The prestigious Aeroflot Open that featured 75 Grandmasters and five International Masters in the main Group A concluded on Wednesday with Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem claiming the clear first place by collecting 7 points from nine games. On the final day he defeated the 2008 Aeroflot winner Ian Nepomniachtchi, rounding up an impressive performance on the Russian tour as earlier he shared first place at the equally tough Moscow Open.
Among the women players at Aeroflot GM Yifan Hou, GM Tatiana Kosintseva, and IM Nadezhda Kosintseva shared places 45-64 with 4,0/9. IM Javakhishvili and GM Sebag were a point behind with 3,0/9.
The 16-year-old Wesley So, the Philippines highest-rated player with an Elo of 2656, made a short draw in the ninth round match against Venezuela's GM Eduardo Iturrizaga (Elo 2616) to finish in a tie for 7th to 19th places with 5.5 points on three wins, five draws and one loss. After the tie break point was applied, So finished 11th in the final standings. This guaranteed him the top junior position.
In group B, IM Pridorozhni, GM Glek, GM Dvoirys, IM Pavlov, and GM Panarin finished with 6,5/9 and shared the first position, with the gold going to IM Pridorozhni on better tiebreak.
Group A final standings: 1 GM Le Quang Liem - 7.0 VIE 2647 2 GM Korobov Anton - 6.5 UKR 2648 3 GM Motylev Alexander - 6.0 RUS 2697 4 GM Zhou Jianchao - 6.0 CHN 2632 5 GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son - 6.0 VIE 2616 6 GM Grachev Boris - 6.0 RUS 2653 7 GM Cheparinov Ivan - 5.5 BUL 2660 8 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime - 5.5 FRA 2730 9 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian - 5.5 RUS 2658 10 GM Bu Xiangzhi - 5.5 CHN 2673 11 GM So Wesley - 5.5 PHI 2656 12 GM Sargissian Gabriel - 5.5 ARM 2680 13 GM Savchenko Boris - 5.5 RUS 2638 14 GM Bacrot Etienne - 5.5 FRA 2713 15 GM Timofeev Artyom - 5.5 RUS 2652 16 GM Bareev Evgeny - 5.5 RUS 2643 17 GM Najer Evgeniy - 5.5 RUS 2665 18 GM Iturrizaga Eduardo - 5.5 VEN 2616 19 GM Dreev Alexey - 5.5 RUS 2650 20 GM Mamedov Rauf - 5.0 AZE 2640 21 GM Novikov Stanislav - 5.0 RUS 2557 22 GM Salgado Lopez Ivan - 5.0 ESP 2584 23 GM Volokitin Andrei - 5.0 UKR 2692 24 GM Zvjaginsev Vadim - 5.0 RUS 2642 25 GM Kobalia Mikhail - 5.0 RUS 2637 26 GM Khairullin Ildar - 5.0 RUS 2605 27 GM Khalifman Alexander - 5.0 RUS 2616 28 GM Grigoriants Sergey - 5.0 RUS 2560 29 GM Belov Vladimir - 5.0 RUS 2595 30 GM Sasikiran Krishnan - 5.0 IND 2653 31 GM Melkumyan Hrant - 5.0 ARM 2583 32 GM Pashikian Arman - 5.0 ARM 2647 33 GM Naiditsch Arkadij - 5.0 GER 2687 34 GM Vescovi Giovanni - 5.0 BRA 2660 35 GM Kamsky Gata - 5.0 USA 2693 36 GM McShane Luke J - 5.0 ENG 2616 37 GM Amonatov Farrukh - 5.0 TJK 2634 38 GM Predojevic Borki - 5.0 BIH 2642 39 GM Tregubov Pavel V. - 5.0 RUS 2628 etc
Dans le Top 100 mondial, le prodigieux norvégien Magnus Carlsen se maintient à la place de numéro 1 avec 2813 points Elo (+3 points). Il devance le bulgare Veselin Topalov à 2805 (=). A noter, la progression de Kramnik (+2) qui grille la politesse au champion du monde en titre Anand (-2). Rappelons que le record historique appartient toujours à Garry Kasparov avec 2851 points, obtenu en Janvier 2000.
Les Français :
Petit recul sans conséquence pour le numéro 1 tricolore Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2717, -3). Le champion du monde junior 2009, occupe désormais la 19ème place du classement général (-1). De son côté, le n°2 français Etienne Bacrot (2714) engrange un petit point et pointe en 26ème position. Côté féminin, Marie Sebag (2506, -4) règne toujours sans partage en France.
Veselin Topalov briefly took the #1 spot during the Linares Super GM tournament, but then fell back off Magnus Carlsen (2813, +3) to remain in the #2 spot. The World Champion challenger is behind Carlsen by mere percentage points on the unofficial live list. Unfortunately, Linares did not make the calculations and the official list shows him eight points back (2805, +0). Topalov is gearing up for his big match with World Champion Viswanathan Anand (2787, -3).
GM Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) Photo by WGM Yana Melnikova.
Vladimir Kramnik (2790, +2) has supplanted Anand at the #3 position. He had a strong showing at Corus, but that was only worth an increase of .19 points. Levon Aronian (2782, +1) holds steady at #5 while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2760, +20) vaulted into the #6 position from #11. Alexander Grischuk (2756, +20) jumped eight places on the strength of his Russian Championship.
Peter Svidler (2750, +6) and Boris Gelfand (2750, -11) are tied for 8th-9th. Gelfand plummeted in the World Team Championship after his World Cup win. Chinese #1 Wang Yue (2749, +0) has been relatively inactive since bowing out of the World Cup. The biggest winner of the top 100 is Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem (2689, +42), the winner of 2010 Aeroflot tournament. Hikaru Nakamura also saw a big gain (2735, +27).
In women’s chess, Judit Polgar remained as “Queen of the Hill” (2682, +0) with Humpy Koneru closing in (2622, +8). At one time there was almost 200 ELO points separating the top two positions. Hou Yifan (2570, -20) dropped a ton of points after the Moscow Open. One lady rising on the horizon appears to be Nadezhda Kosintseva (2554, +21) who won the Russia Women’s Championship. Zhao Xue (2490, -16) dropped under 2500 for the first time in three years and Ju Wenjun (2500, -12) is now the nation’s #2. Zhao and Xu Yuhua (2478, +0) may be preparing to make way for the wealth of Chinese talent coming through.
GM Anish Giri (Netherlands) Photo by FIDE.com.
As far as juniors are concerned, Carlsen will remain at the top for as long as he is eligible. At 2813, he is almost 100 ELO points from Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2727, -3). Sergey Karjakin (2725, +5) is on position #3 and Le Quang Liem (2689, +42) has been touted as the new young star on the scene. Wesley So (2665, +9) keeps gaining and is now the strongest Filipino player in history. So is in the #6 spot. Anish Giri (2624, +36) won Corus B and vaulted over 2600. He is the youngest on the top 20 junior list and has gained some notoriety for annotating games from the Linares tournament. Watch this young man!
FIDE publishes March 1 ratings, Linares not counted
Just a few days ago Veselin Topalov won the Linares tournament and narrowed the gap with Magnus Carlsen on the live rating list to just one point. On the March 1st FIDE rating list the Norwegian leads with a personal record of 2813 and is still 8 points ahead of Topalov.
It’s already an improvement to have six rating lists a year instead of four, but today we are reminded again of the fact that a monthly, or even weekly official list might be even better. While Carlsen and Topalov are just one (in fact 0.7) rating point away from each other on the “live list” by Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website), on the official list the distance is 8 points because Linares hasn’t been counted yet.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand lost his third place to Vladimir Kramnik; between them there are just three points. This means that the upcoming World Championship match in Sofia will be played between the current world’s number 2 and 4.
Vugar Gashimov was Azerbaijan’s number one player briefly, but he’s out of the top 10 again. His 6th place is now occupied by his compatriot Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who is back among the elite after a lesser period. Grischuk and Svidler climbed to spots number 7 and 8.
Vassily Ivanchuk is out of the top 10 again; he dropped slightly from 8 to 11. Hikaru Nakamura saw a strong period awarded with a 17th place. Alexander Morozevich’ decline continued; the former World’s number 2 can now be found on spot 24. There are now 37 players with a rating of 2700 or higher.
In the women’s list nothing much changed. The difference between Judit Polgar and Humpy Koneru decreased a bit further, from 68 to 60 points. Below you’ll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the first two lists including the changes with the previous lists. All data courtesy of FIDE.
FIDE MARCH 2010 RATING LIST: TOP 100 PLAYERS
Legend:
black color – player remained on the same position
green color – player moved up in the list
red color – player moved down in the list
blue color – player is new to the current Top list Old represents player’s position in the previous period list
Vachier-Lagrave gana el clasificatorio para el mundial blitz
A continuación del Abierto Aeroflot 2010 en el hotel Izmailovo de Moscú se celebró el torneo clasificatorio para el Campeonato del Mundo de Ajedrez Relámpago que tendrá lugar a finales del año, después del Memorial Tal. Además de seis plazas para participar en el mundial, se puso en disputa una bolsa de premios de 40.000 euros, de los que 10.000 eran para el vencedor. Los 160 participantes se enfrentaron en 9 rondas a doble vuelta (una partida con piezas blancas y otra con negras) por el sistema suizo, con un ritmo de juego de 3'+2". Se coronó vencedor el gran maestro francés Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, con 13,5 puntos. Bu Xiangzhi, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Rauf Mamedov, Boris Savchenko y Boris Grachev se clasificaron a continuación, todos con 13 puntos. Yana Melnikova nos envió estas impresiones fotográficas del espectáculo...
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
Vachier-Lagrave wins World Blitz Championship Preliminaries
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Thursday won the World Blitz Championship Preliminaries, held in Moscow after the Aeroflot Open. Together with Bu Xiangzhi, Nepomniachtchi, Mamedov, Savchenko and Grachev he qualified for the 2010 World Blitz Championship, to be held after the Tal Memorial later this year.
The World Blitz Championship Preliminaries took place February 18 at the same venue where the Aeroflot Open was held: in hotel “Gamma – Delta” of the tourist complex “Izmailovo”, in Moscow, Russia.
The tournament consisted of a 9-round Swiss in which the players played two games against each other, one with White and one with Black. The rate of play was 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment per move. In the final standings, the first tiebreak rule was Median Buchholtz score (i.e. Buchholz score without the best and the worst results).
2010 World Blitz Championship Preliminaries | Final Standings (top 30)
World Junior Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France collected 13.5 points out of 18 games to finish clear first. Seven players ended shared 2nd, with 13 points each, but only five qualified for the World Blitz Championship: Bu Xiangzhi (China), Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan), Boris Grachev (Russia), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and Boris Savchenko (Russia).
Alexei Dreev (Russia) and Loek van Wely (Netherlands) also scored 13/18 but just missed qualification. Top GMs like Dmitry Jakovenko, Sergei Karjakin and Ruslan Ponomariov, as well as rising star Le Quang Liem, also failed to qualify.
Just like last year the 2010 World Blitz Chess Championship will be held just after the Tal Memorial, in November in Moscow.
Im Anschluss an das Aeroflot Open fand im Moskauer Izmailovo-Hotel das
Qualifikationsturnier für die Blitz-WM statt, die Ende des Jahres nach dem
Tal-Memorial gespielt wird. Neben sechs Qualifikationsplätzen standen auch noch
40.000 Euro Preisgeld zur Disposition, von dem 10.000 Euro auf den Sieger
entfielen. Die 160 Teilnehmer spielten 9 Doppelrunden (je eine Partie mit Weiß
und eine mit Schwarz) im Schweizer System mit einer Bedenkzeit von "3+2". Mit
13,5 Punkten setzte sich Maxime Vachier-Lagrave als Sieger durch. Xiangzhi
Bu, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Rauf Mamedov, Boris Savchenko und Boris Grachev belegten
mit je 13 Punkten die folgenden Plätze. Yana Melnikova hat Bilder des Spektakels
eingefangen Turnierseite... Tabelle, Bilder...
The prestigious Aeroflot Open that featured 75 Grandmasters and five International Masters in the main Group A concluded on Wednesday with Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem claiming the clear first place by collecting 7 points from nine games. On the final day he defeated the 2008 Aeroflot winner Ian Nepomniachtchi, rounding up an impressive performance on the Russian tour as earlier he shared first place at the equally tough Moscow Open.
Among the women players at Aeroflot GM Yifan Hou, GM Tatiana Kosintseva, and IM Nadezhda Kosintseva shared places 45-64 with 4,0/9. IM Javakhishvili and GM Sebag were a point behind with 3,0/9.
The 16-year-old Wesley So, the Philippines highest-rated player with an Elo of 2656, made a short draw in the ninth round match against Venezuela's GM Eduardo Iturrizaga (Elo 2616) to finish in a tie for 7th to 19th places with 5.5 points on three wins, five draws and one loss. After the tie break point was applied, So finished 11th in the final standings. This guaranteed him the top junior position.
In group B, IM Pridorozhni, GM Glek, GM Dvoirys, IM Pavlov, and GM Panarin finished with 6,5/9 and shared the first position, with the gold going to IM Pridorozhni on better tiebreak.
