15 was 15…Bxc3+ 16.Qxc3 Qxb5, as after 15…Kg7? 16.0-0 he felt that White was almost winning. What Black probably missed was that 16…Nf6 would have been answered by 17.Bh6+ Kxh6 18.Qe3+. The remainder of the game Kramnik played with a steady hand and Ponomariov never got a chance to turn the tide again.
After the blindfold game Ponomariov mused that he should not have played so adventurously and that it was wiser to strive for a healthy position, solidly developing your pieces and all that. But once he sat down for the rapid game he had already forgotten about most of this wisdom and went for wild adventures again with 12.Be5 and 13.Bd3. Further on 20.Qa1 was not fortunate choice and 21.Rb1 was a blunder that practically immediately cost him the game.

Perhaps the question most people were asking themselves at the start of the blindfold game between Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen was whether the Norwegian would continue his winning streak or that the Ukrainian would slow him down. And indeed, despite the fact that he had the black pieces Carlsen managed to win his seventh consecutive game. In a first reaction he called it ‘a good game’ and it was certainly impressive how he first solved his opening problems and next started to look for more. By the time he had played 23…Nxe3 followed by 24…Bf2, he felt he got a grip on the position. He was even more pleased when Karjakin let himself be tempted to play 34.Bxg6, as he had sharply calculated the consequences of his move. Still, it wasn’t clear if Black’s advantage was winning, but with Karjakin in severe time-trouble and the pressure building up on him he faced an arduous task. Carlsen wasn’t entirely sure if he had played the queen endgame perfectly, but the way he played it was enough to score another point.
Carlsen’s winning streak ended in the rapid game. Dithering opening play didn’t bring him anything and when Karjakin stepped up his counterplay, dark clouds gathered over the white position. Carlsen tried his best to muddy the waters but in fact his fate was sealed well before the end of the game.

Levon Aronian and Peter Svidler played a blindfold game that the latter called ‘wildly exciting’ and who would argue with that? In a sharp anti-Grünfeld system Black was reluctant to go for the endgame that would have arisen after 11…Qxd1+ even if a brief look afterwards convinced him that there was nothing wrong with it for him. When he played 11…Qe7+ he had missed White’s 12.Bb5+ and wild (indeed) complications began. Initially Black’s position looked under threat but with 21…Qe4 Black took over the initiative. But White crawled back into the game and a manoeuvring phase ended in a drawish position. At this point, however, Aronian had little time left and lost control. First he spurned a repetition of moves and next he put his queen en prise.
After he’d also won the rapid game, Svidler suppressed his happiness with the words ‘Today Levon had one of those days that I normally have’. Aronian’s opening turned out badly when he played 12…Re8, where moves like 12…Be6 or 12…Bd7 were called for, and was punished by 13.Nb5. Still, Svidler didn’t continue in the most powerful manner. To his mind, if he had gone 15.Qd2 Bf5 16.Rfe1, the game ‘wouldn’t have lasted twenty moves’. Now Aronian could fight back and with 18…Be4 19.Rf2 Rxf2 20.Kxf2 Qh4+ 21.Kg1 Qg4 22.Qg3 Qxg3 he would have had the worst behind him. Now White was soon in the driver’s seat again and hauled in the point without too many problems.

Jan Smeets and Vasily Ivanchuk went down a long line of Caro-Kann theory in their blindfold game. Today was Ivanchuk’s birthday (he turned 41), but Smeets had obviously no wish to present any gifts and although Black was slightly better in the endgame that appeared on the board, the Dutchman confidently secured the draw. At the very end of the game he even came close to a win on time when Ivanchuk had lost track of his bishop, but after a series of tentative mouse clicks the Ukrainian managed to trace it (if the players made an ‘impossible’ move the note ‘illegal move’ appears on their screen; there are no sanctions, however, so they can keep searching for a piece or pawn as long as you want, provided you have enough time).
In the rapid game, a Four Knights’ Opening, Smeets at first didn’t have any real problems either. But an ill-advised queen excursion on the queenside, while White was advancing menacingly on the kingside cost him dearly. His kingside proved much more vulnerable than it had appeared at first sight and within a few moves he had to resign.

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Sixème ronde ce vendredi du tournoi d'échecs Melody Amber 2010 qui se tient au Palais de la Méditerranée à Nice du 13 au 25 mars.

L'Ukrainien Ivanchuk mène avec 7,5 points sur 10. Pour ses 41 ans, nous avons décidé de lui offrir un tube planétaire du groupe Gossip. Bon anniversaire, Chucky !

Résumé de la ronde 5 : Belle opération hier pour Vassily Ivanchuk qui s'impose 1,5-0,5 face au GMI néerlandais Jan Smeets. De son côté, le Norvégien Magnus Carlsen n'aura pu qu'annuler 1-1 face à Karjakin. Du coup, Ivanchuk passe en tête du tournoi le jour de son anniversaire.

After winning 2-0 one more time, today against Smeets, Carlsen joined Vasily Ivanchuk in the lead in Nice. The Ukrainian on his turn defeated Aronian 1.5-0.5, while Kramnik went down 2-0 against Gelfand.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 4

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Round 4 report

Magnus Carlsen catches up with Vasily Ivanchuk after third 2-0 wipe-out
After four rounds of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Magnus Carlsen and Vasily Ivanchuk are tied for first in the overall standings with 6 points from 8 games. The Ukrainian grandmaster defeated last year’s winner Levon Aronian 1½-½. Magnus Carlsen continued his remarkable comeback after he lost 2-0 to Ivanchuk in Round 1. The world’s number one defeated Jan Smeets 2-0, raising his number of consecutive wins to six. Manifold Amber winner Vladimir Kramnik suffered a highly atypical 2-0 defeat at the hands of Boris Gelfand. Perhaps typical for the fighting spirit of the round was the fact that 5 out the 6 rapid games were won by black.
Tomorrow, March 17, is a rest day. Play is resumed Thursday March 18 with Round 5.

Magnus Carlsen was understandably ambitious to continue his winning streak in his blindfold game against bottom-seed Jan Smeets. Despite a modest opening set-up (that started with 1.g3) he indeed got an edge, but there was no reason for Black to despair yet. Afterwards Carlsen commented that had Smeets just stayed put, instead of becoming active with 31…Rc3, he didn’t see how he could have made progress. Smeets’ action was based on a miscalculation. After 32…Rxc4 the only reply he had counted on was 33.Rd6+, but instead Carlsen dealt a killer blow with 33.Bg5. Three moves later Black resigned, raising Carlsen’s winning streak to five.
In the rapid game the Norwegian also scored his sixth consecutive win, but this time he really had to squeeze water from a stone. After the opening he was slightly worse, but he kept looking for his chances, collecting one minimal asset after the other. On move 33 there was a minuscule victory when he exchanged his knight for a bishop and with 38…g5 he made a brave winning attempt, as he let the white c-pawn on the board. Objectively speaking all his tries would have been in vain had Smeets kept his cool, but low and time and feeling the pressure the Dutchman finally succumbed. As late as move 54 he still could have made a draw with 54.Nh2 as this saves an essential tempo compared to the move he played, 54.Nf2.

The blindfold game between tournament leader Vasily Ivanchuk and defending champion Levon Aronian suddenly ended when the board was still full of pawns and pieces when on move 25 White offered a draw. In a slightly unorthodox Ruy Lopez it seemed that Black had obtained a good game, but Aronian wasn’t so sure. When he was asked why he had accepted the draw, he simply replied: ‘Because I am worse.’ And he elaborated that his pieces might look nice and active, but that White can slowly continue h3, Rd1 and c4, and on top of that he didn’t like the g5-h4 pawn-structure on the kingside either.
In the rapid game Ivanchuk maintained the (shared) lead with a fine win with the black pieces. A speculative piece sacrifice by Aronian (19.Nxe6) for three pawns and the initiative failed to impress and although the game remained complicated Ivanchuk hauled in the point with determined and precise play.

In the blindfold game between Peter Svidler and Sergey Karjakin a tense Sicilian with chances for both sides saw an untimely and unfortunate end when on move 42, White put a knight en prise. Following his resignation yesterday against Carlsen when there was still everything to play for, this was a new blow for the Russian grandmaster.
Svidler found some consolation in a well-played rapid game that finally brought him a win again. In his beloved Grünfeld Defence he believed that his 12…Rd8 was a safe road to equality, but it required accurate play. Instead of 17…g5 he could also have played 17…c4, but he felt more attracted to the push of the g-pawn. Karjakin felt optimistic about his chances when he won a pawn, but in fact this materialistic decision spelled disaster, as very soon the black pieces assembled for a strong attack. One nice line that didn’t appear on the board was 24.Bf2 (in the game 24.Bd7 was played) 24…Nxf3 25.Bg3 Qxg3! 26.hxg3 Rh6+ 27.Kg2 Rh2 mate. The end of the game was less drastic, but nevertheless there was no escaping for White.

Boris Gelfand didn’t hide his contentment after he had won his blindfold game against Vladimir Kramnik. ‘It’s always nice to win against such a great player’, he almost humbly commented. The Israeli grandmaster more or less blamed Black’s defeat on the opening system he had chosen, the Bg4-system that is mainly popular among some Azeri players. One of the ideas of the black approach is the exchange sacrifice on e3 that also happened in this game. Gelfand wasn’t convinced of its correctness and suggested Black should have looked for something else at that point. He pointed out the sad offside position of the black knight on c7 in particular and quoted Tarrasch who said that if one piece doesn’t take part in the play there’s something wrong with the entire position. Gelfand was satisfied with his plan Bd1 and Ne2 which allowed him to cement his advantage and slowly but surely win the game.
In the rapid game Kramnik was perhaps too cautious in his approach, certainly if he had clear plans to level the score, and this seriously backfired. Playing actively Gelfand freely advanced his pawns and directed his pieces to active positions. Objectively speaking, White was not yet in trouble, but Black’s position was much more pleasant and easy to play. Gradually the black pressure built up and following a blunder, 31.Rc2, Kramnik soon had to throw in the towel. An impressive achievement by Gelfand.

Ruslan Ponomariov seemed determined to blow up Vugar Gashimov’s Benoni Defence in their blindfold game and judging by the comments of the kibitzing grandmasters in the hospitality lounge he was soon on his way to realize that objective. But then the Benoni is a resilient customer and although his position looked highly suspect, Gashimov seemed to have no wish to surrender without a fight. He stayed afoot in the complications and he could have even taken over the initiative if instead of 31…Rh8+ he had gone 31…Rxf4 32.Rxf4 Qh6+. But soon he was in the driver’s seat anyway when White first missed the winning continuations 32.Kg2 and next 32.Kg1. Instead the players ended up in a rook ending with one pawn (white) against two. This they played on for many more moves until on move 68 the computer indicated a threefold repetition and the game was drawn.
The rapid game was a protracted battle in which the balance was not really disturbed for a long time. Nevertheless, Gashimov managed to upset the equilibrium in the endgame and score his second win in the tournament.