Group A final standings: 1 GM Le Quang Liem - 7.0 VIE 2647 2 GM Korobov Anton - 6.5 UKR 2648 3 GM Motylev Alexander - 6.0 RUS 2697 4 GM Zhou Jianchao - 6.0 CHN 2632 5 GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son - 6.0 VIE 2616 6 GM Grachev Boris - 6.0 RUS 2653 7 GM Cheparinov Ivan - 5.5 BUL 2660 8 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime - 5.5 FRA 2730 9 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian - 5.5 RUS 2658 10 GM Bu Xiangzhi - 5.5 CHN 2673 11 GM So Wesley - 5.5 PHI 2656 12 GM Sargissian Gabriel - 5.5 ARM 2680 13 GM Savchenko Boris - 5.5 RUS 2638 14 GM Bacrot Etienne - 5.5 FRA 2713 15 GM Timofeev Artyom - 5.5 RUS 2652 16 GM Bareev Evgeny - 5.5 RUS 2643 17 GM Najer Evgeniy - 5.5 RUS 2665 18 GM Iturrizaga Eduardo - 5.5 VEN 2616 19 GM Dreev Alexey - 5.5 RUS 2650 20 GM Mamedov Rauf - 5.0 AZE 2640 21 GM Novikov Stanislav - 5.0 RUS 2557 22 GM Salgado Lopez Ivan - 5.0 ESP 2584 23 GM Volokitin Andrei - 5.0 UKR 2692 24 GM Zvjaginsev Vadim - 5.0 RUS 2642 25 GM Kobalia Mikhail - 5.0 RUS 2637 26 GM Khairullin Ildar - 5.0 RUS 2605 27 GM Khalifman Alexander - 5.0 RUS 2616 28 GM Grigoriants Sergey - 5.0 RUS 2560 29 GM Belov Vladimir - 5.0 RUS 2595 30 GM Sasikiran Krishnan - 5.0 IND 2653 31 GM Melkumyan Hrant - 5.0 ARM 2583 32 GM Pashikian Arman - 5.0 ARM 2647 33 GM Naiditsch Arkadij - 5.0 GER 2687 34 GM Vescovi Giovanni - 5.0 BRA 2660 35 GM Kamsky Gata - 5.0 USA 2693 36 GM McShane Luke J - 5.0 ENG 2616 37 GM Amonatov Farrukh - 5.0 TJK 2634 38 GM Predojevic Borki - 5.0 BIH 2642 39 GM Tregubov Pavel V. - 5.0 RUS 2628 etc
World Blitz Chess Championship Preliminaries - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave takes clear first place, five
The 2010 World Blitz Championship Preliminaries were held on 18th February 2010 in Moscow, Russia. The qualifier was part of the Aeroflot Open 2010 and it took place in the same venue - complex "Izmailovo". World Junior Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France won six matches, drew three, and took the clear first place with 13.5 individual points.
Nhan Dan – Vietnamese chess master Le Quang Liem won the championship of the 2010 Aeroflot Open on February 18.
Liem topped the tournament and won the prize money of EUR 21,000 after five wins and four draws. With this victory, his Elo rate also rose to 25.8.
Earlier, the Vietnamese master had snatched the bronze at the Moscow Open.
The Aeroflot Open is an international chess event, held annually in Russia. The tournament this year drew the participation of such grand chess masters as Vachier-Lagrave, Bacrot Etienne from France, Kamsky Gata from the USA, Motylev Alexander from Russia and Bu Xiangzhi from China etc.
Echecs en Blitz à Moscou : Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vainqueur !
Cerise sur le gâteau après l'Open d'échecs Aeroflot, un fabuleux tournoi de Blitz est organisé aujourd'hui à Moscou. Sur la ligne de départ 20 joueurs vont s'affronter en match aller retour. Enjeu, la qualification pour le championnat du monde 2010 et des prix qui valent le détour, avec une bourse globale de 40.000 euros dont 10.000 € au vainqueur du jour.
Le Direct Live à 8h (heure de Paris)
A titre d'illustration, la championne du monde d'échecs Alexandra Kosteniuk dissèque sa victoire en blitz face au numéro un mondial Magnus Carlsen sur le thème pièce touchée, pièce jouée. Un peu comme au foot avec Thierry Henry face aux Irlandais, Alexandra nous propose plusieurs ralentis du fautif T3e2. Cette fois, la faute de main est sanctionnée : les échecs, c'est sport !
La 9ème édition de l'Open Aeroflot se déroule à Moscou du 8 au 19 Février 2010 dans les salons de l'hôtel Izmailovo (Gamma-Delta) qui se situe à 10 kilomètres du centre-ville de Moscou.
La 9ème édition de l'Open Aeroflot se déroule à Moscou du 8 au 19 Février 2010 dans les salons de l'hôtel Izmailovo (Gamma-Delta) qui se situe à 10 kilomètres du centre-ville de Moscou.
La 9ème édition de l'Open Aeroflot se déroule à Moscou du 8 au 19 Février 2010 dans les salons de l'hôtel Izmailovo (Gamma-Delta) qui se situe à 10 kilomètres du centre-ville de Moscou.
La novena edición del Festival Internacional de Ajedrez "Aeroflot 2010", tiene lugar del 9 al 18 de febrero de 2010 en el hotel "Gamma-Delta", por quinta vez consecutiva, dentro del complejo turístico "Ismailovo". La bolsa de premios asciende a 180.000 euros, teniendo en cuenta el fondo de premios del Campeonato del Mundo de Ajedrez Relámpago. El torneo más interesante, debido a la fuerza de juego de los participantes (cuyo Elo promedio es de 2550 o superior), será el torneo "A1". Los favoritos según su puntuación Elo son los franceses Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Elo 2730) y Etienne Bacrot (Elo 2713). En total hay 4 competiciones diferentes: A1, A2, B y C. Ronda 1...
After finishing shared first at the Moscow Open, Le Quang Liem continues strongly at the Aeroflot Open. The Vietnamese grandmaster leads with 3/3 – he’s the only player left with a 100% score.
The 9th Aeroflot Open takes place February 9-17 2010 in Moscow, Russia. It’s one of the biggest tournaments (and certainly the strongest) of the calendar, and as always sponsored by airline company Aeroflot and organized by the Russian Chess Federation in cooperation with the Committee on Tourism of the Municipality of Moscow. The festival has the same prize fund as in 2009 amounting a total of 180,000 EUR (which includes the prizes for the World Blitz Qualification Tournament which will be held afterwards).
Time flies; it’s already five years ago that yours truly played in the event, which took place in the famous Hotel Russia next to Red Square for the last time in 2005 (the hotel, the biggest in the world, doesn’t exist anymore). Already for the fifth time, the Aeroflot Open is held outside the city centre, in hotel “Gamma – Delta” of the tourist complex “Izmailovo”, where almost all participants also stay.
The 'Delta' section of the hotel complex
As always, the players are divided by rating over four open tournaments (A1, A2, B and C). Naturally, the greatest interest is aroused by the A1 tournament, in which a rating above 2550 is required. Top seeds in this group are the two top GMs from France Vachier-Lagrave (2730) and last year’s winner Etienne Bacrot (2713). Their main rivals are Alexander Motylev (2697), Gata Kamsky (2693) and Andrei Volokitin (2692). Other big names include Ivan Cheparinov, Bu Xiangzhi, Alexander Khalifman, Gabriel Sargissian, Arkadij Naiditsch, Wesley So, Evgeny Bareev, Loek van Wely, Luke McShane, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hou Yifan, Marie Sebag and Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva.
Hotel 'Gamma - Delta' of the tourist complex 'Izmailovo'
18-year-old Le Quang Liem became World Youth Champion Under-14 in July 2005, and continues to improve rapidly. In September last year he won the 4th Kolkata Open ahead of 13 higher-rated players and last week he finished shared first at the Moscow Open with an undefeated 7/9. At the Aeroflot Open he’s the only player who won his first three games.
Jianchao Zhou vs Vachier-Lagrave and next to them Le Quang Liem, who beat Bu Xiangzhi in round 3
Bu Xiangzhi and Le Quang Liem lead Aeroflot - Kosintseva sisters continue their good performance
GM Le Quang Liem and GM Bu Xingzhi are the only players with full score after round 2 of Aeroflot open. GM Wesley So, GM Safarli, GM Nguyen, GM Vachier Lagrave, and GM Sanan Sjugirov all scored victories in round 2 and are close to the leaders.
The International Chess Festival Aeroflot Open 2010 will be held in Moscow from 8 February to 19 February 2010. This will be the 9th edition of the Aeroflot Open and for the fifth year in a roll the competition will take place in the major tourist complex "Izmailovo" - hotel "Gamma – Delta".
The Festival consists of four Open Tournaments (A1, A2, B and C), which will be filled according to the participants' ratings. Additional to these events, the qualification for the World Blitz Chess Championship 2010 (the reigning champion is Magnus Carlsen) will be held within the festival.
Naturally, the most interest is aroused by A1 tournament, requiring from a player a rating above 2550. The winner of this group earns invitation for the 2010 Dortmund round-robin tournament. The last-year champion Etienne Bacrot is still not on the provisional list of players (Update: Bacrot is now confirmed participant), but the field will be incredibly strong with the World Junior Chess Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Bu Xiangzhi, Alexander Motylev, Vladimir Volokitin, Ivan Cheparinov, Gabriel Sargassian and Evgeny Najer among the top-seeded.
Former Aeroflot winners, from 2002 onwards, are Gregory Kaidanov (USA), Viktor Bologan (Moldova), Sergei Rublevsky (Russia), Emil Sutovsky (Israel), Baadur Jobava (Georgia), Evgeny Alekseev (Russia), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and in 2009 Etienne Bacrot (France).
The total prize fund of the four tournaments is EUR 140 000
Tournament A1: for chessplayers with a FIDE rating higher than 2549, 1st Prize - 21 000 EUR
Tournament A2: for chessplayers with a FIDE rating less than 2550, but higher than 2399, 1st Prize - 9 000 EUR
Tournament B: for chessplayers with a FIDE rating less than 2400, but higher than 2199, 1st Prize - 3 500 EUR
Tournament C: for chessplayers with a FIDE rating lower than 2200 or without rating, 1st Prize - 2 000 eur
The qualifier for the World Blitz Championship 2010 (Final) will take place on 18th February 2010, in the same venue (complex "Izmailovo"), as a double nine-round Swiss Blitz Tournament will be held. The final tournament will take place in Moscow in November 2010. It will consist of 20 players (10 participants of Mikhail Tal Memorial 2010, 6 winners of the Qualification Tournament of Feb.18, 2010 and four to six wild cards named by the Organizers). The prize fund of the Qualification Tournament is EUR 40 000.
La 9ème édition de l'Open Aeroflot se déroule à Moscou du 8 au 19 Février 2010 dans les salons de l'hôtel Izmailovo (Gamma-Delta) qui se situe à 10 kilomètres du centre-ville de Moscou. La première ronde a lieu aujourd'hui à 15h, soit à 13h heure française.
Cette année, plusieurs Français font le déplacement dont le champion du monde junior d'échecs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (en photo ci-contre), Etienne Bacrot, Sébastien Feller ou encore Marie Sebag.
Comme d'habitude, la concurrence sera relevée à Moscou avec la participation de stars du jeu tels Bu Xiangzhi, Alexander Motylev, Vladimir Volokitin, Ivan Cheparinov, Gabriel Sargassian ou encore Evgeny Najer pour les mieux classés.
In quanti Open l’Elo minimo per partecipare al torneo principale è fissato a 2550 punti? Che io sappia solo in uno, cioè l’Open più forte del mondo: l’Aeroflot di Mosca! Anche in questo periodo di crisi, grazie alla sponsorizzazione della più grande compagnia aerea russa, il montepremi rimane identico a quello dell'edizione 2009: 140.000 euro complessivi, di cui 70.000 al torneo principale (21.000 al vincitore).
La Compagnia aerea russa Aeroflot, sponsor del torneo
L’Aeroflot attira sempre molti forti giocatori, come si può notare scorrendo la notevole lista dei prescritti over-2650 di quest’anno:
Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA 2730 Bacrot Etienne FRA 2713 Motylev Alexander RUS 2697 Kamsky Gata USA 2693 Volokitin Andrei UKR 2692 Naiditsh Arkadij GER 2687 Sargissian Gabriel ARM 2680 Moiseenko Alexander UKR 2677 Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2673 Smirin Ilia ISR 2668 Zhigalko Sergey BLR 2668 Najer Evgeniy RUS 2665 Cheparinov Ivan BUL 2660 Vescovi Giovanni BRA 2660 Nepomniachtchi Ian RUS 2658 Efimenko Zahar UKR 2657 So Wesley PHI 2656 Grachev Boris RUS 2653 Sasikiran Krishnan IND 2653 Timofeev Artyom RUS 2652 Dreev Alexey RUS 2650
Vachier-Lagrave, n° 1 del tabellone
Finora risultano preiscritti poco meno di 300 giocatori, 76 dei quali nel torneo principale, ma mancano ancora due giorni all'inizio del torneo e la lista è in continuo aggiornamento.
Qualcuno forse ricorderà che lo scorso anno vinse Etienne Bacrot con 6,5 su 9 per spareggio tecnico su Alexander Moiseenko. Entrambi partecipano anche quest'anno.