Alexander Grischuk was clearly satisfied after his blindfold win against Leinier Dominguez and he had every reason to. In a Sicilian Najdorf that his opponent had clearly prepared (Dominguez blitzed out his first 18 moves), the Russian champion was in a creative mood and managed to create attacking chances with pointed play. Probably the key moment of the game was the point where White played 23.Qh5, a move that Black had missed and that netted White the important f7 pawn. Grischuk kept playing strong and incisive chess and after 63 moves he had earned a well-deserved point.
The rapid game also saw a Najdorf, but (not surprisingly) a different line. Dominguez’ troubles started when early on in the opening he played his knight to d5 and shortly afterwards had to withdraw it to c3 again, losing two precious tempi. Grischuk obtained a comfortable game and it was impressive to see how he gradually exploited his advantage to score his second win of the day.

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Le tournoi d'échecs Melody Amber 2010 se tient au Palais de la Méditerranée à Nice du 13 au 25 mars.

Spécificité de cet événement échiquéen majeur, les parties se jouent d'une part à l'aveugle (25 minutes + 20s/coup) et d'autre part en cadence rapide (25 minutes + 10s/coup).

Le tournoi d'échecs Melody Amber 2010 se tient au Palais de la Méditerranée à Nice du 13 au 25 mars.

Spécificité de cet événement échiquéen majeur, les parties se jouent d'une part à l'aveugle (25 minutes + 20s/coup) et d'autre part en cadence rapide (25 minutes + 10s/coup).

Le tournoi d'échecs Melody Amber 2010 se tient au Palais de la Méditerranée à Nice du 13 au 25 mars.

Spécificité de cet événement échiquéen majeur, les parties se jouent d'une part à l'aveugle (25 minutes + 20s/coup) et d'autre part en cadence rapide (25 minutes + 10s/coup).

After beating Sergey Karjakin 1.5-0.5, Vasily Ivanchuk leads the combined standings of the Amber tournament with a score of 4.5/6. Magnus Carlsen again won 2-0, this time against Peter Svidler, who resigned in a probably drawn position in the blindfold game.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 3

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Round 3 report

Vasily Ivanchuk in sole lead
Magnus Carlsen back in business with two more wins
After three rounds of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk is in the sole lead in the overall standings with 4½ points from 6 games. The Ukrainian grandmaster, the only GM to play in all 19 Amber tournaments, defeated Sergey Karjakin 1½-½. Defending champion Levon Aronian scored his first full points at the cost of Jan Smeets. Magnus Carlsen also won 2-0, the victim being Peter Svidler. Despite his dramatic start, the Norwegian is now only half a point behind the leading Ivanchuk. And he optimistically faces the future: ‘I am hoping for two more tomorrow.’

Vasily Ivanchuk immersed in thought at the start of his blindfold game against Sergey Karjakin. Following a 1½-½ win over his former compatriot the Ukrainian grandmaster is in the sole lead.

Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand played a blindfold game that at first sight may have looked lively and entertaining for the spectators. However, they were following a theoretical line and after the game Grischuk summed up his assessment of what had happened as ‘very boring’. White had a small advantage in the ending that appeared on the board, but it never took on serious proportions and the games petered out to a draw. For Gelfand the line evoked old memories: ‘The last time I played this line was in 1988 in Vilnius. Against Goldin at the Soviet Young Masters.’ Certainly an interesting footnote to this game.
The rapid game was anything but boring. Playing adventurously Gelfand sacrificed two pawns to develop an attack against the black king and was awarded for his courage with a winning position. But just when everyone expected Grischuk to resign soon, Gelfand faltered and failed to deal the final blow. With 32.Bh7+ he let Black back into the game, where he could have decided the issue with 32.axb5 cxb5 33.Nd5 exd6 34.Bxd5+. In raging time-trouble for both, Gelfand again got a winning position, and might just as well have lost if Black had found 42…Kh6 instead of 42…Kg6, but in the end it was a draw and that was a result that definitely felt deeply unsatisfactory for Gelfand.

When Leinier Dominguez arrived at the board for his blindfold game against Ruslan Ponomariov, the Ukrainian grandmaster already sat waiting impatiently. As he laughingly told the arbiter: ‘I am nervous, let’s start!’ Once he was allowed to start the game, Ponomariov went for 4…g6 against the Ruy Lopez, a set-up that is sometimes considered slightly suspect, but mostly leads to satisfactory play for Black. Dominguez certainly obtained an edge, but with precise and active play Ponomariov comfortably equalized and once they reached a rook endgame with three pawns on each side, there were few reasons left not to draw the game.
The blindfold game presented Ponomariov with a problem that every grandmaster faces from time to time: he had to play against an opening variation that he also has played himself. A tense struggle developed in which both sides were fighting for their chances, and although those of White looked slightly more promising in the middlegame, the game ended in a draw when most pieces and pawns had left the board on move 47.

The blindfold game between Vugar Gashimov and Vladimir Kramnik saw the Russian grandmaster play another Pirc. However, this time it didn’t bring him much pleasure, as his mix of set-ups landed him in a risky position. Things looked threatening for Kramnik, especially when on move 26 Gashimov got a golden opportunity. With 26.Rxd6 he could have been a healthy pawn up, as 26…Ne8 is answered by 27.Rxh6, but instead of all this the Azeri grandmaster played 26.Nxd6 and a few moves later he agreed on a draw.
In the rapid game Kramnik emphatically wanted to be at the wheel from the word go. With gritty play he put his opponent under pressure and obtained a sizable advantage. But Gashimov had no wish to knuckle under and fought back with determination and his 37…Bg5 came as a rude awaking for Kramnik. Now suddenly the win was far off, objectively speaking no longer there, and a messy phase followed in which White kept looking for a win. And found it, because Gashimov didn’t grab his chances. The final mistake came on move 51, when the Azeri grandmaster played the right idea in the wrong order. Had he gone 51…Qf1+ 52.Kh2 Ne1, White would have had to resign himself to a draw. When he played 51…Ne1 immediately, Kramnik had 52.Qb5 and now 52…Nf3 doesn’t work because of 53.Qf8 mate.

The blindfold game between Peter Svidler and Magnus Carlsen started with a comic prologue when, once they were seated behind their laptops, the Norwegian discovered much to his dismay that he wasn’t White is this game, as he had believed, but Black. The comedy of errors was continued in the game and even after the Russian had resigned, when the spectators in the hospitality lounge switched on some engines. In the game Carlsen invited Svidler to play a full-fledged Dragon, but instead White opted for a more quiet approach. For some time there was nothing new under the sun until White played a new move, 19.Qf4 (19.Qe2 had been seen). The comedy of errors came back to life on move 20, when Svidler suddenly had second thoughts about the intended 20.Rxd7 because of 20…Qc6 21.Rxb7 Rxf4 22.Bd5 and now 22…Qf6 wins for Black. However, both players had missed 22.Rb6 with an edge for White. On move, 22 Svidler refrained from 22.Qh3 because he didn’t like 22…Nf4, but after the move he played, 22.Qe1, he was unpleasantly surprised by 22…Bxg2. Now Black developed a raging attack, but was it was deadly as Svidler acknowledged when, after 25…Nd4, he resigned? Indeed it would have been if Black had played 24…Nh4+ (instead of 24…Nf4+). But now things were different, as in the final position the engines immediately showed the amazing 26.Nd7!, attacking the rook on f8, and there is no immediate win and the position looks drawish.
At that point the players had already left for their rooms, Carlsen happily laughing off the fact that he had prepared for the wrong colour: ‘In any case it seems to be clear that in the blindfold I do better when I play the black pieces.’ Yes, but this time he needed a helping hand from his opponent. In his room he obviously also found 26.Nd7, but to his mind Black could nevertheless have kept on playing for a win with 26…Nh3+ 27.Kg2 Qc6+ 28.Bd5 Qxd7 29.Rxd4 e6.
The rapid game saw a rare sideline of the Qb3 Grünfeld, which, according to Carlsen, both players were not too familiar with. He himself seemed to suffer the least from this relative ignorance as he obtained a pleasant position. ‘And then it just got better and better’, he summed up the game. One moment he pointed out to illustrate the strength of his position was the moment when he played 22.Nd3, planning g5, pushing away the knight on d5 with e4, and then playing Nf4 threatening Nxg6 mate. To prevent such plans Svidler played 22…g5 himself, but his troubles remained and after 34 moves he had had enough and resigned.

When Sergey Karjakin, who is now playing for Russia, sat down to play his former compatriot Vasily Ivanchuk there was little doubt that a fierce clash would follow. In the blindfold game Ivanchuk gradually managed to took over the initiative and when he pushed 19…c4! it was clear that Karjakin faced a difficult defence. The final mistake White made on move 32, when playing his bishop to a3, he allowed Black to invade his position and force his surrender.
In the blindfold game Ivanchuk got promising play and tried various ways to improve the position of his pieces. But Karjakin defended tenaciously and when his opponent failed to make any headway a draw was the result after 44 moves.

Jan Smeets was happy with the outcome of the opening of his blindfold game against Levon Aronian. After all he was allowed to play the improvement he had suggested after his game against Karjakin in Round 2, 17.Be4 instead of 17.Ne4. White got an edge, but failed to exploit it. His first inaccuracy was 24.Rac1 where 24.a4 was called for, but the real mistake was 26.Bxd8?, an exchange that was prompted by his fear that Black’s knight would come to e6 and White’s bishop on f6 would end up out of play. Now Smeets suddenly found himself in an unpleasant rook endgame, which Aronian first converted in a winning pawn endgame and then into a winning queen endgame.
The rapid game was a tumultuous affair that started out with an opening that was popular at the start of the 20th century (the rather unusual 4…Nc6 followed by 5.e4). Aronian was pleased with his position but commented afterwards that he should have played 13.Qa4+ instead of 13.Bxf4, as he had underestimated 15…Qd7. Further on he had planned the imaginative 19.Kf1 until he saw 19…0-0 20.Rd6 Bc4!. Black’s troubles started with 24…Qh1, where he could have secured a level position with 24…Qxf2+ 25.Kf2 Ne4+ 26.Kg2 Nxd6 27.Bxa7. His final mistake was 25…Qh5, when he should have gone 25…Qxh6 26.Nd5 Qh4. Now his king was too vulnerable and as Smeets was also in time-trouble it didn’t come as a surprise that Aronian quickly hauled in the point.

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Round 1 saw Vassily Ivanchuk defeat World Number One Magnus Carlsen 2-0. Ruslan Ponomariov beat Boris Gelfand by the same score. All the blindfold games were decisive.

Round 2 saw Magnus Carlsen return to 50% with a 2-0 win against Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov drew both their games against Svidler and Grischuk respectively which leaves them on 3/4. Svidler and Kramnik are half a point behind this.

Round 3. Magnus Carlsen won 2-0 for a second day in a row, this time against Peter Svidler. Vassily Ivanchuk retains the over-all lead with 4.5/6 and also leads the blindfold competition. Kramnik leads the rapid with 2.5/3.

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Magnus Carlsen today recovered completely from his bad start in Nice. The Norwegian defeated Levon Aronian, the winner in 2008 and 2009, in both the blindfold and the rapid game. Ukrainians Ivanchuk and Ponomariov lead the combined standings after two rounds.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 2

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Round 2 report

Carlsen bounces back with 2-0 win over defending champion Aronian
After two rounds of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov are in the lead in the overall standings with 3 points from 4 games, followed at half a point’s distance by Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler. Top-seed Magnus Carlsen recovered from his poor start with a 2-0 win over defending Amber champion Levon Aronian. The Norwegian admitted that he had been upset about his 2-0 loss on the first day (particularly the rapid game, where he believed he was in no danger of losing), but said that he certainly had not despaired: ‘With twenty rounds to go there is always time to recover.’ The first two of those twenty rounds were certainly encouraging for him.

Magnus Carlsen fared excellently in Round 2 with two wins over Levon Aronian. After the round the Norwegian was happy to comment on his blindfold game for the tournament website.

Just like last year the second round of the Amber tournament clashed with the final stage of Paris-Nice, the 8-stage cycling race that started in Paris (you had guessed that much) a week ago. For many hours the Promenade des Anglais was crowded with people waiting for the denouement of the 68th edition of this legendary race and we can tell you that quite a number of chess fans mingled among these spectators. But after, early in the afternoon, Alberto Contador had won his second Paris-Nice, three years after his first victory, they could concentrate on chess again. Right they were. After the drama in Round 1 there was every reason to look forward to the developments in Round 2.

The final stage of the cycling course Paris-Nice finished today, about two hundred metres from the venue and about two minutes after the second round started | Photo Nadja Wittmann

Alberto Contador after winning the final stage of Paris-Nice | Photo Nadja Wittmann

Magnus Carlsen was obviously eager to fight back after yesterday’s dramatic 2-0 loss, but with Levon Aronian as opponent this was easier said than done. Moreover the Norwegian had the black pieces in the blindfold game and one would think that his first concern should be not to lose again. Already before the tournament Carlsen had prepared the King’s Indian and his ambition to steer for a highly complicated struggle worked out beyond expectation. To begin with he got the chance to implement an idea he had seen in a game Eljanov-Radjabov; a quick counter-push on the queenside to undermine White’s centre followed by a piece sacrifice (20…Nxd5) to break up that same centre. The tactical complications that ensued demanded a lot from both players and it was soon clear that Carlsen felt more at ease. Aronian missed the push 22…e4, a seemingly contradictory move that seems to contribute little to Black’s wish to open up lines and files, but which in fact is the right move to keep his initiative going. White could still have put up some resistance with 25.Bg5 (instead of 25.Nxf2), but Aronian had also missed 25…Qh4, which in case of 26.Be1 is followed by the deadly 26…Be5. Three moves later Aronian threw the towel. Carlsen found it easy to smile again when a couple of minutes later he spoke to the press.
Aronian’s worries were compounded when he also lost the rapid game. And perhaps this loss hurt even more as it was completely unnecessary. From a Four Knights’ Defence the players ended up in a totally drawish rook endgame. Probably the main factor that kept the game going was that neither of the players were willing to offer a draw. And as they plodded on Aronian got himself into trouble. A first moment where he was inaccurate was when he played 42…Ra2, when he could have thwarted all White’s further tries with 42…g5. He further pleased Carlsen with 50…h5 when he should have played 50…Kh7. Now his position became very unpleasant, and when he missed a last chance to stir up complications with 59…d5 he was inexorably counted out.

Blindfold: Carlsen beats Aronian with Black in a spectacular King's Indian

Jan Smeets had no trouble acknowledging that he had been completely lost in his blindfold game against Sergey Karjakin, as he was happy enough with the half point that he had saved miraculously. In a Ruy Lopez with 3…Nge7 and 4…g6, White drifted into trouble when he played his knight to e4 on move 17 (better 17.Be4) and followed this up with 20.Nf6+. Things quickly went from bad to worse and with 35…Kf8 Black could have forced his resignation. But even the pawn ending that Karjakin allowed his opponent, was lost for Black if only he had found 46…h5. Now the Dutch grandmaster could save the draw, even if, as usually, he was very short of time for the greater part of the game.
The blindfold game was another eventful affair and again the surprising outcome was a draw. In a Ruy Lopez Smeets lost his c-pawn after a heavy manoeuvring phase. Things looked bleak, but it wasn’t too easy for White to make further progress and when Karjakin made the move Smeets had been waiting and hoping for (58.h4), the vulnerability of his king suddenly became a source of sorrow. In fact, White would have been totally lost had Smeets played 59…Qg1. But being short of time (just like Karjakin) he failed to see this opportunity and the game ended in a repetition of moves. Ironically, Smeets could still play Qg1 in the final position, but he didn’t complain that the threefold repetition had ‘only’ brought him a draw.

Dutchman Jan Smeets managed to draw twice with Sergey Karjakin

The blindfold game between Vasily Ivanchuk and Peter Svidler not surprisingly saw a Grünfeld Defence, an opening in which the Russian is one of today’s greatest specialists. Afterwards he called the opening phase of ‘mild theoretical importance’, as Ivanchuk deviated on move 11 from an earlier game Gelfand-Svidler. In that game White played 11.Be2, Ivanchuk preferred to first play 11.Nf3. Almost forced the players ended up in an ending that Svidler had (of course) looked at before and although Black’s play is not entirely carefree he felt that it should be a draw objectively speaking. As a possible improvement for White he indicated 21.Bc6, the way it went now the point was quickly shared.
In the blindfold game Svidler felt he had missed a good chance when he played 13.Qd2 instead of 13.Qc1. ‘The idea is essentially the same, but it would have saved me a tempo in almost any variation’, as he explained afterwards. He even got into slight problems when Black played 22…Qe7, effectively stopping Ng5, the move White had hoped to make. In the final phase of the game the Russian had to be careful not to lose any material, but when he managed this task the game was drawn.

Boris Gelfand recovered from his poor performance in the first round with a win in the blindfold game against Vugar Gashimov. Nevertheless he called it ‘a stupid game’, as he had spoiled an excellent opening position to end up in a problematic situation. The last trick he wanted to try in order to extricate himself from this situation was 20.Nxd5. Now he was lucky as Gashimov could have played 22…Qb4 and White might as well resign. After 22…Qc7, White’s problems were not over yet, but when Black blundered with 23…Qxc4?, he suddenly was presented with a winning position. For the rest of the game Gelfand kept his eyes on the ball and converted his advantage without further problems.
The blindfold game started slowly. White got a slight edge but nothing for Black to get worried about. The game turned around when Gelfand opened the position and Gashimov snatched a pawn, that his opponent called ‘poisoned’. Soon White was totally lost, but the game was far from over yet. Gelfand spoiled his advantage and in the end he had to win an opposite-coloured bishop ending in a study-like manner (although the Israeli grandmaster was the first to say that he was not sure if this win was waterproof). Gelfand was certainly pleased with his two wins, but he didn’t forget how he obtained them: ‘Two points with bad play’.

The blindfold game between Vladimir Kramnik and Leinier Dominguez was a fascinating fight. Obviously Kramnik emphatically played for a win, but Dominguez fought back in his customary razor-sharp style. The game was decided when in a highly complicated position the Cuban grandmaster continued 36…Kh7 where his only chance was 36…Bf8. With the text-move he invited a forced mate and a couple of moves before this mate would become reality, Dominguez resigned.
In the blindfold game Kramnik played the Pirc Defence, the opening with which he surprised (and beat) Smeets in the recent Corus tournament. Again it looked as if this rather offbeat opening would give him easy and pleasant play, particularly after he bagged a point. But White had compensation for his material deficit and although Kramnik remained better for the rest of the game, Dominguez hung in tenaciously and was rewarded with a draw after 88 moves.

Deep concentration: Leinier Dominguez and Vladimir Kramnik

The blindfold game between Ruslan Ponomariov and Alexander Grischuk saw a Catalan Opening, similar to a game Ponomariov had played with colours reversed against Gelfand in the final of the recent World Cup. Instead of 10…Bb7, as Ponomariov had played, Grischuk went 10…Ba6. White obtained the bishop pair, but with a symmetrical pawn-structure it was difficult to exploit that slight advantage. Both players invested a lot of time as there were always tactics to be considered with opposing rooks on the c-file, but when Grischuk offered the opportunity to repeat moves and agree to a draw, Ponomariov saw no good reason to play on.
At the end of the rapid game Ponomariov walked into the hospitality lounge and wondered what people had thought of his rapid game. He himself wasn’t too happy as he had hoped to play something active, but somehow his Grünfeld ended up in a static position in which he had to suffer for a draw. When on move 32 the queens left the board, Grischuk offered that draw and Ponomariov didn’t have to think long before he accepted.

Report & photos © official website, more here

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“The 40-year old Ukrainian has a reputation of being an unpredictable genius, capable of producing absolutely brlliant games, as well as amateur-like losses from time to time,” Magnus Carlsen wrote on his blog yesterday. Today, at the Amber tournament in Nice, he met with a Chuky in excellent shape, and lost 2-0.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 1

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Round 1 report

First day sensation: top-seed Carlsen loses 2-0 to ‘Mr Amber’
Last night the opening ceremony of the 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament took place at the Chateau de Cremat, a stylish wine chateau perched on a hill overlooking Nice at a half and hour’s drive from the Palais de la Mediterranée, the five-star luxury hotel on the Promenade des Anglais where the grandmasters are staying and playing. The evening started with a degustation of various wines of the house and then the guests of the Van Oosterom family and the players sat down for a delicious dinner. In the opening speech there was special attention for the totally unique place that the Amber tournament occupies in chess history. There have been chess benefactors who sponsored one tournament, two or even three. But no one ever came even close to the astounding 19th edition that the Amber tournament reaches this year.

There were also references to Steely Dan’s Hey Nineteen, Joe Jackson’s Nineteen Forever and Chanel 19 (by some strange coincidence Coco Chanel was presented the famous Chanel logo – two C’s elegantly locked together – by the owner of the Chateau de Cremat about a century ago!) and of course the twelve grandmasters were welcomed, with a special mention for Vasily Ivanchuk, ‘Mr Amber’, who participated in all 19 tournaments. Once the drawing of lots had taken place, we could start to think about the pairings for the first round and the overall chances of the participants. Who is the top-favourite for first place? Vladimir Kramnik, who won a record of six Amber tournaments? Levon Aronian, who won the last two editions? Or Magnus Carlsen, the world’s number one, who very appropriately celebrated his 19th birthday a couple of months ago? In any case the opening round didn’t go as they may have hoped. Not at all.