Etienne Bacrot, vincitore dell'edizione 2009
Sono invece sicuro che tutti ricordano il clamoroso ritiro di Shakhriyar Mamedyarov dopo la partita giocata contro Igor Kurnosov, accusato di aver fatto uso di un computer durante il gioco!All'epoca pubblicammo anche un'intervista esclusiva a Mamedyarov, realizzata dal mitico Ludwig Rettore (QUI). Com'era prevedibile, quest'anno Mamedyarov non ci sarà, così come Kurnosov.
Una fase della famosa Mamedyarov-Kurnosov, Aeroflot 2009
La manifestazione prevede quattro tornei: A1 per giocatori con Elo da 2550, A2 (da 2400 a 2549), B (da 2200 a 2399) e C (sotto 2200).
Sono previsti 9 turni di gioco. I tornei A1 e A2 si disputeranno dal 9 al 17 febbraio, sempre alle ore 15 (le 13 in Italia). Gli altri tornei prevedono un doppio turno e, di conseguenza, termineranno il 16 febbraio.
Tempo di riflessione.A1 e A2: 2 ore per 40 mosse + 50 minuti per 20 mosse + 30 secondi di incremento a mossa; B e C: 90 minuti + 30 secondi di incremento a mossa.
A fine torneo ci sarà una “coda” di altissimo livello: infatti il 18 verrà disputato un torneo Blitz che metterà in palio un montepremi di 40.000 euro (10.000 al primo classificato) e qualificherà 6 giocatori per la finale del World Blitz Championship 2010, prevista a Mosca a novembre!
Caruana fa il suo esordio nella Bundesliga 2009/10
Caruana - Berndtsabato Live h.14 Fruebing - Caruana domenica Live h.10
In questo fine settimana si svolgeranno tre turni (7°, 8° e 9°) del campionato tedesco a squadre, stagione 2009/10. Dopo le recenti fatiche del Corus farà il suo esordio nella manifestazione Fabiano Caruana, impegnato con lo squadrone del OSGBaden-Baden. La squadra campione in carica annovera, tra le sue file, Super Campioni del calibro di Anand, Carlsen, Svidler e Shirov, con i primi due che però non sono stati ancora impiegati.
Fabiano, che nella precedente stagione è stato utilizzato in due occasioni (due patte, con il GM Dgebuadze ed il MI Kolbus) affronterà due giocatori tedeschi: il trentaseienne MI Stephan Berndt (2442) e il MF Stefan Fruebing (2337), di 22 anni, che si sta comportando ottimamente in questa Bundesliga (3/5, performance 2574).
i due avversari di Caruana, MI Berndt e MF Fruebing
Per comprendere il livello del torneo sono sufficienti pochi numeri: 275 giocatori, 23 nazioni e 13 over 2700, anche se sinora hanno giocato solo Svidler, Shirov, Vachier-Lagrave, Eljanov, Movsesian e Bacrot. Dopo sette turni l'OSG Baden-Baden guida la classifica a punteggio pieno, tallonato ad solo un punto di distanza dal Werder Brema (Gashimov e Mamedyarov, non ancora schierati, ed Eljanov). Il Big Match si svolgerà il 27 febbraio.
Bacrot, Movsesian e Adams, prime tre scacchiere del Baden Baden in questo w-end
Nei turni precedenti precedenti segnaliamo un clamorosoinfortunio occorso al Super GM Alexei Shirov contro il GM tedesco Michael Bezold
Calendario il torneo vede la partecipazione di 16 squadre e si svolge con un girone all'italiana di sola andata (15 turni). I prossimi turni si svolgeranno il 27 e 28 febbraio, il 20 e il 21 marzo e il 10 e 11 aprile.
Sistema di punteggio i match si disputano su 8 scacchiere e vengono assegnati 2 punti per la vittoria, 1 per il pareggio e 0 per la sconfitta. In caso di arrivo a pari merito, si considera la somma dei punti individuali ottenuti.
Tempo di riflessione 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita più 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.
The 8th and 9th round of the Schachbundesliga and three matches from round 7 will take place from the 5th to the 7th of February 2010. We provide you with the pairings at the playing venues Munich, Mülheim, Berlin and Remagen. Some famous Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar participants are joining for their Baden-Baden team…
OSG Baden-Baden is the only team of the Schachbundesliga left without any loss of points. The upcoming weekend the German champion will face the two teams of Berlin and is odds-on favourite. Under the same precondition starts the only serious competitor for the title Werder Bremen. Bremen is facing the teams of München and Erfurt. Both of them are relegation candidates. Some interesting derbies are taking place in Mülheim, where the host is facing Katernberg and Wattenscheid for the “hegemony in the West”.
All line-ups of the teams in Berlin, e.g. OSG Baden-Baden, are published two days in advance. This is carried out due to the new rule, which was implemented from the beginning of this season.
Live coverage
All games of the Schachbundesliga are covered live on the Internet. At the particular date of the matches you can get access to the games via the website of the Schachbundesliga.
8th round: Saturday, 6th of February 2010, 2 pm
Playing venue Munich
Bayern München – Hamburger SK
Erfurter SK – Werder Bremen
Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SV Wattenscheid
SF Katernberg – SK Turm Emsdetten
Playing venue Berlin
SK König Tegel – SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
SF Berlin - OSG Baden-Baden
1 Jan Markos (2565) - Etienne Bacrot (2709)
2 Arnd Lauber (2517) - Sergei Movsesian (2711)
3 Rainer Polzin (2491) - Michael Adams (2682)
4 Martin Krämer (2482) - Arkadij Naiditsch (2685)
5 Ilja Schneider (2500) - Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2664)
6 Stephan Berndt (2442) - Fabiano Caruana (2662)
7 Mikail Agopov (2452) - Jan Gustafsson (2622)
8 Lars Thiede (2450) - Philipp Schlosser (2555)
Matches of the 7th round: Friday, 5th of February 2010
Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SF Katernberg (4pm)
Playing venue Berlin
SF Berlin – SK König Tegel (4pm)
Playing venue Remagen
SC Remagen – SG Solingen (5pm)
Bundesliga 0910 | Current Standings
Teams
1. OSC Baden-Baden
1 Anand, Viswanathan GM IND 2788
2 Carlsen, Magnus GM NOR 2772
3 Svidler, Peter GM RUS 2739
4 Shirov, Alexei GM ESP 2732
5 Bacrot, Etienne GM FRA 2721
6 Movsesian, Sergej GM SVK 2716
7 Adams, Michael GM ENG 2699
8 Naiditsch, Arkadij GM GER 2697
9 Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2693
10 Nielsen, Peter-Heine GM DEN 2680
11 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2675
12 Caruana, Fabiano GM ITA 2670
13 Gustafsson, Jan GM GER 2622
14 Dautov, Rustem GM GER 2596
15 Doettling, Fabian GER 2571
16 Schlosser, Philipp GER 2560
17 Dinger, Florian GER 2391
18 Hager, Joshua Aarasch GER 2217
9. SF Katernberg
1 Volokitin, Andrei GM UKR 2678
2 Chuchelov, Vladimir GM BEL 2598
3 Firman, Nazar IM UKR 2571
4 Seel, Christian IM GER 2493
5 Bischoff, Klaus GM GER 2551
6 Halkias, Stelios GM GRE 2564
7 Glek, Igor V GM GER 2528
8 Zaragatski, Ilja IM GER 2472
9 Senff, Martin IM GER 2469
10 Ris, Robert IM NED 2421
11 Thesing, Matthias IM GER 2436
12 Siebrecht, Sebastian GM GER 2458
13 Scholz, Christian IM GER 2373
14 Hoolt, Sarah WIM GER 2240
15 Rosen, Bernd FM GER 2355
16 Geilmann, Ulrich GER 1837
17 Kotainy, Jens GER 2270
2. Werder Bremen
1 Gashimov, Vugar GM AZE 2740
2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar GM AZE 2717
3 McShane, Luke James GM ENG 2620
4 Eljanov, Pavel GM UKR 2716
5 Efimenko, Zahar GM UKR 2654
6 Fressinet, Laurent GM FRA 2667
7 Meier, Georg GM GER 2658
8 Areshchenko, Alexander GM UKR 2651
9 Roiz, Michael GM ISR 2658
10 Nyback, Tomi GM FIN 2627
11 Hracek, Zbynek GM CZE 2608
12 Babula, Vlastimil GM CZE 2566
13 Llaneza Vega, Marcos IM ESP 2521
14 Fish, Gennadij GM GER 2508
15 Skripchenko, Almira IM FRA 2450
16 Knaak, Rainer GM GER 2484
17 Lichman, Peter GER 2317
10. SK Turm Emsdetten
1 Mchedlishvili, Mikheil GM GEO 2592
2 Giri, Anish GM NED 2518
3 Spoelman, Wouter IM NED 2546
4 Hector, Jonny GM SWE 2556
5 Feygin, Michael IM GER 2546
6 Janssen, Ruud IM NED 2527
7 Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2525
8 Bellon Lopez, Juan Manuel GM ESP 2445
9 Brandenburg, Daan IM NED 2463
10 Breder, Dennis IM GER 2435
11 Fiebig, Thomas GER 2426
12 Pruijssers, Roeland IM NED 2401
13 Kabatianski, Alexandr IM GER 2425
14 Richter, Christian FM GER 2417
15 Zumsande, Martin IM GER 2403
16 Bosman, Michiel FM NED 2356
3. SC Eppingen
1 Tiviakov, Sergei GM NED 2674
2 Postny, Evgeny GM ISR 2647
3 Berkes, Ferenc GM HUN 2647
4 Balogh, Csaba GM HUN 2595
5 Gyimesi, Zoltan GM HUN 2591
6 Ruck, Robert GM HUN 2561
7 Acs, Peter GM HUN 2550
8 Braun, Arik GM GER 2529
9 Bindrich, Falko GM GER 2516
10 Medvegy, Zoltan GM HUN 2547
11 Guliyev, Namig GM AZE 2555
12 Muzychuk, Anna IM SLO 2542
13 Paehtz, Elisabeth IM GER 2474
14 Mann, Christian IM GER 2454
15 Vogt, Lothar GM GER 2422
16 Dekan, Hans GER 2179
17 Noe, Christopher GER 1798
11. SF Berlin
1 Nataf, Igor-Alexandre GM FRA 2529
2 Markos, Jan GM SVK 2555
3 Miezis, Normunds GM LAT 2572
4 Lauber, Arnd IM GER 2517
5 Polzin, Rainer GM GER 2491
6 Kraemer, Martin IM GER 2481
7 Schneider, Ilja IM GER 2508
8 Berndt, Stephan IM GER 2442
9 Agopov, Mikail IM FIN 2442
10 Brynell, Stellan GM SWE 2471
11 Thiede, Lars IM GER 2452
12 Thinius, Marco IM GER 2375
13 Degtiarev, Evgeny FM GER 2373
14 Rudolf, Henrik FM GER 2353
15 Wintzer, Joachim Dr. FM GER 2384
16 Lundin, Jan FM SWE 2382
17 Abel, Dennes GER 2328
18 Glantz, Robert GER 2239
4. SV Mülheim-Nord
1 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam GM UZB 2672
2 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime GM FRA 2703
3 Motylev, Alexander GM RUS 2710
4 Tregubov, Pavel V. GM RUS 2652
5 Landa, Konstantin GM RUS 2655
6 Fridman, Daniel GM GER 2665
7 Potkin, Vladimir GM RUS 2619
8 Golod, Vitali GM ISR 2599
9 Malakhatko, Vadim GM BEL 2570
10 Berelovich, Alexander GM GER 2550
11 Levin, Felix GM GER 2491
12 Hausrath, Daniel GM GER 2519
13 Saltaev, Mihail GM UZB 2505
14 Schebler, Gerhard GM GER 2486
15 Litwak, Aleksej FM GER 2268
16 Kaufeld, Juergen FM GER 2274
17 Wittenberg, Andreas GER 2129
18 Kahleys, Kevin GER 1986
12. SG Trier
1 Lupulescu, Constantin GM ROU 2620
2 Bobras, Piotr GM POL 2568
3 Cyborowski, Lukasz GM POL 2498
4 Haslinger, Stewart GM ENG 2538
5 Gordon, Stephen IM ENG 2537
6 Jaracz, Pawel GM POL 2539
7 Erdoes, Viktor GM HUN 2565
8 Flumbort, Andras IM HUN 2507
9 Gonda, Laszlo IM HUN 2499
10 Galyas, Miklos IM HUN 2457
11 Seger, Ruediger IM GER 2405
12 Kolbus, Dietmar IM GER 2383
13 Cioara, Andrei Nestor IM ROU 2437
14 Goriachnik, Dmitry MDA 2324
15 Rat, Dan Ovidiu FM ROU 2315
16 Jeitz, Christian LUX 2221
17 Korman, Maxim GER 2172
5. SG Solingen
1 Stellwagen, Daniel GM NED 2630
2 Smeets, Jan GM NED 2632
3 Nikolic, Predrag GM BIH 2602
4 Buhmann, Rainer GM GER 2603
5 Werle, Jan GM NED 2575
6 Edouard, Romain GM FRA 2597
7 Jussupow, Artur GM GER 2570
8 L’Ami, Erwin GM NED 2593
9 Ragger, Markus GM AUT 2563