Today at 14.30 the first round started of a blindfold and rapid spectacle that will keep us entertained for the coming fortnight (the 11th and last round is on March 25). As always the players started with two blindfold sessions (in each of which six GMs played) followed by two rapid sessions and immediately there were some intriguing pairings.

When Ruslan Ponomariov saw at the drawing of lots that he had to play Boris Gelfand in the first round, he wondered aloud if he had to play Gelfand for the rest of his life. What he meant to say was that this was his first official competition since the dramatic final Gelfand and he played in the World Cup last December, a lengthy final that was only decided in the blitz games. Ponomariov’s second remark was that he wanted to have his revenge for that lost final. The only problem was that the first game was a blindfold game and his experience in that discipline was almost zero. In fact he had asked to play a training game on the day of his arrival in Nice. To avoid any complications he decided to play fast and to remain fully concentrated, not even considering the option of going to the toilet if needed. The approach worked well, as with the help of Gelfand his opening was a great success and after 15.Ng5 he felt that he was spoiled for choice when looking for a way to exploit his advantage. The game was practically decided when Ponomariov captured Black’s h-pawn. The rest was simple and he converted without any problems. After the game he was greatly relieved that this game for which he had been so nervous had gone so well. ‘Perhaps it turns out that I am not so bad at blindfold chess.’ He also shared his impression of playing chess on a screen that only shows an empty chess board: ‘It’s just like a computer game!’
Ponomariov completed his ‘revenge’ (to avoid any misunderstanding, he was the first to point out that, of course, these two games cannot be compared to the World Cup final) in the rapid game. Spoiling for a fight he came up with an interesting plan in the Grünfeld, sacrificing an exchange for promising play. He indeed got wonderful compensation when Gelfand played 14.f3? where he should have tried 14.Qe3. Suddenly it was a delight to sit behind the black pieces and Ponomariov fully enjoyed the next phase. White still managed to get into an ending with opposite-coloured bishops, but the two extra black pawns quickly carried the day.

Russian champion Alexander Grischuk had his work cut out for him when he immediately had to play Vladimir Kramnik. There could be no misunderstanding about Kramnik’s intentions as he played almost all his moves instantly. ‘He wanted to trick me’, smiled Grischuk after the game. Playing with white he had to leave the initiative to Black, but to his mind Kramnik went too far in his winning attempt. But even if Black ended up in a difficult position, the situation was still far from lost and things only got hopeless when he reverted to the desperate 38…Nxg4, where it seemed that Black could have stayed in the game with 38…Nf3. Now things were easy for Grischuk and the handful of seconds he still had on the clock proved enough to win an important scalp.
Kramnik struck back in the rapid game. After a strongly played opening he obtained a clear advantage and looking back he concluded that Black’s position was difficult after 34.Rd4. But Kramnik praised his opponent for his inventive defence in the next phase and expressed his doubts whether the position was really winning for White (‘That has to be checked with the computer’). However, Grischuk was once again low on time and after 40…Nc3 (he should have played 40…Nb6) Black certainly was lost. The rest wasn’t difficult anymore and Kramnik wrapped up fairly effortlessly.

The encounter between debutants Dominguez and Gashimov took a relatively quiet course, although the grandmaster from Azerbaijan offered to play a sharp Benoni, an invitation that was quietly turned down with Rodriguez. They ended up in a rook endgame that was slightly better for Black, but it was his lavish use of time that did Dominguez in. With more than ten minutes less on the clock he committed a few inaccuracies and when Gashimov stormed down the board with two passed pawns it was clear that the fight was over. After the game Gashimov was congratulated on his blindfold debut and confessed that he had not especially prepared for this unusual type of chess. ‘I played one training game two days ago against Ruslan (Ponomariov), this was my second game.’
The rapid game was a variation of the Italian Game ‘in which many games have been played’, as the database experts call it these days. The key question was if the knight that Gashimov managed to post on e7, was an asset or a weakness. Frantically he calculated variations, considering sacrifices here and there, but there was nothing that worked. In the meantime, Dominguez just stayed put and maintained his position. After some further manoeuvring it was clear that this balance was not going to be upset and a draw was agreed.

Magnus Carlsen openend his blindfold game against Vasily Ivanchuk with 1.a3, aiming for an open battle, unburdened by theory and steering clear of any possible preparation of his opponent. The plan wasn’t a success, even if he managed to win a pawn, but Black got such good compensation that the Norwegian top-seed must have regretted his unorthodox approach. He kept looking for his chances, but Ivanchuk remained fully concentrated and his advantage was such that at some point the white position should collapse. An oversight on move 31 sped up the end of the game and floored another top-favourite.
In the rapid game Carlsen tried to fight back with the Poisoned Pawn of the Najdorf Defence. Afterwards Ivanchuk felt that he again had had sufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn, but was reluctant to give a concrete assessment of the game as it had been so ‘very complicated’. One move he criticized was 25…Kf7, which allowed him to increase the pressure. They ended up in a rook endgame of three pawns versus two, which Black failed to defend, leading to a sensational 2-0 defeat of the top-seed.

‘It’s been a while, clearly’, Peter Svidler commented after he had beaten Jan Smeets in his first Amber blindfold game in three years. Svidler had an edge from the opening, but Smeets should have been able to hold a draw. Things got funny when Svidler, played his 39th move thinking Black’s bishop was on e6 (it was on d7). That it was not, he found out when Black played 39…Ne6+ and picked up the pawn on g5. This was not a problem in itself as now White can go 40.Nd5+ and pick up the b6 pawn, but not knowing where the black bishop was, Svidler now reasoned that it was on c6, which ‘prevented’ this knight jump. Smeets on his part got confused by White’s 44.Bxg6 and panicked with 45…Be6 when 45…Kg5 was still a draw. Well, in fact he would have even won, as (still thinking the black bishop was on c6) Svidler had planned to answer 45…Kg5 with 46.Be4 Kxh6 47.Bc6, thinking he would capture a bishop but in fact giving one away. After this comedy of errors had ended, Smeets was left with a lost position and had to resign soon.
The rapid game ended in a draw. In a classical Ruy Lopez Black got good play and when he started piling up on White’s a pawn, Smeets decided that instead of defending a pawn that will drop off anyway at some point, he better hand it over immediately for some activity. This turned out to be an excellent exchange and at a certain point his compensation even seemed to turn into more. But his advantage got never concrete and both players could live with the draw that materialized.

Sergey Karjakin obtained a winning position in the blindfold game when in a sharp opening tussle Levon Aronian committed a serious error. Instead of 19…Bg5?, the Armenian grandmaster should have played 19…Bh4 or 19…Rb4. Things looked bleak for Aronian, but then he didn’t win himself a reputation for ‘slow-motion’ swindling for nothing last year. And this time, too, he almost escaped when Karjakin allowed a repetition of moves. But Aronian was going for the whole hog and thinking he was winning he didn’t repeat moves, but played 36…Nxc3, which turned out to be a losing move.
In the rapid game Levon Aronian showed a different face and put his opponent under pressure right from the opening. Perhaps this permanent pressure also explained the mistake Karjakin made at the end of the game. Instead of hanging on in a dubious ending he blundered and even got mated.

Report & photos © official website, more here

Videos

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Blindfold | Rapid, via TWIC

Tomorrow the first round of the 2010 Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament will be played, and we have a second preview video to get you warmed up. The world’s number one, Magnus Carlsen, is there. Vladimir Kramnik, who won many times, is there. Levon Aronian, who won the last two editions, is there. Who do you think will win?

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.

Preview video by Macauley Peterson

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. These three players are clearly the big favourites, but what about Alexander Grischuk, who replaced Alexander Morozevich less than a week ago? Or the ever unpredictable Vasily Ivanchuk? Or Ruslan Ponomariov, who is back among the world’s elite?

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.

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!

Link

• Official website

Sabato 13  14.30 hrs - Round 1
Domenica 14  14.30 hrs - Round 2
Lunedi 15 14.30 hrs - Round 3
Martedi 16 14.30 hrs - Round 4

Mercoledi  17  Riposo

Giovedì 18 14.30 hrs - Round 5
Venerdì 19 14.30 hrs - Round 6
Sabato 20 14.30 hrs - Round 7
Domenica 21 14.30 hrs - Round 8

Lunedì 22  Riposo

Martedi 23 14.30 hrs - Round 9
Mercoledì 24 14.30 hrs - Round 10
Giovedì 25 12.30 hrs - Round 11

1.  Aronian    14    
2.  Anand      13½
    Kramnik    13½
4.  Carlsen    13    
5.  Morozevich 11    
6.  Karjakin   10½
    Topalov    10½
8.  Kamsky     10    
    Leko       10    
10. Ivanchuk   9½
11. Radjabov   9    
12. Wang Yue   7½

1.  Aronian    7    
    Carlsen    7    
    Kramnik    7    
4.  Anand      6½
    Morozevich 6½
6.  Leko       5½
    Topalov    5½
8.  Ivanchuk   5    
    Radjabov   5    
10. Karjakin   4½
11. Wang Yue   3½
12. Kamsky     3

1.  Anand      7    
    Aronian    7    
    Kamsky     7    
4.  Kramnik    6½
5.  Carlsen    6    
    Karjakin   6    
7.  Topalov    5    
8.  Ivanchuk   4½
    Leko       4½
    Morozevich 4½
11. Radjabov   4    
    Wang Yue   4

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.
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.

Magnus Carlsen (2813) (NOR) brVladimir Kramnik (2790) (RUS) brLevon Aronian (2782) (ARM) brAlexander Grischuk (2756) (RUS) brPeter Svidler (2750) (RUS) brBoris Gelfand (2750) (ISR) brVasily Ivanchuk (2748) (UKR) brVugar Gashimov (2740) (AZE) brRuslan Ponomariov (2737) (UKR) brSergey Karjakin (2725) (RUS) brLeinier Dominguez (2713) (CUB) brJan Smeets (2651) (NED)

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!

Video

Link

• Official website

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…

1.c4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.e4 d6 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Be3 e5 6.d5 Nce7 7.g4 Nf6 8.f3 h5? 9.g5 Nh7 10.Qd2 f5 11.h4 Nf8 12.c5 a6 13.b4 Nd7 14.a4 O-O 15.a5

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).

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.

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!

FIDE: http://ratings.fide.com/toplist.phtml

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

Rank		Old	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games
	1	1	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2813 (+3)	13 (-3)
	2	2	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2805 (0)	0 (-4)
	3	4	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2790 (+2)	13 (-3)
	4	3	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2787 (-3)	13 (+4)
	5	5	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2782 (+1)	9 (-8)
	6	11	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2760 (+19)	9 (-10)
	7	15	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2756 (+20)	16 (+8)
	8	10	Svidler, Peter	g	RUS	2750 (+6)	9 (-18)
	9	6	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2750 (-11)	7 (-18)
	10	9	Wang, Yue	g	CHN	2749 (0)	0 (-8)
	11	8	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2748 (-1)	13 (0)
	12	7	Gashimov, Vugar	g	AZE	2740 (-19)	7 (-14)
	13	16	Radjabov, Teimour	g	AZE	2740 (+7)	7 (-6)
	14	20	Shirov, Alexei	g	ESP	2737 (+14)	13 (-6)
	15	13	Ponomariov, Ruslan	g	UKR	2737 (0)	0 (-25)
	16	14	Eljanov, Pavel	g	UKR	2736 (0)	0 (-14)
	17	28	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2735 (+27)	21 (+14)
	18	12	Leko, Peter	g	HUN	2735 (-4)	13 (+4)
	19	18	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	g	FRA	2727 (-3)	9 (-12)
	20	19	Jakovenko, Dmitry	g	RUS	2725 (-5)	14 (-3)
	21	21	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2725 (+5)	13 (+1)
	22	22	Malakhov, Vladimir	g	RUS	2721 (+5)	7 (-8)
	23	26	Almasi, Zoltan	g	HUN	2720 (+10)	9 (+2)
	24	17	Morozevich, Alexander	g	RUS	2715 (-17)	6 (-13)
	25	23	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2715 (0)	0 (-10)
	26	24	Bacrot, Etienne	g	FRA	2714 (+1)	19 (+1)
	27	25	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	g	CUB	2713 (+1)	13 (+9)
	28	41	Vitiugov, Nikita	g	RUS	2710 (+18)	15 (+7)
	29	29	Movsesian, Sergei	g	SVK	2709 (+1)	10 (+8)
	30	31	Vallejo Pons, Francisco	g	ESP	2708 (+3)	10 (0)
	31	27	Navara, David	g	CZE	2708 (0)	0 (-15)
	32	35	Motylev, Alexander	g	RUS	2705 (+8)	18 (+12)
	33	39	Adams, Michael	g	ENG	2704 (+10)	10 (-7)
	34	40	Kamsky, Gata	g	USA	2702 (+9)	28 (+22)
	35	34	Kasimdzhanov, Rustam	g	UZB	2702 (0)	0 (-2)
	36	30	Tomashevsky, Evgeny	g	RUS	2701 (-4)	14 (0)
	37	33	Alekseev, Evgeny	g	RUS	2700 (-3)	9 (-4)
	38	36	Rublevsky, Sergei	g	RUS	2697 (0)	8 (+4)
	39	37	Nielsen, Peter Heine	g	DEN	2697 (0)	0 (0)
	40	32	Jobava, Baadur	g	GEO	2695 (-9)	9 (-6)
	41	44	Naiditsch, Arkadij	g	GER	2691 (+4)	22 (+9)
	42	93	Le, Quang Liem	g	VIE	2689 (+42)	35 (+15)
	43	49	Akopian, Vladimir	g	ARM	2688 (+10)	9 (-1)
	44	57	Onischuk, Alexander	g	USA	2687 (+17)	9 (+5)
	45	42	Volokitin, Andrei	g	UKR	2687 (-5)	9 (+1)
	46	83	Sasikiran, Krishnan	g	IND	2686 (+33)	33 (+29)
	47	38	Short, Nigel D	g	ENG	2686 (-10)	13 (+6)
	48	45	Miroshnichenko, Evgenij	g	UKR	2686 (0)	0 (0)
	49	43	Bologan, Viktor	g	MDA	2684 (-8)	18 (+12)
	50	52	Bu, Xiangzhi	g	CHN	2682 (+9)	18 (+12)
	51	46	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2682 (0)	0 (-4)
	52	51	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2680 (+5)	22 (+4)
	53	48	Sargissian, Gabriel	g	ARM	2675 (-5)	15 (+3)
	54	60	Kurnosov, Igor	g	RUS	2674 (+6)	9 (-1)
	55	80	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	g	IND	2672 (+18)	13 (+9)
	56	55	Fressinet, Laurent	g	FRA	2670 (0)	10 (-2)
	57	56	Areshchenko, Alexander	g	UKR	2670 (0)	0 (-6)
	58	53	Georgiev, Kiril	g	BUL	2669 (-3)	18 (+18)
	59	50	Moiseenko, Alexander	g	UKR	2668 (-9)	9 (+9)
	60	82	Grachev, Boris	g	RUS	2667 (+14)	27 (+9)
	61	98	Bareev, Evgeny	g	RUS	2667 (+24)	18 (+8)
	62	72	Ni, Hua	g	CHN	2667 (+10)	13 (+3)
	63	89	Inarkiev, Ernesto	g	RUS	2667 (+18)	9 (+3)
	64	77	So, Wesley	g	PHI	2665 (+9)	22 (+14)
	65	61	Najer, Evgeniy	g	RUS	2665 (0)	18 (+14)
	66	91	Korobov, Anton	g	UKR	2663 (+15)	9 (-8)
	67	68	Meier, Georg	g	GER	2663 (+5)	9 (-3)
	68	47	Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter	g	ROU	2661 (-20)	13 (+1)
	69	54	Harikrishna, P.	g	IND	2660 (-12)	27 (+27)
	70	-	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	g	POL	2660 (+)	18 (+)
	71	63	Riazantsev, Alexander	g	RUS	2660 (-1)	9 (+9)
	72	84	Laznicka, Viktor	g	CZE	2659 (+7)	9 (-7)
	73	66	Berkes, Ferenc	g	HUN	2659 (0)	0 (-9)
	74	-	Lautier, Joel	g	FRA	2658 (+)	0 (+)
	75	65	Cheparinov, Ivan	g	BUL	2657 (-3)	19 (+4)
	76	86	Khismatullin, Denis	g	RUS	2657 (+6)	18 (+2)
	77	70	Beliavsky, Alexander G	g	SLO	2657 (0)	0 (-18)
	78	69	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	g	RUS	2656 (-2)	18 (+8)
	79	76	Avrukh, Boris	g	ISR	2656 (0)	0 (-8)
	80	85	Timofeev, Artyom	g	RUS	2655 (+3)	18 (+14)
	81	62	Tiviakov, Sergei	g	NED	2653 (-9)	13 (+11)
	82	87	Dreev, Alexey	g	RUS	2653 (+3)	9 (0)
	83	-	Savchenko, Boris	g	RUS	2652 (+)	18 (+)
	84	94	Pashikian, Arman	g	ARM	2652 (+5)	15 (+9)
	85	78	Krasenkow, Michal	g	POL	2652 (-4)	9 (+9)
	86	75	Roiz, Michael	g	ISR	2652 (-5)	6 (-2)
	87	73	Smeets, Jan	g	NED	2651 (-6)	14 (+4)
	88	90	Seirawan, Yasser	g	USA	2651 (+2)	1 (-1)
	89	74	Sutovsky, Emil	g	ISR	2650 (-7)	20 (+11)
	90	79	Fridman, Daniel	g	GER	2650 (-4)	10 (+2)
	91	-	Zhou, Jianchao	g	CHN	2650 (+)	9 (+)
	92	-	Fedorchuk, Sergey A.	g	UKR	2649 (+)	18 (+)
	93	58	Zhigalko, Sergei	g	BLR	2648 (-20)	29 (+16)
	94	59	Smirin, Ilia	g	ISR	2647 (-21)	14 (+3)
	95	-	Gustafsson, Jan	g	GER	2646 (+)	10 (+)
	96	-	Andreikin, Dmitry	g	RUS	2645 (+)	9 (+)
	97	81	Baklan, Vladimir	g	UKR	2644 (-10)	9 (+7)
	98	96	Milov, Vadim	g	SUI	2644 (0)	0 (-6)
	99	-	Granda Zuniga, Julio E	g	PER	2643 (+)	18 (+)
	100	67	Lastin, Alexander	g	RUS	2643 (-16)	9 (+5)
	101	-	Zvjaginsev, Vadim	g	RUS	2643 (+)	9 (+)