10 Ernst, Sipke GM NED 2598
11 Naumann, Alexander GM GER 2522
12 Hoffmann, Michael GM GER 2502
13 Gabriel, Christian GM GER 2507
14 Drabke, Lorenz Maximilian IM GER 2455
15 Wegerle, Joerg IM GER 2430
16 Schaefer, Markus IM GER 2378
17 Hobusch, Alexander GER 2103
18 Hannewald, Anton GER 1931
13. FC Bayern München
1 Bezold, Michael GM GER 2517
2 Bromberger, Stefan IM GER 2510
3 Schenk, Andreas IM GER 2509
4 Marcelin, Cyril GM FRA 2498
5 Boensch, Uwe GM GER 2511
6 Stangl, Markus GM GER 2455
7 Reiss, Tibor IM HUN 2414
8 Renner, Christoph IM GER 2431
9 Belezky, Alexander IM UKR 2446
10 Meissner, Bernd IM GER 2410
11 Meister, Peter IM GER 2396
12 Reich, Thomas IM GER 2368
13 Rodewis, Thomas Dr. GER 2367
14 Unzicker, Ferdinand Dr. GER 2332
15 Deglmann, Ludwig FM GER 2329
16 Lentrodt, Thomas FM GER 2304
17 Jorczik, Julian FM GER 2352
18 Graf, Felix GER 2291
6. Hamburger SK
1 Wojtaszek, Radoslav GM POL 2637
2 Kempinski, Robert GM POL 2601
3 Ghaem, Maghami Ehsan GM IRI 2589
4 Baramidze, David GM GER 2527
5 Adly, Ahmed GM EGY 2548
6 Rogozenco, Dorian GM ROU 2541
7 Hansen, Sune Berg HDEN 2554
8 Rasmussen, Allan Stig GM DEN 2536
9 Ftacnik, Lubomir Dr. GM SVK 2525
10 Mueller, Karsten Dr. GM GER 2523
11 Heinemann, Thies IM GER 2484
12 Chevelevitch, Evgueni Dr. IM GER 2461
13 Reeh, Oliver IM GER 2442
14 Huschenbeth, Niclas IM GER 2416
15 Sebastian, Dirk GER 2443
16 Van Delft, Merijn IM NED 2360
17 Carlstedt, Jonathan GER 2309
18 Bracker, Frank GER 2280
14. Erfurter SK
1 Romanov, Evgeny GM RUS 2589
2 Haba, Petr GM CZE 2533
3 Michiels, Bart IM BEL 2451
4 Kuczynski, Robert GM POL 2505
5 Casper, Thomas IM GER 2395
6 Votava, Jan GM CZE 2561
7 Enders, Peter GM GER 2467
8 Mueller, Matthias IM GER 2410
9 Voekler, Bernd FM GER 2393
10 Schoene, Maria WIM GER 2274
11 Troyke, Christian IM GER 2350
12 Schuetze, Norman GER 2278
13 Brueggemann, Joachim IM GER 2356
14 Krueger, Rainer Dr. GER 2211
15 Troyke, Doreen WFM GER 2105
16 Duzy, Stefan GER 1545
17 Friedt, Marius GER 1885
7. SV Wattenscheid
1 Vitiugov, Nikita GM RUS 2681
2 Najer, Evgeniy GM RUS 2663
3 Macieja, Bartlomiej GM POL 2612
4 Bartel, Mateusz GM POL 2619
5 Czarnota, Pawel GM POL 2530
6 Rustemov, Alexander GM RUS 2532
7 Johannessen, Leif Erlend GM NOR 2553
8 Appel, Ralf GM GER 2552
9 Holzke, Frank Dr. GM GER 2526
10 Handke, Florian GM GER 2513
11 Souleidis, Georgios IM GRE 2435
12 Dinstuhl, Volkmar Dr. IM GER 2417
13 Tereick, Benjamin FM GER 2378
14 Straeter, Timo FM GER 2347
15 Thiel, Thomas FM GER 2280
16 Gohla, Ulf GER 2181
17 Koerber, Matthias GER 1898
15. SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
1 Ikonnikov, Viacheslav GM RUS 2556
2 Svetushkin, Dmitry GM MDA 2607
3 Ginsburg, Gennadi GM GER 2537
4 Gurevic, Vladimir GM UKR 2470
5 Chernov, Vadim IM ROU 2433
6 Solomunovic, Igor IM GER 2421
7 Gerigk, Erasmus FM GER 2335
8 Schwalfenberg, Joerg FM GER 2317
9 Maier, Christian IM GER 2347
10 Vatter, Hans-Joachim FM GER 2302
11 Syska, Albert FM GER 2268
12 Nippgen, Georg GER 2272
13 Roos, Jean-Luc IM FRA 2250
14 Neunhoeffer, Helmut Dr FM GER 2281
15 Pielmeier, Thomas GER 2231
16 Schott, Reimund FRA 2019
8. SC Remagen
1 Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2703
2 Fedorchuk, Sergey GM UKR 2655
3 Gharamian, Tigran GM FRA 2615
4 Goloshchapov, Alexander GM UKR 2580
5 Parligras, Mircea GM ROU 2557
6 Huebner, Robert Dr. GM GER 2605
7 Degraeve, Jean-Marc GM FRA 2559
8 Dgebuadze, Alexandre GM BEL 2516
9 Mainka, Romuald GM GER 2521
10 Swinkels, Robin IM NED 2516
11 Teske, Henrik GM GER 2536
12 Popovic, Petar GM SRB 2496
13 Polaczek, Richard IM BEL 2381
14 Kipper, Jens GER 2393
15 Schulz, Klaus-Juergen IM GER 2385
16 Bok, Benjamin FM NED 2360
16. SK König Tegel
1 Rabiega, Robert GM GER 2551
2 Stern, Rene IM GER 2498
3 Muse, Mladen GM CRO 2448
4 Von Herman, Ulf IM GER 2400
5 Muse, Drazen IM CRO 2374
6 Fruebing, Stefan FM GER 2305
7 Tomczak, Rainer FM GER 2287
8 Mielitz, Heinz GER
9 Sarbok, Torsten FM GER 2319
10 Breier, Andreas FM GER 2405
11 Giemsa, Stephan FM GER 2301
12 Jahnz, Fabian GER 2191
13 Jaehnisch, Frank GER 2230
14 Roth, Josef GER 2152
15 Schulz, Stefanie GER 2109
16 Rausch, Manfred GER 1689
17 Kachibadze, Georg GER 2224
The 9th Aeroflot Open takes place 8th February - 19th February 2010. This is the strongest open of the year. Players include: Bacrot, Bu Xiangzhi, Cheparinov, Motylev, Khalifman, Niaditsch, Nepomniatchi, Sargissian, Sasikiran, Smirin, Timofeev, Vachier-Lagrave, Van Wely and Zvjaginsev.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (18ème mondial, 2730 Elo), Champion du Monde Junior d'échecs 2009 et meilleur joueur français sera désormais soutenu financièrement par une entreprise.
En effet, AOS Studley, société de conseil en immobilier et dont le PDG Gilles Betthaeuser est un grand passionné d'échecs, a souhaité accompagner la progression de Maxime parmi l'élite mondiale. Un parrainage ambitieux sur 3 ans qui permettra au jeune français de se doter d'une équipe de secondants, de mieux préparer et participer aux plus grandes compétitions et, a terme, de pouvoir rivaliser avec les plus grands champions de notre discipline!
Maxime est un génie précoce des échecs : il joue depuis l’âge de 5 ans, et a remporté dès 13 ans son premier titre de champion de France dans la catégorie des moins de 20 ans. Aujourd’hui, à 19 ans, il a à son actif de nombreux titres gagnés dans de prestigieux tournois face à des joueurs du top 10 mondial, comme Boris Gelfand et Alexandre Morozevich.
Actuellement 18ème joueur mondial, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave a acquis le titre de Grand-Maître International, la plus prestigieuse distinction du monde des échecs, et gagné l’an dernier les championnats du monde junior.
A propos d’AOS Studley
AOS Studley est un acteur majeur du conseil en immobilier. Son positionnement 100% utilisateurs lui confère une indépendance totale vis-à-vis du marché immobilier et de ses acteurs. Présent dans 11 pays, il compte 420 collaborateurs et a réalisé en 2008 un chiffre d’affaires de 70 millions d’€uros.
AOS Studley intervient à chaque étape du cycle de vie de l’immobilier d’entreprise. Le groupe accompagne plus de 600 grands comptes utilisateurs, entreprises et institutionnels, depuis la stratégie immobilière jusqu’à la mise en oeuvre de projets complexes.
Partenaire stratégique, Studley est le leader indépendant du conseil immobilier auprès des utilisateurs aux Etats-Unis avec 180 millions d’€uros de CA, 19 bureaux répartis sur l’ensemble du territoire américain et un effectif de 500 professionnels. Ce mariage permet à AOS et Studley de présenter une offre de services enrichie sur un périmètre géographique étendu.
Contact pour la presse Philippe Etienne : 06 11 95 38 30 / philippe@phecom.com, Alix Gauthier : 06 88 81 86 08 : a.gauthier@aos-studley.fr
On sentait bien qu'il allait y avoir du sport lors de ce 57ème Rapide du Canal au café I.
Malgré la défection de Frédéric Guerlach, tombeur officiel de François Guedj, pour cause de mauvais temps et celles de Long John (coincé au lit avec la délicate BRP - une garce d'après lui), de Pat la Menace, de Dume (du beau, du bon du Dume), de Besnus le Burnous, de Chris La Levrette et du néo back clichien multi-lauréat , et les disparitions aussi soudaines qu'inexpliquées de l'Hugo Boss des échecs, du Brésilien Bruno Rodrigues, du Parango du Luco et de la belle Thierry (ils seront tous mis à l'amende), les compétiteurs ont eu de quoi lutter.
Beaucoup de come-backs lors de ce 57ème Rapide. Qu'on en juge :
Il n'était pas revenu au Café I depuis 2 ans. Il a encore le bonheur de causer de temps en temps à l'adorable Caroline Mansfeld (pas nous, snif !). Bien lui prit de revenir à la compétition. Julien Blondel crève le plafond, 4 points sur 5 (seul Clém La Rabine réussit à lui ravir le point).
Il n'avait plus joué depuis Clermont-Ferrand. Non ce n'est pas le frère du très talentueux footballeur de Nancy. C'est Clém La Rabine qui lui a glissé l'adresse. Mohamed Hadji réussit à placer 3 points. Sympa, pour un début.
Il n'avait plus fait de matchs officiels depuis une dizaine d'années. La star des années 90, le bisontin Edouard Bonnet, camarade des combats de jeunesse de Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, revient à la compétition grâce au Café I. Il marque 4 points sur 5 également, en concédant deux nulles : contre Sergueï et contre Nicolas Maleki.
Retour également de Celle qui avait précédé le Général des Zouaves à la tête de la Guilde. Elle faisait quelques fois de timides apparitions au Café I, en ayant toujours beaucoup de mal pour me faire ne serait-ce qu'un salut amical; eh bien, hier soir, elle a sauté le pas. Paf ! Et elle ne s'en sort pas trop mal : 3,5 points sur 5 dans un tournoi ma foi fort relevé (défaite contre Stéf l'Aquitain, et nulle contre le roi du Guidon). Bonval'Pif mérite des applaudissements... pour une fois !
Franck Petitpas, quant à lui, n'avait plus joué depuis 6 mois. Cela lui réussit plutôt pas mal. Accompagné de son frangin Steven, et d'une môme adorable, il réussit à tout empaqueter et s'adjuge ce 57ème Rapide comme un seul homme, avec une performance stratosphérique de GMI à 2620 ! Les deux maîtres internationaux présents à la soirée, JB (l'amateur de "Nanard") et Samy qui va bientôt s'embarquer pour l'Egypte, en était tout admiratifs !
Frank Petitpas entre ainsi au Panthéon des échecs parisiens : le fameux palmarès des Rapides du Canal !
Derrière, cela se bousculait pas mal.
Bruno Gutierrez avait fait le voyage d'Espagne, en passant par Aubervilliers, pour goûter au Rapide du Canal. Il reviendra.
Gilbert Viville, le Lorrain, s'était excusé de ne pouvoir participer (c'est sûr, un jour, il gagnera un Rapide du Canal). Il s'est fait représenter par son président de club, Olivier Tridon, qui lui ramène 2 points.
Marianne n'est jamais contente... de ses appariements. Il est vrai qu'elle est souvent appariée contre des... femmes. Allons, pour une fois qu'il y a un tournoi avec plein de joueuses sympas, on ne va quand même pas se plaindre, Marianne ! Bon heureusement, l'appariement des rondes 3 et 4 l'ont laissé jouer contre deux beaux gars. Résultat : 2 victoires, et à la fin 2,5 points sur 5. C'est qu'elle se débrouille bien, Marianne !
Arnaud est passé par là. Il craignait un peu de tomber sur des joueurs trop forts. Il n'a pas été déçu. Il revient mardi voir Alberto. Il n'est pas venu seul. Pooja l'accompagnait. Ah Pooja, dire qu'elle est prête à rejoindre... Tony l'Esbroufe et Seb La Lucette ! C'est pas croyable... Fouad, Rémi Soupizon, Eric Hoogendjik et Carl du Boxon n'en reviennent toujours pas.