FIDE MARCH 2010 RATING LIST: TOP 100 WOMEN

Rank		Old	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games
	1	1	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2682 (0)	0 (-4)
	2	2	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2622 (+8)	10 (+2)
	3	3	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2570 (-20)	18 (+4)
	4	4	Stefanova, Antoaneta	g	BUL	2555 (+10)	10 (+3)
	5	5	Kosintseva, Nadezhda	m	RUS	2554 (+21)	18 (+9)
	6	7	Muzychuk, Anna	m	SLO	2533 (+10)	13 (-12)
	7	10	Kosintseva, Tatiana	g	RUS	2524 (+9)	18 (+10)
	8	8	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	g	RUS	2524 (+1)	10 (0)
	9	6	Cramling, Pia	g	SWE	2523 (-5)	21 (+17)
	10	9	Lahno, Kateryna	g	UKR	2518 (0)	0 (-16)
	11	11	Chiburdanidze, Maia	g	GEO	2514 (0)	0 (0)
	12	13	Sebag, Marie	g	FRA	2506 (-4)	9 (+1)
	13	16	Mkrtchian, Lilit	m	ARM	2503 (0)	0 (-9)
	14	19	Javakhishvili, Lela	m	GEO	2500 (+7)	19 (+12)
	15	12	Ju, Wenjun	wg	CHN	2500 (-12)	9 (+5)
	16	17	Pogonina, Natalija	wg	RUS	2496 (-5)	7 (+7)
	17	32	Zhukova, Natalia	wg	UKR	2492 (+30)	10 (+2)
	18	18	Danielian, Elina	m	ARM	2491 (-4)	2 (-9)
	19	15	Zhao, Xue	g	CHN	2490 (-14)	18 (+14)
	20	-	Galliamova, Alisa	m	RUS	2487 (+)	9 (+)
	21	21	Hoang Thanh Trang	g	HUN	2487 (0)	0 (0)
	22	22	Paehtz, Elisabeth	m	GER	2486 (+2)	9 (0)
	23	20	Cmilyte, Viktorija	m	LTU	2485 (-4)	10 (+1)
	24	14	Dzagnidze, Nana	g	GEO	2479 (-27)	20 (+1)
	25	23	Ruan, Lufei	wg	CHN	2479 (0)	0 (-2)
	26	24	Xu, Yuhua	g	CHN	2478 (0)	0 (-3)
	27	28	Zhu, Chen	g	QAT	2476 (+6)	7 (+3)
	28	25	Harika, Dronavalli	m	IND	2473 (+2)	24 (+13)
	29	26	Gaponenko, Inna	m	UKR	2472 (+2)	5 (-11)
	30	53	Melia, Salome	m	GEO	2467 (+36)	31 (+22)
	31	-	Vijayalakshmi, Subbaraman	m	IND	2466 (+)	11 (+)
	32	29	Qin, Kanying	wg	CHN	2466 (0)	0 (0)
	33	41	Socko, Monika	g	POL	2465 (+15)	8 (-6)
	34	31	Tan, Zhongyi	wg	CHN	2464 (0)	0 (-3)
	35	37	Krush, Irina	m	USA	2461 (+6)	24 (+19)
	36	30	Zatonskih, Anna	m	USA	2461 (-5)	10 (+10)
	37	36	Rajlich, Iweta	m	POL	2459 (+4)	8 (-5)
	38	42	Gunina, Valentina	wf	RUS	2457 (+9)	18 (+11)
	39	34	Dembo, Yelena	m	GRE	2457 (0)	0 (-8)
	40	-	Polgar, Sofia	m	HUN	2457 (+)	0 (+)
	41	35	Skripchenko, Almira	m	FRA	2456 (0)	0 (0)
	42	38	Tairova, Elena	m	RUS	2455 (0)	0 (0)
	43	40	Hunt, Harriet V	m	ENG	2452 (0)	0 (0)
	44	39	Ushenina, Anna	m	UKR	2452 (0)	0 (-6)
	45	33	Khotenashvili, Bela	m	GEO	2448 (-13)	13 (+5)
	46	43	Korbut, Ekaterina	m	RUS	2448 (0)	0 (0)
	47	27	Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan	g	SCO	2447 (-23)	10 (+1)
	48	45	Atalik, Ekaterina	m	TUR	2445 (0)	0 (0)
	49	44	Muzychuk, Mariya	m	UKR	2444 (-3)	13 (+13)
	50	46	Shen, Yang	wg	CHN	2444 (0)	0 (-2)
	51	48	Huang, Qian	wg	CHN	2439 (0)	0 (-3)
	52	54	Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina	m	RUS	2438 (+10)	9 (+5)
	53	56	Moser, Eva	m	AUT	2437 (+13)	7 (-1)
	54	50	Zhang, Xiaowen	wg	CHN	2437 (0)	0 (-24)
	55
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/fide-publishes-march-1-ratings-linares-not-counted/
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:32:56 +0000
Bundesliga: Werder Bremen beats Baden-Baden
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. Bundesliga 2009 | Round 11 Standings Selection of games played last weekend Game viewer by ChessTempo The venue, with Baden-Baden against Werder 'Green Shirts' Bremen The World Champion, scoring 1.5/2 this weekend... ...including an easy draw with Black against Vugar Gashimov using fine, Archangelsk Ruy Lopez preparation Peter Svidler, another Baden-Baden top gun... ...but it was Bremen's Michael Roiz, together with... ...Alexander Areshchenko who decided the important match Photos by Christian Bossert & Georgios Souleidis Links Official website Games in PGNvia TWIC
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/werder-bremen-beats-baden-baden/
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:19:12 +0000
Schachbundesliga 2009-10
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. Round 10 Results 27th Feb 2010 Eppingen 6 - 2 Koenig Tegel Trier 3.5 - 2.5 Berlin SC Remagen 5.5 - 2.5 Emsdetten Solingen 5 - 3 Wattenscheid Baden-Baden 3 - 5 Bremen Heidelberg-HSH 3 - 5 Hamburg Katernberg 3.5 - 2.5 Erfurt Muelheim 3.5 - 3.5 Bay Muenchen Bundesliga (GER), 16 x 2009 - 11 iv 2010 OSG Baden-Baden 3-5 Werder Bremen 1 Viswanathan Anand 2788* 1/2 Vugar Gashimov 2740 2 Peter Svidler 2741 1/2 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2721 3 Alexei Shirov 2730 1/2 Pavel Eljanov 2717 4 Etienne Bacrot 2709 1/2 Zahar Efimenko 2654 5 Sergei Movsesian 2711 1/2 Laurent Fressinet 2658 6 Michael Adams 2682 0-1 Alexander Areshchenko 2667 7 Arkadij Naiditsch 2685 0-1 Michael Roiz 2658 8 Peter-Heine Nielsen 2687 1/2 Tomi Nyback 2615
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/events/schachbundesliga-2009-10
Sat 27 Feb 2010 06:31:00 PM UTC
Gashimov-Anand today’s top game in the Bundesliga
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
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/gashimov-anand-todays-top-game-in-the-bundesliga/
Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:33:51 +0000
Bundesliga 2009/10: X e XI turno
Entra in scena il Campione del Mondo! 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. Viswanathan Anand occuperà la prima scacchiera del OSG Baden-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 NB l'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 SITI UTILI Sito ufficiale   Risultati su Chessresult
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1736
2010-02-26T14:00:00+01:00
Three draws in 7th round Linares
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.” Games round 7 with brief annotations Game viewer by ChessTempo Linares 2010 | Pairings and results Linares 2010 | Round 7 Standings The chess hotel: Anibal Photos © Rick Goetzee Links Official website Games in PGN via TWIC
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/three-draws-in-7th-round-linares/
Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:12:23 +0000
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): Rising stars: 1. Hikaru Nakamura 2708 (1987) 2. Fabiano Caruana 2675 (1992) 3. Wesley So 2656 (1993) 4. Anish Giri 2588 (1994) Experienced: 1. Peter Svidler 2744 (1976) 2. Peter Heine Nielsen 2697 (1973) 3. Loek Van Wely 2641 (1972) 4. Ljubomir Ljubojevic 2571 (1950)
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1721
2010-02-13T11:46:51+01:00
Bundesliga 2009/10
Caruana fa il suo esordio nella Bundesliga 2009/10 Caruana - Berndt sabato 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 OSG Baden-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 clamoroso infortunio occorso al Super GM Alexei Shirov contro il GM tedesco Michael Bezold Bezold, Michael  (GER, 2517) - Shirov, Alexi (SPA, 2730) Bundesliga 2009/10, 3° turno. Baden Baden 14.11.2009 1.c4 e6 2.Cf3 d5 3.g3 Cf6 4.Ag2 Ae7 5.0-0 0-0 6.d4 dxc4 7.Dc2 a6 8.a4 Ad7 9.Dxc4 Ac6 10.Ag5 Ad5 11.Dc2 a5 12.Cc3 Ca6 13.e4 Cb4 14.De2 Ac6 15.Tfd1 15...Cd7?? 16.d5 e l'alfiere è perduto! 1-0 Accoppiamenti della squadra di Caruana Ottavo Turno sabato 6 febbraio , ore 14 Bo. 11   SF Berlin Rtg - 7   OSG Baden-Baden Rtg 0 : 0 5.1 GM Markos Jan 2565 - GM Bacrot Etienne 2709 5.2 IM Lauber Arnd 2517 - GM Movsesian Sergei 2711 5.3 GM Polzin Rainer 2491 - GM Adams Michael 2682 5.4 IM Krämer Martin 2482 - GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2685 5.5 IM Schneider Ilja 2500 - GM Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter 2664 5.6 IM Berndt Stephan 2442 - GM Caruana Fabiano 2662 5.7 IM Agopov Mikael 2452 - GM Gustafsson Jan 2622 5.8 IM Thiede Lars 2450 - GM Schlosser Phlipp 2555 Nono turno domenica 7 febbraio, ore 10 5.1 GM Bacrot Etienne 2709 - GM Rabiega Robert 2531   5.2 GM Movsesian Sergei 2711 - IM Stern Rene 2501   5.3 GM Adams Michael 2682 - GM Muse Mladen 2448   5.4 GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2685 - IM Von Herman Ulf 2424   5.5 GM Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter 2664 - IM Muse Drazen 2367   5.6 GM Caruana Fabiano 2662 - FM Fruebing Stefan 2337   5.7 GM Gustafsson Jan 2622 - FM Breier Andreas 2405   5.8 GM Schlosser Phlipp 2555 - Kachibadze Georg 2239 Classifica dopo 7 turni 1 OSG Baden-Baden 7 7 0 0 14 40 2 Werder Bremen 7 6 1 0 13 34 3 SG Solingen 7 6 0 1 12 32 4 SV Mülheim Nord 7 5 1 1 11 34.5 5 SV Wattenscheid 1930 7 5 0 2 10 33.5 6 SK Turm Emsdetten 7 5 0 2 10 33.5 7 SC Eppingen 7 3 1 3 7 29.5 8 Hamburger SK 7 3 1 3 7 29 9 SF Berlin 1903 7 3 0 4 6 28 10 SC 1950 Remagen 7 3 0 4 6 26 11 SF Katernberg 7 3 0 4 6 23.5 12 SG Trier 7 2 0 5 4 25 13 FC Bayern München 7 1 1 5 3 22.5 14 Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim 7 0 2 5 2 18 15 Erfurter SK 7 0 1 6 1 16 16 SK König Tegel 7 0 0 7 0 16 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 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. Visore sito ufficiale   risultati su chessresult
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1708
2010-02-05T22:15:00+01:00
Final FIDE Grand-Prix Tournament
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) FIDE Grand Prix index page
http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/4334-final-fide-grand-prix-tournament
Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:29:17 +0000
8th and 9th round of the Bundesliga
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) Playing venue Remagen SC Remagen – SC Eppingen SG Solingen – SG Trier 9th round: Sunday, 7th of February 2010, 10 am Playing venue Munich Hamburger SK – Erfurter SK Werder Bremen – Bayern München Playing venue Mülheim SV Wattenscheid – SF Katernberg SK Turm Emsdetten – SV Mülheim Nord Playing venue Berlin OSG Baden-Baden – SK König Tegel SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim – SF Berlin Playing venue Remagen SC Eppingen – SG Solingen SG Trier – SC Remagen 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
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/8th-and-9th-round-of-the-schachbundesliga/
Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:35:24 +0000
Meanwhile, chess rocks in Gibraltar too
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 Photos © Zeljka Malobabic, more here 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. Game viewer Game viewer by ChessTempo Links Official website Games in PGN via TWIC
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/meanwhile-chess-rocks-in-gibraltar-too/
Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:47:08 +0000
Start der Gibtelecom Masters
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...
http://chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=10024
Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT
8? Festival di Gibilterra
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 Antoaneta Stefanova (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. Partite in diretta, QUI Sito ufficiale, QUI
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1695
2010-01-25T07:00:00+01:00
Learn from Shirov (and Svidler)
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! Corus Chess Press Conference Round 3 Corus Chess Press Conference Round 4 ICC’s Game of the Day with Peter Svidler Macauley Peterson’s on-location videos
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/learn-from-shirov-and-svidler/
Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:55:20 +0000
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). Official site  : http://amberchess2010.com/
http://chessgurukul.com/running/amber-2010-field-announced-anand-topalov-opt-out/
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:25:45 +0000
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 ! ALBO D'ORO QUI LINARES 2010, 26° edizione, invitati: Topalov Veselin Aronian Levon Grischuk Alexander Vallejo Pons Francisco Gashimov Vugar Gelfand Boris CLASSIFICA  2009: 1. Grischuk, Alexander 8 g RUS 2733 2. Ivanchuk, Vassily 8 g UKR 2779 3. Carlsen, Magnus 7,5 g NOR 2776 4. Anand, Viswanathan 7 g IND 2791 5. Radjabov, Teimour 6,5th g AZE 2761 6. Wang Yue 6,5 g CHN 2739 7. Aronian, Levon 6,5 g ARM 2750 8. Dominguez Perez, Leinier 6 g CUB 2717 Grischuk durante una esibizione alla cieca al Linares 2009 SITO UFFICIALE QUI 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. Bacrot Etienne 2713   FRA   Movsesian Sergei 2708   SVK   Vallejo Pons Francisco  2705   ESP   Adams Michael 2694   ENG   Kamsky Gata 2693   USA   Cheparinov  Ivan  2660   BUL   Roiz Micheal  2657   ISR   Fridman Daniel  2654   GER   Koneru Humpy 2614    IND  N°2 al mondo-donne Yifan Hou 2590   CHN  N°3 al mondo-donne Kosteniuk Alexandra 2523   RUS  Campionessa Mondiale donne Cori Jorge  2483   PER  Campione Mondiale U14 Cori Deysi  2412   PER  Campionessa Mondiale U16 F Etienne Bacrot SITO UFFICIALE QUI 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). SITO UFFICIALE 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'').   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 RUS 2732 10 Karjakin, Sergey RUS 2720 11 Dominguez Perez, Leinier CUB 2712 12 Smeets, Jan NED 2657 CLASSIFICA 2009 Combinata (cieca + rapid) 1. Aronian 14 2. Anand 13½ Kramnik 13½ 4. Carlsen 13 5. Morozevich 11 6. Karjakin 10½ Topalov 10½ 8. Kamsky 10 Leko 10 10. Ivanchuk 9½ 11. Radjabov 9 12. Wang Yue 7½ Cieca 1. Aronian 7 Carlsen 7 Kramnik 7 4. Anand 6½ Morozevich 6½ 6. Leko 5½ Topalov 5½ 8. Ivanchuk 5 Radjabov 5 10. Karjakin 4½ 11. Wang Yue 3½ 12. Kamsky 3 Rapid 1. Anand 7 Aronian 7 Kamsky 7 4. Kramnik 6½ 5. Carlsen 6 Karjakin 6 7. Topalov 5 8. Ivanchuk 4½ Leko 4½ Morozevich 4½ 11. Radjabov 4 Wang Yue 4 Aronian SITO UFFICIALE
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1683
2010-01-19T22:39:12+01:00
Start the new year right
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: FREE SAMPLE ISSUE – ChessVibes Openings #16 – click to download! 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‚Äôs Gambit lines. FREE SAMPLE ISSUE – ChessVibes Openings #16 – click to download! What does it cost? 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.”
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/chessvibes-openings-now-even-more-instructive/
Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:57:27 +0000
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? (clicca sulle 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 ????????????????????????????????????? ? 15:00 ?????????????????????????????????? 1st round 5 Gennaio 2010????????????????? 15:00??????????????????????????????????? 1st round 6 Gennaio 2010????????????????? 15:00??????????????????????????????????? 2nd round 7 Gennaio 2010????????????????? 15:00??????????????????????????????????? 3rd round 8 Gennaio 2010????????????????? 15:00??????????????????????????????????? 4th round 9 Gennaio 2010????????????????? 15:00??????????????????????????????????? 5th round 10 Gennaio 2010??????????????? 15:00??????????????????????????????????? 6th round 11 Gennaio 2010??????????????? 15:00??????????????????????????????????? 7th round 12 Gennaio 2010??????????????? 15:00??????????????????????????????????? 8th round 13 Gennaio 2010???????????? ?? 10:00 ?????????????????????????????????? 9th Round ???????????????????????????????????? ? 19:00 ?????????????????????????????????? Cerimonia di chiusura ?? RISULTATI sul Sito Ufficiale QUI
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1655
2010-01-04T19:41:00+01:00
Al via il Campionato del Mondo a squadre
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 Sito ufficiale
http://soloscacchi.altervista.org/?p=3752
Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:25:30 +0000
Russische Meisterschaft: Diesmal Grischuk
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...
http://chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=9948
Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT
Tal Memorial 2009 Webliography
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. Round 9 Pictorial Impressions from Moscow by WGM Yana Melnikova Kramnik Wins Tal Memorial with annotations by Ian Rogers Tal Memorial 09 R9: Kramnik Untouchable by Mig Greengard Kramnik wins Tal Memorial 2009, Carlsen number one, with annotations by Michael Humphreys Kramnik Deserved Winner in Day of Slapdash Chess by Mark Crowther Tal Memorial, Round 9 annotations by Dennis Monokroussos Anand - Aronian annotated by Hector Leyva Leko - Carlsen annotated by GM Bauer, GM Safarli, NM Karagianis, and Jason Juett Ivanchuk - Kramnik annotated by GM Bauer, GM Safarli, NM Karagianis, and Jason Juett Round 8 Carlsen Beats Ponomariov with notes by GM Dmitri Reinderman Carlsen beats Ponomariov, report by Michael von Keitz with annotations by Michael Humphreys Tal Memorial 09: Carlsen (& Tal) in Moscow by Mig Greengard Tal Memorial, Round 8 annotations by Dennis Monokrousso Carlsen Finally Wins by Mark Crowther Carlsen - Ponomariov by GM Bauer, GM Safarli, NM Karagianis, and Jason Juett Carlsen - Ponomariov annotated by Wilfredo Sariego Round 7 Ivanchuk Beats Gelfand, with annotations by Wouter Spoelman Ivanchuk beats Gelfand, Morozevich interview, report by Michael von Keitz Ivanchuk Wins in "Bit Rubbish" Round by Mark Crowther Tal Memorial, The Classics by Mig Greengard Svidler - Carlsen by GM Bauer, GM Safarli, NM Karagianis, and Jason Juett Ivanchuk - Gelfand annotated by Antonio Torrecillas Round 6 Kramnik 2.0 leads in Moscow by Peter Doggers, with notes by Dmitri Reinderman Kramnik Back in the Lead Alone by Mark Crowther (with notes) Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Gelfand win, report by Michael von Keitz Tal Memorial, Round 6 annotations by Dennis Monokroussos Morozevich - Ivanchuk annotated by Wilfredo Sariego Morozevich - Ivanchuk annotated by Malcolm Pein Morozevich - Ivanchuk annotated by Carlsen - Anand annotated by GM Bauer, GM Safarli, NM Karagianis, and Jason Juett Round 5 Anand beats Leko, Leads with Kramnik by Peter Doggers with notes by Merijn van Delft Anand beats Leko, joins Kramnik in the lead, report by Michael von Keitz Anand Joins Kramnik in Lead by Mark Crowther Anand Steps Up by Mig Greengard Ivanchuk's Mouth Cap by Peter Doggers Tal Memorial, Round 5 by Dennis Monokroussos Aronian - Morozevich annotated by Guillermo Soppe Anand - Leko annotated by Malcolm Pein Round 4 Kramnik Beats Svidler, Grabs Lead in Moscow by Peter Doggers with notes by Robert Ris Kramnik beats Svidler, leads in Moscow from ChessBase Second Win for Kramnik by Mark Crowther Lost Gruenfeld Weekend by Mig Greengard Tal Memorial, Round 4 by Dennis Monokroussos Kramnik - Svidler annotated by Alfonzo Jerez Kramnik - Svidler annotated by Malcolm Pein Carlsen - Aronian annotated by GM Bauer, GM Safarli, NM Karagianis, and Jason Juett Round 3 Anand, Aronian and Kramnik Win in Third Round of Tal Memorial by Peter Doggers with notes by Robert Ris Anand, Aronian, Kramnik draw first blood from ChessBase Deadlock Broken by Mark Crowther Action at Last by Mig Greengard Tal Memorial, Round Three by Dennis Monokroussos Andand-Svidler annotated by Lubomir Kavalek in the Washington Post Anand - Svidler annotated by Jack Peters in the LA Times Anand - Svidler annotated by Jorge Luis Fernandez Anand - Svidler annotated by Malcolm Pein Anand - Svidler annotated by GM Bauer, GM Safarli, NM Karagianis, and Jason Juett Round 2 Five more draws in second round of Tal Memorial by Peter Doggers with notes by Sipke Ernst All games drawn -- first win expected tomorrow from ChessBase Five More Draws in Round 2 by Mark Crowther Ponomariov - Aronian annotated by Guillermo Soppe Ponomariov - Aronian annotated by Malcolm Pein Round 1 Five draws in first round of Tal Memorial by Peter Doggers with notes by Merijn Van Delft All games drawn, with plenty of excitement from ChessBase All draws on day 1 by Mark Crowther Tal Memorial 2oo9 by Mig Greengard Bettle Royal by Mig Greengard Morozevich - Leko annotated by Hector Leyva Carlsen - Kramnik annotated by Malcolm Pein