Pierre Raimbault, quant à lui, n'a pas joué officiellement hier. Il étrennera sa licence flambant neuve, dans quinze jours, sous les lambris de la République !
Amusez-vous bien.
A la semaine prochaine pour ceux qui le voudront bien (mardi la Pape, vendredi le 58ème Rapide, et samedi la transmission en direct de Corus 2010).
Über Bertina Heinrichs´ Schmonzette "Die Schachspielerin" habe ich ja eher Schlechtes gehört. Der darauf basierende Film (Trailer, Werbetexte des Verleihs, nachzulesen bei Chessbase, wo die Quelle ganz ganz unten genannt ist), der in Deutschland diese Woche und in Österreich Ende des Monats anläuft, dürfte unser Spiel nicht so lächerlich behandelt haben wie die Autorin. Jedenfalls hat die Regisseurin gleich zwei schachliche Berater zugezogen, nämlich Eric Birmingham, der einige Zeit Vachier-Lagrave und ich glaube auch Joel Lautier trainiert hat, und Cyril Humeau, einer der besten Spieler Korsikas, wo der Film gedreht und wohin die Handlung verlegt worden ist. Bitte, wer sich den Film ansieht, poste hier seine ehrliche Meinung darüber!
Nachtrag (10.Januar):
Schachblog-Leser scheinen den Film nicht zu sehen. Chessvibes-Leser dagegen schon. Wie die Kommentatoren dort schildern, haben die beiden Schachberater wenig ausgerichtet, damit Schach auf der Leinwand nicht verzerrend dargestellt wird. Der Film an sich hat aber nicht enttäuscht. So schreibt Michael:
"I saw the movie already in November at a French film festival. I?m afraid I can?t give a definite judgement because I?m still not sure if I liked it or not. As a chess player I?m probably more critical than non-chess playing viewers. The problem is that the film makers obviously didn?t have a clue about chess and for real chess players it?s hilarious to see all the clichés that have crept in and how unrealistic the plot ist.
A chambermaid who can?t tell a knight from a bishop plays a few games against a board computer and gets some advice in a deep and mysterious voice from an American amateur (?remember: the threat is stronger than the execution!?). Suddenly she can play sharp theoretical lines without ever having read a single chess book. As could be expected, at her first tournament ever (taking place in some dimly-lit library, as all chess tournaments do) she beats the crap out of everyone, including the arrogant club president who tries to confuse her with psycho tricks. Well, perhaps the film should be viewed as a kind of fairy-tale rather than a realistic story, but I couldn?t help laughing.
That said, the film does contain good ideas and the actors, especially Sandrine Bonnaire, play really well. It?s interesting to see the housemaid?s dilemma between her passion on the one side and her duties and society?s expectations on the other. The growing acceptance and in the end even pride of her family and friends are quite convincingly portrayed. So I would say that the film is, after all, well worth watching.
Btw, if the blindfold game at the end (a crazy King?s Gambit) seems familiar to you: yes, it?s Short-Piket, Madrid 1997"
Was Johannes bestätigend kommentiert:
"I watched the movie in the cinema yesterday, alas in German, and I can only confirm the opinion of Michael. The film is not very interesting as far as chess is concerned as chess is represented in a curious and superficial manner.
The movie would also have largely benefitted from at least some chess historic allusions, e.g. a mentioning of Capablanca watching his father play chess, Vera Menchik or Judith Polgar. And it would have been hilarious if the arrogant club president would have rejected to shake hands, told the (in)famous Fischer quote about woman and knights, retracted a move, or let himself serve a yoghurt during the final game.
The question if you like the film is simply a question if you like Sandrine Bonnaire or (Sandrine Bonnaire films) or not. As I like almost all films with Sandrine Bonnaire I also liked this one, though it is certainly not her best."
Auch der Schachblogger fand sie klasse in "La Cérémonie" und in "Confidences trop intimes" und wird sich irgendwann auch endlich "Sans toit ni loi" ansehen.
So stimmt der Schachblogger bei der Schachoscar-Wahl der russischen Zeitschrift 64:
1. Carlsen
ist nach seiner Rekordperformance in Nanking und als Nummer eins mit 19 einfach nicht zu toppen.
2. Aronjan
war für mich bis zum Spätsommer als überlegener Grandprixsieger und Gewinner in Nizza und Mainz der Spieler des Jahres.
3. Kramnik
spielt wieder unbeschwert und dabei bärenstark, wie sein Sieg beim bestbesetzten Turnier 2009 in Moskau zeigt, etwas zu wenig, aber als Jungvater ist das entschuldigt, und seine humorvolle Präsentation in London war auch etwas wert.
4. Vachier-Lagrave
verdient als Jugendweltmeister und Sieger von Biel endlich mehr Beachtung und Einladungen.
5. Gaschimow
hat aufgrund gesundheitlicher Probleme lange im Schatten von Radschabow und Mamedscharow gestanden und sich nun schnell in die Top Ten vorgearbeitet, steht hier aber auch stellvertretend in Anerkennung des aserbaidschanischen EM-Siegs.
6. Iwantschuk
hat seine verlorenen Elopunkte großteils wieder und ist einfach eine unverwüstliche Kreativkraft. Sein totales Schach führt zwar auch zu Ausbrüchen wie nach dem Weltcupausscheiden, aber von einem Abschied vom Schach ist keine Rede mehr.
7. Giri
holt sich mit 14 den GM-Titel, mit 15 die Niederländische Meisterschaft und schlägt sich achtbar in Hoogeveen: Die 2700 sind nur eine Frage der Zeit.
8. Short
hat mit 44 die 2700 wieder erklommen, trainiert zwar weniger selbst als dass er andere trainiert, improvisiert aber wunderbar.
9. Gelfand
hat u.a. durch seinen Weltcupsieg gezeigt, dass mein Jahrgang (68) noch nicht abzuschreiben ist. Für eine höhere Platzierung spielt er zu langweiliges Betonschach (Russisch, Katalanisch).
10. Nakamura
hat gute und schlechte Läufe, aber langweilig ist er nie.
Einige mehr hätten es vielleicht verdient, auf dieser Liste zu stehen: Blindsimultanrekordbrecher Marc Lang oder Männer-in-den-Schatten-Stellerin Monika Socko. Aber man muss sich auf zehn beschränken. Für Weltmeister Anand und seinen Herausforderer Topalow ist heuer kein Platz frei. Vielleicht oder vielmehr hoffentlich in einem Jahr wieder.
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:
2009 was a tough year, also for the chess world. Sponsors left, prize funds were lowered and in one (quite important) event the list of participants counted just four players. But it was also an interesting year, with successes for rising stars as well as experienced grandmasters. Let’s look back at the chess year that’s behind us, in our traditional annual survey.
One of the first strong round-robins finishing in the new year is always Reggio Emilia. In 2009 the Chinese rising start Ni Hua clinched the title in the small Italian town convincingly. He ended 1.5 points ahead of number 2 Zoltan Almasi! In a very strong period Ni Hua collected enough rating points to pass the 2700 barrier, which got him an invitation for the London Chess Classic at the end of the year.
Another early winner was Peter Svidler, who won the Aker Chess Challenge in Gjovik, Norway. In the final he defeated Magnus Carlsen, who at that point had no idea yet that 2009 would go down into history as the year he would rise to the absolute top. Vassily Ivanchuk is known for his many ups and downs, but he started his chess year well with a 3.5-2.5 rapid victory against Peter Leko. Our next two items in January both provoked many comments. In the column ‘The new founding fathers in chess?’ we compared remarks by Henrik Carlsen (representing his son Magnus) and Vladimir Kramnik on the world championship cycle and their ideas for a future set-up. It was interesting to see that Kramnik’s opinion seemed diametrically opposed to Carlsen’s. The next day we reported about a 14-year-old chess player from Australia who had been caught cheating with a Playstation Portable, but instead of just bringing the news, we asked our readers the question whether cheating is always newsworthy.
The year 2009 made clear once more that successful chess players are getting younger and younger. Just before Corus the big news was that a 9-year-old player in India had beaten a GM. We’ll probably hear more about Hetul Shah soon. But of course the Corus Chess Tournament itself confirmed this trend much better: the headline of our final report, ‘Youth triumphs at Corus 2009′, said enough. It had been a wonderful success for Sergei Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So.
Also for the ChessVibes team 2009 was quite an interesting year. We tried some new things, and the first was launched just before Corus. We’re still quite proud of our very first product, ChessVibes Openings, which reached it’s 52nd issue this week! I’m not an objective person here, but when I try to forget that I’m the publisher and pretend I’m only a chess player, I must say IMs Merijn van Delft and Robert Ris have done an awesome job in keeping track of the opening developments, every week, without taking a single week off. Great stuff guys!
February was the month of Linares (as always) and the month of Kamsky-Topalov. To start with the latter: it was a controversial match for several reasons. The history of how the match finally got there is a story in itself, and how it was organized in Sofia was another matter. For the journalists who had travelled to the Bulgarian capital it was a disappointing event (they were well quarantined off from the players, taking a back seat to local television) and for several online spectators as well. They became victim of what seems like a war between the Bulgarians and Chessbase, who were threatened with legal actions if they would continue broadcasting the match at Playchess. This situation would repeat during the MTel Masters in May. Our column about copyright and chess moves provoked 127 comments. We’d almost forget that Topalov won the match after volatile play from both players. The Bulgarian thus qualified for next year’s World Championship match against the reigning champ, Viswanathan Anand.
Linares saw a slightly surprising, but no less deserved winner in Alexander Grischuk. The Russian grandmaster won on tiebreak after finishing shared first with Vassily Ivanchuk, and after Sergei Karjakin he was the second qualifier for the Bilbao Grand Slam Final in September. However, arguably the biggest news story of February was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov accusing Igor Kurnosov of cheating, just after their game in round 6 of the Aeroflot Open. As far as we know thus far Mamedyarov hasn’t apologized to Kurnosov, despite the fact that almost anybody in the chess world agrees on the simple rule that, despite feeling pretty sure about it, one should never express such accusations without proof (and comparing moves with Rybka’s choices can never be called proof).
Every year in March the crème de la crème of elite chess gathers for 11 rapid and 11 blindfold games: the Amber tournament. This year the tournament was held in Nice for the second time, and again Macauley Peterson and I made daily videos. Levon Aronian successfully defended his title. Vladimir Kramnik won the blindfold section on tiebreak, finishing shared first with 7/11 together with Carlsen and Aronian. The rapid section also ended in a tie, between Anand, Kamsky (!) and Aronian.
In 2009 I visited less tournaments and so I created less videos than the year before. However, one I quite like was created close to home, early April: about Amsterdam chess cafe the Laurierboom. If you’ve missed it you can still watch it here. In the same month a sad incident involved one of our editors, IM Robert Ris. He was one of the victims of tournament organizer Gabor Pali, who damaged both the hotel and the participants of a closed round-robin financially. The Barcza Memorial was cancelled after one round when it became clear that Pali never paid anyone and wasn’t planning to.
Later in April, the 4th FIDE Grand Prix started in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, and I was there to do videos. It was quite a nice event, but also tough and long. After 13 rounds, Levon Aronian won his second tournament in two months. He had been leading together with Peter Leko with one round to go, in which they were paired against each other. The Armenian beat the Hungarian nicely. One of the participants was Sergei Karjakin and during the tournament he announced that he and his family would move to Russia and become Russian citizens. “I need to train with good coaches” was his explanation, and in fact his coach in Nalchik was former second of Garry Kasparov: Yuri Dokhoian.
April-May was also the period of the lengthy debate on the K-factor. At the President’s Cup, a rapid event held in Baku, Azerbaijan was crushed by the ‘FIDE World’ team led by Anand and Kramnik. Pavel Eljanov had a very good year, and among his successes was his victory at the Bosna tournament. We had an exclusive interview with the Ukrainian. In a crucial last-round encounter, Alexei Shirov defeated Magnus Carlsen to win this year’s MTel Masters. Also with him we had an exclusive interview, this time on video. Together with Gelfand’s victory at the ACP World Rapid Cup it was a good month for the older generation.
Vassily Ivanchuk, who had scored badly in Nalchik and Sofia, used a medicine that only works for him: play more chess! He defeated David Navara 5.5-2.5 in a rapid match in Prague (and a month later he would win in Bazna). In a similar (rapid) format, Viswanathan Anand defeated Peter Leko 5-3 and in yet another rapid event which I visited in Leon, Spain it was Magnus Carlsen who finally grabbed a first prize.
To China’s growing number of strong grandmasters, another name was added this year. 16-year-old Ding Liren won the Chinese Championship after a surreal finish which involved an incident related to the zero-tolerance rule. Russian rising star Alexander Motylev ended first at the Poikovsky tournament. In a year with mixed results, Ivan Cheparinov had one big success: his first place at the Ruy Lopez tournament in Zafra, Spain.
After winning the US Championship earlier in the year, Hikaru Nakamura collected even more rating points in San Sebastian. The American grandmaster won the tournament using his speciality: blitz chess. He beat Ruslan Ponomariov 2-0 in the tiebreak (here on video).
After an earlier, partly successful attempt with a Silverlight game viewer, we introduced ChessTempo’s game viewer in Javascript and we’re still quite happy with it. It’s Javacript and so it works like a charm in almost any browser, including the special version of Safari running on iPhones. (And that was how the voluntary guard at the London Chess Classic was following the games: on his phone, via the live page of ChessVibes!)
A great result for the new generation was scored by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who won Biel at the end of July. His game against Morozevich was one of the gems of 2009. Nakamura continued his fanastic year so far by winning the Chess960 section of the Rapid World Championships in Mainz. Success and failure were closely connected in Mainz: on the second day of the unofficial Rapid World Championship, eleven times winner Viswanathan Anand failed to qualify for the final. An era came to an end. This one was won by Levon Aronian; Mamedyarov took the Ordix Open title.
A much more important result for Aronian, however, was his second place at the Grand Prix in Jermuk (where Ivanchuk emerged as the winner). With this result, Armenia’s number one player secured overall victory in the FIDE Grand Prix Series with one tournament still to be played. Also in August, ten world famous chess champions gathered in Zurich, where Kramnik won the rapid tournament. By now traditionally, the month ended with the Rising Stars vs Experience tournament in Amsterdam. Again Macauley and I made daily videos at the event, where the Experience team won and Jan Smeets qualified for Amber 2010.
September started with chess reaching main stream media, but as so often it wasn’t a story that improved the reputation of the royal game. At the Kolkata Open in India, French top GM Vladislav Tkachiev showed up drunk at the venue and fell asleep several times during a game. Eventually he had to be carried off. Later Tkachiev would apologize.
Then, on September 7th, a long period started in which Magnus Carlsen would make the headlines. On that day his cooperation with Garry Kasparov was made public. “The goal is to make the Norwegian, who currently ranks as the fourth-best chess player in the world, the world’s best during the course of the coming year. (…)” was written in the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang. Who would have guessed that just four months later this goal would be reached? No doubt “the world’s best” needs to be read as “World Champion” by now! In any case, we had an exclusive interview with Carlsen about the matter and later we published Kasparov’s side of the story.
Levon Aronian scored yet another success in Bilbao, where he won the second Grand Slam final. Winning four games in a row, he eventually finished five points ahead of Grischuk (one and a half according to the classical system). With our Dutch roots it wasn’t too difficult to have the scoop on the ‘Tiviakov story’: the already seriously weakened Dutch Championship lost its top seed after the third round. Tivi had prearranged a draw for his last-round game on Sunday and had told the organizers that he couldn’t attend the closing ceremony and possible tiebreaks. This was not accepted, after which Tiviakov decided to withdraw immediately. ChessVibes spoke with all people involved.
Also in September, I had the opportunity to get one player before the camera (and even ask a few questions) whom I had never seen playing before. No-one less than Garry Kasparov himself played chess again! His opponent was his old nemesis Anatoly Karpov, and the two played a rapid and blitz match in Valencia, Spain. Unfortunately Karpov wasn’t up to the challenge; Kasparov won easily (9-3).
Soon it was Carlsen, Carlsen, Carlsen again. For a while it was the only name to be heard in the chess world, but it was fully deserved. By winning the Pearl Spring Grand Slam tournament with a devastating 8 out 10 and an unbelievable 3002 performance rating, dropping just four half points with the black pieces in ten games against the world’s best, Magnus took home € 80,000 and a total of 28.8 rating points. In doing so he broke the magical 2800 barrier.
The next big event was the biggest event of 2009: the Tal Memorial. For a tournament with Anand, Aronian Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Svidler and Ponomariov we couldn’t resist the temptation – we just had to bring live coverage. It was quite successful, and we repeated the service during the semi-final and final of the World Cup, and the London Chess Classic. Unfortunately we couldn’t welcome enough subscribers to continue it as a paid service in 2010, but we will do our best to find other ways to fund it. Because it’s just too much fun not to have it. Before I forget, Vladimir Kramnik won this super-tournament in Moscow, and Magnus Carlsen took the (world) blitz title. (Not long afterwards, Carlsen unofficially ‘lost’ that title to Hikaru Nakamura at the BNBank tournament.)
For the chess fan who still had some appetite left for top chess, there was the World Cup, which lasted no less than 23 days. Few of you will hear something new when I mention the semi-finalists: Karjakin, Malakhov, Gelfand and Ponomariov. The latter two played the final and 41-year-old top seed Boris Gelfand eventually took home the first prize of US $120,000. In London Magnus Carlsen finished a fantastic second half of 2009 by winning the Chess Classic with three wins and four draws, in a wonderfully organized event where it was a joy to work and create a few more videos.
At the end of month and the year, Korchnoi and Spassky played a match in Elista that ended in 4-4 and Alexander Grischuk won the Russian superfinal.
Before I end this survey I’d like to mention the many thought-provoking columns by Arne, his book reviews, the ‘Beauty in chess’ series by Michael, the weekly endgame studies by Yochanan and the reports written by Merijn and Robert. Enough material for a second look, on a free New Year’s Day perhaps!?
With this we come to an end of this annual survey, and of the chess year 2009. The ChessVibes team thanks you for your support and your comments, and we wish everyone a healthy 2009, with happy chess and good vibes!
Last month he turned 19, and today Magnus Carlsen officialy became the official world’s number one player. On the January 1st FIDE rating list the Norwegian as a rating of 2810, 5 points more than Veselin Topalov, who had occupied the number 1 spot since October 2008.
After winning the London Chess Classic with three wins and four draws it was a fact: Magnus Carlsen would become the youngest world’s number one in chess history. Thanks to the “live list” by Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website) everyone could already see how the top rankings would look like, and today this became official due to FIDE’s publication of the January list.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand won 2 points and is still in third place; after the Tal Memorial and London Vladimir Kramnik surpassed Levon Aronian to become 4th. Vassily Ivanchuk is back in the top 10, and Wang Yue entered for the first time – the Chinese GM is now the world’s 9th player. After a successful period, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is 11th now. Leko and Morozevich dropped out of the top 10.
Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave, just two months older than Carlsen, has now entered the top 20 while another former prodigy, Sergei Karjakin, dropped out – but let’s not forget he’ll be defending his Corus title soon. Vladimir Malakhov’s successful period resulted in a rise from spot 31 to 22. Without getting too much attention, Zoltan Almasi and David Navara occupy the excellent spots 26 and 27.
A disappointing London Chess Classic cost Nigel Short his 2700+ rating but he’s still just England’s best player at 2696; Michael Adams is now one spot below him at 2694. 17-year-old Fabiano Caruana did well again and climbed no less than 30 places; from spot 81 to 51. Another young player did even better: 18-year-old Sergei Zhigalko went from 93 to 58. New in the top 100 compared to the previous list are Ian Nepomniachtchi (69th), Wesley So (77th), Viktor Laznicka (84th), Le Quang Liem (93rd) Tomi Nyback (97th) and Evgeny Bareev (98th).
In the women’s list again the top 3 didn’t change; the difference between Judit Polgar and Humpy Koneru is now 68 points. Nadezhda Kosintseva climbed from 9th to 5th while Alexandra Kosteniuk and Kateryna Lahno are back into the top 10. Nana Dzagnidze dropped out from 4th place all the way to 14th.
Below you’ll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the first two lists including the changes with the previous lists. All data courtesy of FIDE.
FIDE JANUARY 2010 RATING LIST: TOP 100 PLAYERS
Legend:
black color – player remained on the same position
green color – player moved up in the list
red color – player moved down in the list
blue color – player is new to the current Top list Old represents player’s position in the previous period list
There is a new king in the world ranking of chess. The nineteen-year old Magnus Carlsen (2810, +9) has officially vaulted over 2800 mark to become only the 5th person in history to eclipse the magical figure. It appears as if 2800 is the old 2700.
Approximately 10 years ago, there were only a handful of players having reached the 2700 level. There are currently 34 players over 2700 with a number of players having reached the mark previously and fallen below. Carlsen has had a meteoric rise to the world’s number one position and some project that he may break Garry Kasparov’s 2851 mark.
Being knocked from his comfortable perch, Veselin Topalov (2805, -5) is more focused on his upcoming match with World Champion Viswanathan Anand (2790, +2). The match will take place in Bulgaria in April 2010. Some believe Carlsen will be vying for the title in the next cycle. However, there are a lot of viable candidates in the loop.
Out of the top 20 juniors, 12 countries are represented. For the top 20 girls, two nations dominate the list… Russia (6) and China (4).
Vladimir Kramnik (2788, +16) scored a nice victory in the recent Tal Memorial placing 1/2-point ahead of Carlsen. Kramnik had dropped precipitously prior to winning the ‘Toiletgate’ match against Topalov, but has overcome ailments to regain his form. In fact, many state that he is playing more aggressively. Armenia’s Levon Aronian (2781, -5) switched places with Kramnik and dropped to the #5 spot.
Rounding out the top ten, you have FIDE World Cup winner Boris Gelfand (2761, +3) who gained only a few points are the tournament performance is added to his tally. Vugar Gashimov (2759, +1) is Azerbaijan’s #1 and in an recent interview he stated the possibility of becoming the top-rated player one day. He lead his nation to a win in the prestigious European Team Championship and they will be a favorite to win a medal at the 2010 Olympiad.
Vassily Ivanchuk (2749, +10) continues his fluctuation in and out of the top ten. He regained some points are a strong showing at Tal Memorial, but had an early exit from the World Cup losing to rising star Wesley So (2656, +14) of the Philippines (pictured left). A Chinese player has reached the top ten for the first time in history and his name is Wang Yue (2749, +15).
With his solid style and consistency, Wang continues to climb the rating ladder and can clearly be considered in the elite class. With invitations rolling in, he has had opportunities to show the talent that had been developing since his youth days. There seems to be more talent in the Chinese pipeline.
Peter Svidler (2744, -10) rounds out the top ten, but has hit skids lately. He bombed in the Tal Memorial with 3.5/9, was eliminated in the FIDE World Cup quarterfinals and just a week ago he lost in 23 moves to talented junior, Sanan Sjugirov (2610, -2).
Has GM Koneru Humpy hit her peak? Photo by Manisha Mohite.
In women’s chess, nothing has changed in terms of the order. Judit Polgar has been on top for decades and is now regaining form. Hou Yifan (2590, +2) is hot on the heels of world #2 Koneru Humpy (2614, +11).
Humpy scored a good result in the match featuring the Queens vs. Veterans, but entered in a public dispute with her federation about her contractual committments. While she continues to play primarily against women, her improvement has not been very dramatic since reaching 2600 two years ago.
Former World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova (2545, +4) has remained steady over the past year, but the new sensation in the women’s section is Nadezhda Kostineva (2533, +15) of Russia. She has vaulted over 2500 and is now the top-rated Russian woman.
Kostineva overtakes World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (2523, -6) who had held the top position since she first won the title at age 17. She will most probably keep the top board at the Olympiad regardless of the rating difference. Kosteniuk was blanked by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2741, +22) in the FIDE World Cup but helped Russia win the European Team Championship.
As the world’s number one Carlsen leads the Juniors and French #1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2730, +12) is now second and Sergey Karjakin (2720, -3) is third. All were born in 1990 and will dominate the list for a few more years. Karjakin has recently changed his federation from Ukraine to Russia.
GM Fabiano Caruana is knocking at the door of the 2700 club. Here he plays Sweden’s GM Pontus Carlsson enroute to winning Corus ‘C’ earlier last year.
Italian #1 Fabiano Caruana (2675, +33) has pilled up points at a rapid pace and is approaching 2700. He made the fourth round of the FIDE World Cup finally losing to Gashimov. Ian Nepomniachtchi (2658, +32) of Russia gained a whopping 31 ELO points in the Russia Final with 8.5/10!
Perhaps one of the junior receiving the most praise (besides Carlsen) is Wesley So of the Philippines (2656, +14). He got to the 4th round of the FIDE World Cup beating Gadir Guseinov (2614), Vassily Ivanchuk (2749) and Gata Kamsky (2693).
One of the best thing about the juniors list (and other lists) is the wide diversity of nations represented, a fact not solely because of emigration from strong nations. Out of the top 20 juniors, 12 countries are represented. For the top 20 girls, two nations dominate the list… Russia (6) and China (4). Hou Yifan (2590, +2) is the #20 junior, but the top girl.
Jorge Cori and sister Daysi of Peru.
Daysi Cori of Peru is the sole representative on the girl’s list from the Western Hemisphere. Her brother Jorge recently made headlines by fulfilling the requirements a Grandmaster at age 14 and earlier winning the under-14 title. Daysi won the under-16 girl’s title.
Dans le Top 100 mondial, le prodigieux norvégien Magnus Carlsen accroche la place de numéro 1 avec 2810 points Elo (+9 points). Il devance l'ex n°1 bulgare Veselin Topalov à 2805 (-5 points). Rappelons que le record historique appartient toujours à Garry Kasparov avec 2851 points en Janvier 2000.
Les Français :
Belle progression pour le numéro 1 tricolore Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2730) qui grapille encore 12 points. Maxime, 2ème junior mondial, occupe désormais la 18ème place du classement général. De son côté, le n°2 français Etienne Bacrot (2719) engrange 13 points et pointe en 24ème position. Côté féminin, Marie Sebag (2510) règne toujours sans partage en France.