http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/kenilworthian/2009/11/tal-memorial-2009-webliography_15.html
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:29:00 +0000
Nakamura se Acerca a la Elite
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: Nakamura (2710) - Vachier (2703) Defensa Siciliana, 08.07.2009 1.e4 c5 2.Cf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Cxd4 Cf6 5.Cc3 a6 6.Ae3 Cg4 7.Ac1 Cf6 8.f3 e6 9.Ae3 [El popular ataque Inglés] b5 10.Dd2 Cbd7 11.g4 h6 12.0–0–0 Ab7 13.h4 b4 14.Ca4 Da5 15.b3 Cc5 16.a3 Tc8 17.Dxb4 Dc7 18.Cxc5 dxc5 19.Da4+ Cd7 20.Ce2 Ac6 21.Dc4 Ce5 22.Dc3 Cxf3 23.Af4 e5 [Novedad dudosa, la línea teórica 23...Db7 24.Da5 Ae7 es más sólida] 24.Dxf3 exf4 25.Dxf4 c4 26.b4 a5 27.Dxc7 Txc7 28.c3 Axe4 29.Th3 Ae7 30.Cd4 axb4 31.axb4 [El blanco quedó con ventaja] 31...0–0 Diagrama: 32.Cb5 Tb7 33.Cd6 Axd6 34.Txd6 Tc7 35.Td4 [Gana un peón y la partida] 35...Ab7 36.Txc4 Te7 37.Td4 Te1+ 38.Td1 Tfe8 39.Ad3 Ac8 40.Tg3 g5 41.hxg5 hxg5 42.Txe1 Txe1+ 43.Rd2 Te5 44.Te3 [Si 44...Txe3 45.Rxe3 Axg4 46.b5 Ac8 47.b6 Rf8 48.c4 Re7 49.c5 Rd7 50.Ab5+ gana] 1–0 VER PARTIDA EN VISOR: Página Oficial VIDEO DE LA PRIMERA PARTIDA DE DESEMPATE: Sertal
http://sertal.blogspot.com/2009/07/nakamura-se-acerca-la-elite.html
Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:06:00 +0000
Leonard Barden on Chess
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. S Sjugirov v P Svidler 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 Bf5 4 Nf3 e6 5 Be2 Nd7 6 O-O Bg6 7 Nbd2 Nh6 8 Nb3 Nf5 9 Bd2 h5?! 10 g3 a6 11 Rc1 b5 12 a4 Be7 13 Ra1 f6?! 14 Bf4 O-O 15 Bd3 Re8 16 h3 Bh7 17 exf6 Bxf6 18 Re1 g5?! 19 Be5 Rf8 20 Qd2 Nxe5 21 Nxe5 Qd6 22 Nc5 Kh8 23 c3 1-0 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. 3120 1 Qc2 (threat 2 Qxg6 mate) Rg8/f5 2 Bg2 traps the queen. Chess Leonard Barden guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/jan/02/leonard-barden-chess-peter-svidler
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:15:01 GMT
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?
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/aronian-carlsen-kramnik-in-amber-2010-anand-and-topalov-not/
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:30:37 +0000
Annual Survey 2009
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. Like we did on December 31 last year, the year before and the year before that, here’s our annual survey of 2009. 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. On the day that Michael Jackson passed away, the rapid match in Paris between Armenia and France ended in a 19.5-12.5. On July 1st, 2009 the new FIDE Laws of Chess were introduced (and to our surprise this received little attention in other media). In a very Drawful Dortmund Vladimir Kramnik clinched his 9th (!) title. 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. It was also a period chuck full of strong chess tournaments, that lasted until the rest of the year. There was the European Club Cup, the European Team Championship, Hoogeveen (with videos!), the Anand-Karpov rapid match, the World Youth (another victory for Vachier-Lagrave). 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!
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/annual-survey-2009/
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:05:09 +0000
Carlsen officially world’s number 1 at 2810
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 Rank   Old    Name Title Country Rating Games  1  2  Carlsen, Magnus  g  NOR  2810 (+9)  16 (+6)  2  1  Topalov, Veselin  g  BUL  2805 (-5)  4 (-6)  3  3  Anand, Viswanathan  g  IND  2790 (+2)  9 (+9)  4  5  Kramnik, Vladimir  g  RUS  2788 (+16)  16 (+16)  5  4  Aronian, Levon  g  ARM  2781 (-5)  17 (+4)  6  7  Gelfand, Boris  g  ISR  2761 (+3)  25 (+14)  7  6  Gashimov, Vugar  g  AZE  2759 (+1)  21 (+10)  8  12  Ivanchuk, Vassily  g  UKR  2749 (+10)  13 (0)  9  16  Wang, Yue  g  CHN  2749 (+15)  8 (-19)  10  8  Svidler, Peter  g  RUS  2744 (-10)  27 (+10)  11  19  Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar  g  AZE  2741 (+22)  19 (-6)  12  9  Leko, Peter  g  HUN  2739 (-13)  9 (-1)  13  13  Ponomariov, Ruslan  g  UKR  2737 (-2)  25 (+20)  14  17  Eljanov, Pavel  g  UKR  2736 (+7)  14 (-1)  15  14  Grischuk, Alexander  g  RUS  2736 (0)  8 (-5)  16  11  Radjabov, Teimour  g  AZE  2733 (-15)  13 (+3)  17  10  Morozevich, Alexander  g  RUS  2732 (-18)  19 (+19)  18  23  Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime  g  FRA  2730 (+12)  21 (+21)  19  15  Jakovenko, Dmitry  g  RUS  2730 (-6)  17 (+7)  20  20  Shirov, Alexei  g  ESP  2723 (+4)  19 (+1)  21  18  Karjakin, Sergey  g  RUS  2720 (-3)  12 (0)  22  31  Malakhov, Vladimir  g  RUS  2716 (+10)  15 (-11)  23  28  Wang, Hao  g  CHN  2715 (+7)  10 (-3)  24  34  Bacrot, Etienne  g  FRA  2713 (+13)  18 (-9)  25  21  Dominguez Perez, Leinier  g  CUB  2712 (-7)  4 (+4)  26  33  Almasi, Zoltan  g  HUN  2710 (+6)  7 (-8)  27  30  Navara, David  g  CZE  2708 (+1)  15 (+6)  28  24  Nakamura, Hikaru  g  USA  2708 (-7)  7 (-10)  29  22  Movsesian, Sergei  g  SVK  2708 (-10)  2 (-14)  30  27  Tomashevsky, Evgeny  g  RUS  2705 (-3)  14 (-7)  31  26  Vallejo Pons, Francisco  g  ESP  2705 (-6)  10 (-10)  32  39  Jobava, Baadur  g  GEO  2704 (+8)  15 (+15)  33  25  Alekseev, Evgeny  g  RUS  2703 (-12)  13 (+6)  34  32  Kasimdzhanov, Rustam  g  UZB  2702 (-3)  2 (-3)  35  40  Motylev, Alexander  g  RUS  2697 (+2)  6 (-17)  36  37  Rublevsky, Sergei  g  RUS  2697 (0)  4 (-13)  37  38  Nielsen, Peter Heine  g  DEN  2697 (0)  0 (-10)  38  29  Short, Nigel D  g  ENG  2696 (-11)  7 (-9)  39  36  Adams, Michael  g  ENG  2694 (-4)  17 (+5)  40  41  Kamsky, Gata  g  USA  2693 (-2)  6 (-10)  41  42  Vitiugov, Nikita  g  RUS  2692 (-2)  8 (-16)  42  44  Volokitin, Andrei  g  UKR  2692 (+1)  8 (-8)  43  43  Bologan, Viktor  g  MDA  2692 (0)  6 (-18)  44  45  Naiditsch, Arkadij  g  GER  2687 (-2)  13 (-13)  45  46  Miroshnichenko, Evgenij  g  UKR  2686 (0)  0 (-26)  46  48  Polgar, Judit  g  HUN  2682 (+2)  4 (-2)  47  50  Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter  g  ROU  2681 (+4)  12 (-2)  48  51  Sargissian, Gabriel  g  ARM  2680 (+4)  12 (-4)  49  35  Akopian, Vladimir  g  ARM  2678 (-22)  10 (+3)  50  49  Moiseenko, Alexander  g  UKR  2677 (0)  0 (-17)  51  81  Caruana, Fabiano  g  ITA  2675 (+23)  18 (-3)  52  47  Bu, Xiangzhi  g  CHN  2673 (-9)  6 (-16)  53  54  Georgiev, Kiril  g  BUL  2672 (0)  0 (-13)  54  53  Harikrishna, P.  g  IND  2672 (0)  0 (-16)  55  78  Fressinet, Laurent  g  FRA  2670 (+17)  12 (-2)  56  62  Areshchenko, Alexander  g  UKR  2670 (+6)  6 (-10)  57  52  Onischuk, Alexander  g  USA  2670 (-2)  4 (-14)  58  93  Zhigalko, Sergei  g  BLR  2668 (+22)  13 (+13)  59  65  Smirin, Ilia  g  ISR  2668 (+6)  11 (-5)  60  58  Kurnosov, Igor  g  RUS  2668 (+2)  10 (-10)  61  59  Najer, Evgeniy  g  RUS  2665 (-1)  4 (-13)  62  61  Tiviakov, Sergei  g  NED  2662 (-2)  2 (-32)  63  67  Riazantsev, Alexander  g  RUS  2661 (0)  0 (-16)  64  91  Vescovi, Giovanni  g  BRA  2660 (+12)  20 (+1)  65  55  Cheparinov, Ivan  g  BUL  2660 (-11)  15 (+10)  66  66  Berkes, Ferenc  g  HUN  2659 (-2)  9 (-12)  67  70  Lastin, Alexander  g  RUS  2659 (+3)  4 (-7)  68  79  Meier, Georg  g  GER  2658 (+5)  12 (+2)  69  -  Nepomniachtchi, Ian  g  RUS  2658 (+)  10 (+)  70  92  Beliavsky, Alexander G  g  SLO  2657 (+9)  18 (+1)  71  56  Efimenko, Zahar  g  UKR  2657 (-11)  10 (-14)  72  60  Ni, Hua  g  CHN  2657 (-8)  10 (-25)  73  88  Smeets, Jan  g  NED  2657 (+7)  10 (-7)  74  57  Sutovsky, Emil  g  ISR  2657 (-9)  9 (-17)  75  68  Roiz, Michael  g  ISR  2657 (-2)  8 (+5)  76  74  Avrukh, Boris  g  ISR  2656 (+1)  8 (+1)  77  -  So, Wesley  g  PHI  2656 (+)  8 (+)  78  69  Krasenkow, Michal  g  POL  2656 (0)  0 (-19)  79  89  Fridman, Daniel  g  GER  2654 (+5)  8 (-7)  80  75  Ganguly, Surya Shekhar  g  IND  2654 (0)  4 (-21)  81  73  Baklan, Vladimir  g  UKR  2654 (-1)  2 (-30)  82  80  Grachev, Boris  g  RUS  2653 (+1)  18 (-5)  83  64  Sasikiran, Krishnan  g  IND  2653 (-11)  4 (-5)  84  -  Laznicka, Viktor  g  CZE  2652 (+)  16 (+)  85  86  Timofeev, Artyom  g  RUS  2652 (+1)  4 (-18)  86  96  Khismatullin, Denis  g  RUS  2651 (+8)  16 (0)  87  72  Dreev, Alexey  g  RUS  2650 (-5)  9 (-35)  88  84  Sokolov, Ivan  g  BIH  2649 (-3)  12 (+1)  89  94  Inarkiev, Ernesto  g  RUS  2649 (+4)  6 (-15)  90  90  Seirawan, Yasser  g  USA  2649 (0)  2 (+1)  91  99  Korobov, Anton  g  UKR  2648 (+6)  17 (+3)  92  87  Postny, Evgeny  g  ISR  2648 (-2)  7 (-19)  93  -  Le, Quang Liem  g  VIE  2647 (+)  20 (+)  94  71  Pashikian, Arman  g  ARM  2647 (-9)  6 (-5)  95  63  Landa, Konstantin  g  RUS  2645 (-19)  10 (-6)