Pour en savoir plus :Top 100 - Top 100 féminin - Top 20 Juniors - Top 20 Girls - Top français - Top féminin français - Le site de la Fédération Internationale des Echecs
Ha finalizado la 3ª Copa Mundo. El ganador es el ruso-israelí Boris Gelfand, favorito de esta página.
La Copa FIDE Mundial De ajedrez 2009 empezó en Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, del 20 de noviembre al 15 de diciembre de 2009. Se jugó bajo un sistema de eliminación simple. Los jugadores pareados jugaban un mini-match. Primero jugaban dos partidas de ajedrez clásico a 90 minutos para los 40 primeros movimientos, con 30 minutos para el resto del juego, con una adición de 30 segundos por movimiento. Si había empate, jugaban cuatro partidos de 25 minutos + 10 segundos de incremento por movimiento. Si persistía el empate, jugaban 4 partidas de blitz, con un tiempo de 5 minutos + 3 segundos por movimiento. Si el empate seguía persistiendo, una campaña “Armagedón” o “muerte súbita”, con 5 minutos para las negras y 6 minutos para los blancas, los que fueran necesarios para ganar, con una adición de 3 segundos por movimiento. En el caso de la final, primero jugaron 4 partidas clásicas; las 4 quedaron tablas. Luego jugaron 4 rápidas, cada uno ganó una y las otras dos quedaron tablas. Entonces vinieron cuatro de blitz, de las cuales ganó Gelfand tres.
Jugadores que tuvo que eliminar Gelfand para ganar la copa:
Boris Gelfand: “¡Hice un buen regalo a mi madre en su cumpleaños!”
Gelfand: me las arreglé para ganar en los desempates, aunque fue muy duro. Creo que podría haber demostrado un buen resultado ya en el segundo juego rápido. Pero el estrés y la tensión hicieron el trabajo y comencé a meter la pata. Ruslán también cometió errores y terminamos en tablas. Yo tenía una cierta ventaja en el cuarto juego. La única cosa que debería haber hecho era tirar la pelota en la portería vacía. Pero cometí un error de nuevo. Ruslán inició un juego libre y renuncié. Luego empezamos a jugar partidas blitz. Aquí todo depende de la frescura y la capacidad para mantener los nervios unidos.
P: ¿Tenía el sentimiento de que usted ganaría los desempates?
R: Comprendí que tenía un partido difícil por delante. Yo sabía que tenía que luchar. Hoy es el cumpleaños de mi mamá y yo no puedo dejarla sin un regalo. Ella ha hecho mucho por mí. Estoy muy agradecido con todos. También agradezco a mi padre, que su memoria viva para siempre. También estoy muy agradecido con mi esposa y mi hija que me extrañan mucho. También estoy agradecido con todos los que me ayudaban y entrenaban conmigo. Hemos estado trabajando con Alexander Huzman hace ya 20 años juntos. Asimismo, durante este torneo, mi segundo Maxim Rodshtein me ha estado ayudando. No parecía dormir en absoluto, él estaba preparando líneas para mis adversarios. Mis amigos estaban llamando y escribiéndome. Gracias a todos por su apoyo. Mi victoria es su mérito también.
P:¿Puede llamar a la Copa del Mundo de 2009, el mejor torneo de su carrera?
R: Creo que la Copa Mundial de 2009 sólo puede ser comparada con el segundo lugar en el Campeonato Mundial de Ajedrez 2007 en México.
P: Usted es el más viejo de los participantes en la Copa del Mundo. ¿Está usted feliz de haberles mostrado su fuerza a los jugadores más jóvenes?
R: Sin duda, la edad influye en el rendimiento. La edad es un gran maestro. A partir de 1997 he participado en el torneo casi todos los octavos de final. He ganado una gran experiencia, desde entonces, especialmente en los desempates. Había tantos jugadores fuertes y jóvenes que se vinieron abajo después de sus primeras derrotas. Carecían de fuerza moral y no podían olvidar un fracaso para continuar la lucha en los juegos siguientes. Creo que eso viene con la experiencia.
P: La situación cuando el jugador está en la cima y gana un torneo es rara.
R: Yo no estaba impresionado por el hecho de que fuera cabeza de serie. Había alrededor de 20 jugadores que tenían toda la razón para esperar ganar la copa.
P: ¿Tiene algo que decir a tu oponente?
R: Ruslán no necesita de consuelo. Lo hizo bien durante todo el torneo y logró muchos desempates. Mi oponente es muy bueno en torneos de knock-out, está confirmado por sus resultados durante los últimos dos años. Ponomariov demostró una vez más que es un gran jugador de ajedrez.
P: ¿De dónde saca la energía para participar en estos torneos largos?
R: A mí me gusta jugar al ajedrez. Por lo tanto, yo trabajo mucho y trato de mejorar mis resultados.
P: ¿Siente compasión por su oponente cuando gana?
R: No es una lucha de gladiadores. Jugamos al ajedrez. Alguien gana, alguien pierde. Este es el deporte.
P: Durante muchos años la comunidad ajedrecística está interesado en saber lo que guarda en esta botella especial que usted trae a los juegos.
R: No es un dopaje… (risas). Yo se comprobó en el pasado Campeonato Mundial. Todo es legal.
P: ¿Es importante para usted tener una audiencia cuando juega?
R: Sí, sería más agradable si la sala se llenara de gente. Pero es evidente que nuestro público principal está en Internet. Cada vez que un torneo tiene lugar, aproximadamente el 90-95% de los espectadores ven los juegos a través de Internet.
P: La gente decía en los años 80, que no importa si usted anda alrededor del pasillo o mira alrededor, usted suele hacer los movimientos más fuertes …
R: La posición está siempre con usted, en su cabeza. No importa para donde mire: alrededor o en el tablero de ajedrez.
P: ¿Qué hace en su tiempo libre?
R: Me gusta leer clásicos: Pushkin, Bulgakov, Maugham. Regularmente ver partidos de fútbol y tenis. Me gusta el deporte.
P: ¿Quiere compartir sus impresiones acerca de Khanty Mansiysk?
R: Me gustaría agradecer a la ciudad por este torneo maravilloso. No he tenido problemas aquí en absoluto. Cada año es mejor en Khanty Mansiysk. Lo único que complicaba mi estancia aquí fue la caída de la temperatura: de 0 a -30. Es más difícil de soportar esto con la edad. Hay biblioteca e instituciones culturales del deporte aquí: muchos, galería de fotos, el palacio de hockey, centro de tenis. El Centro de Arte para niños de talento de América del Norte – la sala de juego – es tan fantástico edificio. Me gustaría volver aquí el año que viene con el placer. Sólo espero que el clima sea más benévolo. Espero que tenga la oportunidad de pasear por la ciudad.
P: Ha estado jugando durante casi un mes sin ningún descanso. ¿Cómo va a recuperarse?
R: Más de un mes. Dos semanas antes del inicio de la Copa del Mundo, jugué tomé el Memorial Tal y el Campeonato Mundial de Ajedrez Blitz, dos de los torneos más difíciles. Ahora voy a descansar, a recuperar el sueño perdido, caminar con mi hija. Volver de nuevo a mi vida “normal”.
P: ¿Podría usted elegir cualquier recuerdo de la tierra Ugra (siberiana)?
R: ¡La Copa Mundial es mi mejor recuerdo!
Veamos ahora una de las partidas rápidas que ganó Gelfand.
(6) Gelfand, Boris (2758) – Ponomariov, Ruslán (2739) [E04] World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (7.6), 14.12.2009
Ha llegado a su fase final la 3ª Copa Mundo de ajedrez. Los finalistas son el ruso-israelí Boris Gelfand y el ucraniano Ruslán Ponomariov. Se trató de un evento en grande, que comenzó con 128 jugadores y en el que se jugaron alrededor de 500 partidas.
La Copa FIDE Mundial De ajedrez 2009 empezó en Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, del 20 de noviembre al 15 de diciembre de 2009. Se jugó bajo un sistema de eliminación simple. Los jugadores pareados jugaban un mini-match. Primero jugaban dos partidas de ajedrez clásico a 90 minutos para los 40 primeros movimientos, con 30 minutos para el resto del juego, con una adición de 30 segundos por movimiento. Si había empate, jugaban cuatro partidos de 25 minutos + 10 segundos de incremento por movimiento. Si persistía el empate, jugaban 4 partidas de blitz, con un tiempo de 5 minutos + 3 segundos por movimiento. Si el empate seguía persistiendo, una campaña “Armagedón” o “muerte súbita”, con 5 minutos para las negras y 6 minutos para los blancas, los que fueran necesarios para ganar, con una adición de 3 segundos por movimiento.
La Copa del mundo de ajedrez 2009 es parte integral del ciclo 2011 del campeonato mundial. El vencedor jugará el torneo de candidatos de 2011. De acuerdo a los planes de la FIDE, éste deberá ser el papel de la Copa del mundo de ajedrez en los ciclos venideros.
Miércoles
09 de diciembre
Día de descanso
Jueves
10 de diciembre
Ronda 7 – Partida 1
Viernes
11 de diciembre
Ronda 7 – Partida 2
Sábado
12 de diciembre
Ronda 7 – Partida 3
Domingo
13 de diciembre
Ronda 7 – Partida 4
Lunes
14 de diciembre
Desempates / Clausura
Martes
15 de diciembre
Salida
Jugadores que tuvo que eliminar cada semifinalista para llegar a la final:
Rondas
Boris Gelfand
Ruslán Ponomariov
Ronda 1
Obodchuk, Andrei (RUS)
El Gindy, Essam (EGY)
Ronda 2
Amonatov, Farrukh (TJK)
Akobian, Varuzhan (USA)
Ronda 3
Polgar, Judit (HUN)
Motylev, Alexander (RUS)
Ronda 4
Vachier-Lagrave,Max.(FRA)
Bacrot, Etienne (FRA)
Ronda 5
Jakovenko, Dmitry (RUS)
Gashimov, Vugar (AZE)
Ronda 6
Karjakin, Sergey (UKR)
Malakhov, Vladimir (RUS)
Muchos famosos cayeron a lo largo del camino. Entre ellos podemos recordar a Judith Pólgar, Vasily Ivanchuk, Gata Kamsky, Étienne Bacrot, Máxime Vachier-Lagrave, PeterSvidler, Alexander Morozevich, Teimour Radjabov, Dimitri Jakovenko, DavidNavara, Alexander Khalifman, Evgeny Alekseev, Yue Wang, Ernesto Inarkiev, Pavel Eljanov, Leinier Domínguez, Alexei Shirov, Mamedyarov Shak., Fabio Caruana, Entre los semifinalistas: Sergey Karjakin y Vladimir Malakhov. Y un desconocido que se hizo famoso eliminando famosos, el filipino Wesley So.
Ahora veamos dos partidas de la fase semifinal.
Karjakin, Sergey (2723) – Gelfand, Boris (2758) [C55] World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (6.1), 06.12.2009
Ajedrez clásico.
Hasta ahora la sensación del torneo ha sido el jovencísimo filipino Wesley So, que tras provocar (al parecer) la retirada de Ivanchuk del ajedrez en un match bastante afortunado batió en buen estilo a Kamsky (1.5-0.5) Otras sorpresas relativas son Caruana y Lázni?ka; el yanqui-americano superó en la lotería de los desempates a Lenier y Alekseev, mientras que el checo, tras batir convincentemente al Gran Moro, ganó en las semirrápidas a Bologan.
Los emparejamientos de Octavos de Final son Gelfand - Vachier Lagrave, Grischuk - Jakovenko, Lázni?ka - Mamadyarov, Vitiugov - Karjakin, Gashimov - Caruana, Ponomariov - Bacrot, Svidler - Shirov y So - Malakhov. Ayer Svidler y Mamedjarov venciaron con las piezas negras a Shirov y Lázni?ka, respectivamente. Revisamos el remate de esta última partida:
Lázni?ka - Mamadyarov (posición tras 43.Ta2-a7)
Mamedjarov ha superado a su rival en el juego de maniobras, y ahora remata la faena con elegancia: 43... Dxf4+!! 44. Rh1 44. exf4 Axf4+ 45. g3 hxg3+ 46. Dxg3 Tb2+ -+ 44... Df2 Sobrio, Rybka indica 44... De4 como aún más rápida. 45. Txc7+ Rh6 46. Dd1 De2! 47. Dg1 47. Dxe2 Axe3+ 48. Rh2 Ag1+ 49. Rh1 Af2+ 47... Dxe3 48. Df1 Df4 49. Dd3 Ta1 0-1 No se tienen noticias de que su rival le haya denunciado porque sus jugadas coincidan con la primera opción del Rybka o del Chess Battle :P
Seguro que con tanto y tan buen ajedrez como se está viendo, medios de comunicación general y vendedores de humo ajedrecístico destacan la noticia tonta de los desempates de la 3ª Ronda: dos GM chinos perdieron una partida porque estaban fumando en la sala destinada a tal efecto, no se enteraron del comienzo de la ronda y llegaron unos segundos tarde...
Para seguir las noticias sobre el torneo TWIC es una buena fuente, como de costumbre, y tampoco está mal revisar ChessVibes; otra opción es Ajedrez en Madrid, si no te llevas nada bien con la Lengua del Imperio. Para seguir las partidas en directo está muy bien el moderno Chess Bomb de Chessdom, con una interfaz elegante y análisis en directo de Rybka 2.2. Para seguir el cuadro del torneo te puedo recomendar por su claridad la entrada de la Wikipedia en Inglés.
Como siempre que se organiza un torneo en Rusia, la web oficial tiene interesantes contenidos, pero no es lo mejor para seguir el torneo. El visor en directo no es muy bueno, pero las entrevistas (en inglés y en ruso) resultan interesantes, y el GM Shipov analiza las mejores partidas del día anterior.
Boris Gelfand won the FIDE World Cup. He defeated Ruslan Ponomariov today in the tiebreak of the final, needing four rapid games and four blitz games to decide matters. The Israeli Grandmaster cashed US$ 120,000 (net 96,000) while Ponomariov takes home US$ 80,000 (net 64,000).
The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place November 20th-December 15th inn Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It’s a seven-round knockout with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round. The final seventh round consists of four games and will be played December 10th-14th. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (11:00 CET).
Results of the final
Tiebreak
After four rather uninteresting classical games, we had a nail-biting tiebreak today that decided the winner of the World Cup. In the first rapid game Ponomariov got a tiny plus in an endgame with bishop versus knight, but Gelfand held it. Then Gelfand won a nice second game, after which a shaky 3rd one ended in a draw. Ponomariov had to win game 4, and he did, with the black pieces!
In the first blitz games Gelfand immediately took the lead with a crushing victory that only lasted 21 moves when Black’s queen was trapped. Ponomariov then struck back with a very nice attacking game that involved an exchange sacrifice, but then spoilt the 3rd game with some unforced errors. Again he had to win to stay in the match, and this time he had White, but this time he didn’t succeed. A crucial moment was move 23, where Ponomariov miscalculated. Gelfand got an advantage and never let go.
Boris Gelfand was the top seed, and the deserved winner. He played the most convincing chess in Khanty-Mansiysk, showing excellent preparation and making almost no mistakes in the whole event. He’s won a nice sum of money, a spot in the Candidates and as we learnt today he’ll now probably be invited to Linares as well.
You can replay IM Merijn van Delft’s annotations from the live page below in the game viewer. We’re covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic for free; starting from 2010 our live commentary will be subscription-based. You’ll find more info here.
World Cup: 4th game drawn – who will win tomorrow’s tiebreak?
The fourth game of the World Cup final between Boris Gelfand and Ruslan Ponomariov also ended in a draw and so tomorrow a tiebreak of rapid and possible blitz games will decide on the winner of the 2009 FIDE World Cup. Let us know who you think will win!
The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place November 20th-December 15th inn Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It’s a seven-round knockout with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round. The final seventh round consists of four games and will be played December 10th-14th. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (11:00 CET).
Results of the final
Game 4
Today, in another Catalan, the players followed the game Gelfand-Anand from last month for nineteen moves. After that the position remained more or less balanced. In all four games the players decided for safety first, and so tomorrow the decision will come in a tiebreak match of four rapid games, and if needed, ten blitz games before a possible sudden death game will finally decide matters. The winner gets USD 120,000 (net 96,000) while the runner-up tales home USD 80,000 (net 64,000). Who do you think is the favourite?
You can still replay IM Jan-Willem de Jong’s annotations on the live page. We’re covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic for free; starting from 2010 our live commentary will be subscription-based. You’ll find more info here.
The third game of the World Cup final between Ruslan Ponomariov and Boris Gelfand also ended in a draw and so we’re just one game away from a tiebreak. Ponomariov avoided the Petroff with 1.d4 and in a Slav that looked like a Slechter and soon like a Grünfeld, he won a pawn but then repeated moves in timetrouble.
The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place November 20th-December 15th inn Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It’s a seven-round knockout with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round. The final seventh round consists of four games and will be played December 10th-14th. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (11:00 CET).
Results of the final
Game 3
Although he didn’t want to admit on Thursday that there’s not much to do against the Petroff these days, Ponomariov avoided that opening anyway in his second White game. He tried the 4.Qc2 Slav, but also against this system Gelfand knew exactly what he was doing and he played the opening fast. It was Ponomariov who had a big think first, after the move 7…Be6, with which Gelfand deviated from one of his own games.
Everything was going fine for Black, until an inaccuracy on move 19 which suddenly allowed the white rook to the seventh. Not long after that Ponomariov won a pawn on the queenside, but by then he had gotten into timetrouble, and he decided to play it safe. Still it was quite a surprise to see White going for the draw with such a healthy extra pawn. Tomorrow Ponomariov has to show what he’s worth with the black pieces one more time; another draw will force a tiebreak on Monday but any other result will bring a winner of this 2009 World Cup.
You can still replay GM Emanuel Berg’s annotations on the live page. We’re covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic for free; starting from 2010 our live commentary will be subscription-based. You’ll find more info here.
FINALE Gelfand e Ponomariov agli spareggi rapid domani Live .h.11
Dal 10 novembre al 14 dicembre si disputa a Khanthy - Mansiyck la Finale della 3^ edizione della World Cup. ??
Dopo 20 giorni di torneo, la World Cup 2009 è finalmente giunta al suo atto conclusivo che, oltre ad assegnare un premio di 120mila dollari al primo (80mila al secondo), selezionerà uno degli otto partecipanti al Torneo dei Candidati al Titolo di Campione del Mondo. La Finale, diversamente dai turni precedenti, si disputa sulla lunghezza di 4 partite a cadenza classica. In caso di parità si svolgeranno, nelle stesse modalità dei turni precedenti, gli spareggi rapid.
La Finale
1
2-2
?Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR)
1/2
?Gelfand, Boris (ISR)
? I Finalisti
Gelfand (n. 1 uno del ranking di partenza), ha rispettato i pronostici della vigilia giungendo in Finale dopo aver eliminato Obdochuk, Amonatov, J, Polgar, Vachier Lagrave, Jakovenko e Karjakin? con uno score complessivo di 5 vittorie, 6 pareggi e una sconfitta (l'unica del torneo, contro la Polgar) nelle partite a cadenza classica. Ottimo anche lo score nelle partite rapid: 4 vittorie e 6 patte. L'unica volta che Gelfand è dovuto ricorrere agli spareggi blitz, ha ottenuto 1 vittoria e 1 patta contro Vachier Lagrave.
Boris Gelfand, riuscirà a piazzare la zampata vincente?
Anche Ponomariov (7) ha subito una sola sconfitta in tutto il torneo, nella 1^ partita rapid contro Malakhov. Per il resto un percorso senza incertezze. L'ucraino ha superato El Gindy, Akobian, Motylev, Bacrot, Gashimov e Malakhov con uno score complessivo di 2 vittorie e 10 patte nelle partite a cadenza classica e 8 vittorie, 6 patte e una sconfitta nelle rapid. Per qualificarsi l'ex campione del Mondo Fide (World Cup 2002) non è mai dovuto ricorrere agli spareggi blitz.
Ruslan Ponomariov, con Gelfand sullo sfondo. C'e da scommetere che questa volta Boris non sbadiglierà ...
? ?? Alla competizione ha partecipato anche il nostro Fabiano Caruana che, dopo aver superato i due GM cubani Bruzon e Dominguez e il GM russo Alekseev, è stato eliminato negli ottavi e solo negli spareggi rapid da uno dei favoriti della vigilia, il GM Vugar Gashimov.
Formato della World Cup Si tratta di un torneo ad eliminazione diretta (K.O.) in cui i 128 contendenti si affrontano in due partite a cadenza classica (90' x 40 mosse + 30' per finire, sempre con l'incremento di 30" a mossa); in caso di parità si procede con la disputa di quattro partite rapid (25' + 10" a mossa); in caso di ulteriore parità verranno attivati gli gli spareggi blitz (5' + 3"), previsti minimatches su due lampo (per un massimo di dieci lampo), il primo che riporterà un minimatch passerà il turno; ultima possibilità: l'armageddon (5' al bianco, 4' al nero, dopo la 60esima 3" di incremento per mossa, in caso di patta passa il nero)
Calendario della Finale 10 December: Round 7 - Game 1 11 December: Round 7 - Game 2 12 December: Round 7 - Game 3 13 December: Round 7 - Game 4 14 December: Tiebreaks / Closing Ceremony
Si gioca con inizio alle ore 15 locali (11 in Italia)
Le Direct Live à 11h avec notre partenaire Chessdom + Les parties à Visualiser et/ou à Télécharger
La Coupe du Monde d'échecs se déroule à Khanty-Mansiysk en Sibérie occidentale (Russie) du 20 Novembre au 15 Décembre. Cet événement échiquéen inaugure le prochain cycle du championnat du Monde d'échecs. Evénement spectaculaire, le vainqueur sera désigné sur la base des 7 rondes à élimination directe.
128 joueurs étaient sur la ligne de départ dont 4 grands-maîtres d'échecs français: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Etienne Bacrot, Laurent Fressinet et Vladislav Tkachiev. Les 6 premières rondes se jouaient en 2 parties avec couleurs inversées. Place à la 7e ronde (finale) en 4 parties du 10 au 14 Décembre.
The prestigious Aeroflot Open that featured 75 Grandmasters and five International Masters in the main Group A concluded on Wednesday with Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem claiming the clear first place by collecting 7 points from nine games. On the final day he defeated the 2008 Aeroflot winner Ian Nepomniachtchi, rounding up an impressive performance on the Russian tour as earlier he shared first place at the equally tough Moscow Open.
Les Français :
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.
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.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Thursday won the World Blitz Championship Preliminaries, held in Moscow after the Aeroflot Open. Together with Bu Xiangzhi, Nepomniachtchi, Mamedov, Savchenko and Grachev he qualified for the 2010 World Blitz Championship, to be held after the Tal Memorial later this year.
After finishing shared first at the Moscow Open, Le Quang Liem continues strongly at the Aeroflot Open. The Vietnamese grandmaster leads with 3/3 – he’s the only player left with a 100% score.
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 
2009 was a tough year, also for the chess world. Sponsors left, prize funds were lowered and in one (quite important) event the list of participants counted just four players. But it was also an interesting year, with successes for rising stars as well as experienced grandmasters. Let’s look back at the chess year that’s behind us, in our traditional annual survey.
Another early winner was Peter Svidler, who won the 
The year 2009 made clear once more that successful chess players are getting younger and younger. Just before Corus the big news was that a 9-year-old player in India had 
February was the month of Linares (as always) and the month of Kamsky-Topalov. To start with the latter: it was a controversial match for several reasons. The history of how the match finally got there is a 
Linares saw a slightly surprising, but no less deserved winner in 
Later in April, the 4th FIDE Grand Prix started in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, and I was there to do videos. It was quite a nice event, but also tough and long. After 13 rounds, 
April-May was also the period of the lengthy 
After 
A much more important result for Aronian, however, was his second place at the Grand Prix in Jermuk (where Ivanchuk emerged as 
Then, on September 7th, a long period started in which Magnus Carlsen would make the headlines. On that day his cooperation with Garry Kasparov was 
Levon Aronian scored yet another success in Bilbao, where he 
Soon it was Carlsen, Carlsen, Carlsen again. For a while it was the only name to be heard in the chess world, but it was fully deserved. By 
The next big event was the biggest event of 2009: the Tal Memorial. For a tournament with Anand, Aronian Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Svidler and Ponomariov we couldn’t resist the temptation – we just had to bring 
For the chess fan who still had some appetite left for top chess, there was the World Cup, which lasted no less than 23 days. Few of you will hear something new when I mention the semi-finalists: Karjakin, Malakhov, Gelfand and Ponomariov. The latter two played the final and 41-year-old top seed 
After winning the London Chess Classic with three wins and four draws it was a fact: Magnus Carlsen would become the youngest world’s number one in chess history. Thanks to the “live list” by Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website) everyone could already see how the top rankings would look like, and today this became official due to FIDE’s publication of the January list.
A disappointing London Chess Classic cost Nigel Short his 2700+ rating but he’s still just England’s best player at 2696; Michael Adams is now one spot below him at 2694. 17-year-old Fabiano Caruana did well again and climbed no less than 30 places; from spot 81 to 51. Another young player did even better: 18-year-old Sergei Zhigalko went from 93 to 58. New in the top 100 compared to the previous list are Ian Nepomniachtchi (69th), Wesley So (77th), Viktor Laznicka (84th), Le Quang Liem (93rd) Tomi Nyback (97th) and Evgeny Bareev (98th).
You can replay IM Merijn van Delft’s annotations from the 
The fourth game of the World Cup final between Boris Gelfand and Ruslan Ponomariov also ended in a draw and so tomorrow a tiebreak of rapid and possible blitz games will decide on the winner of the 2009 FIDE World Cup. Let us know who you think will win!
The third game of the World Cup final between Ruslan Ponomariov and Boris Gelfand also ended in a draw and so we’re just one game away from a tiebreak. Ponomariov avoided the Petroff with 1.d4 and in a Slav that looked like a Slechter and soon like a Grünfeld, he won a pawn but then repeated moves in timetrouble.
