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3-21-2009
FIDE VP adds SPICE to his life
[top caption; Sand, Polgar; bottom caption; Gareev v Robson]
All games are broadcast LIVE on www.MonRoi.com and www.ChessClub.com. LIVE video feed: http://media.english.ttu.edu/chess The Round 3 matchups were:
IM Antal vs GM Kacheishvili And the sensation of the round was IM Hess scoring a full point with the black pieces over GM Dashzegve, and keeping him on-track for a GM norm. Standings after 3 rounds were: 1. GM
Kacheishvili 3.0 Then look what happened: When you are on, you are on. IM Hess [captioned] was completely losing to GM Gareev. But Gareev managed to find an incredible way to lose the game. Hess was the first to admit that he was very lucky. But a win is a win, especially when you are chasing a GM norm. On the other hand, Robson won 3 straight to get back to even score. It is still technically possible for Ray to earn his GM norm.
GM Gareev
0-1 IM Hess Standings after 7 rounds: 1. IM Hess
6.0
Congratulations to the Canadian Open organizers this year in attracting two 2700 super-GMs. I note that Hikaru Nakamura is just a point short of joining the 2700-club.
http://monroi.com/2009-canadian-open-chess-championship-players.html
9 round CFC/FIDE rated event; IM norms will be possible. Here is a list of players we have signed to date:
GM Anton Kovalyov ARG Visit www.albertachess.org/Calgary_International.html for details.
Regards,
Tony Ficzere
Euro Women’s Championship poised on 7.0
Official website: http://www.wiecc2009.com/
Mtel Masters
2009, Dates and Lineup Announced! Topalov, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Wang, Dominguez and Shirov are invited to play. The fifth international chess superturnament M-Tel Masters will be held from 12th to 23rd May in Sofia, Bulgaria. Six top Grandmasters will play double round robin event in a special glass aquarium to be built on the square in front of the National Theater "Ivan Vazov". The participants in this year's edition are:
Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), 19th World Chess Champion and current
World Championship finalist
-
Magnus Carlsen (Norway), the best young chess-player in recent years and
current № 3 in the world
-
Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), the winner of the
last year's M-Tel
Masters
- Average rating of the six players is 2753, which makes the Sofia tournament to be 21st category FIDE. M-Tel Masters is part of the global Grand Slam circuit, together with other three strongest tournaments in the world - Corus in Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands), Linares (Spain) and Nanjing (China). Winner in Sofia acquires the right to play in the final tournament of the Grand Slam, which will be held later this year in Bilbao, Spain. Traditionally, Patron of the tournament will be President of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov.
Carlsen defeats world champion, again. Here are some notable games from the tournament: GM Anand - GM Carlsen
[B30]
Susan Polgar Selects: [a few other games of note from Amber] GM Kramnik - GM
Radjabov [B30]
Click here to replay the game. GM Anand - GM Kamsky
[C95]
Latest results: Standings after Round 4:
Official website: http://www.amberchess2009.com/index.html
Teenage
chess prodigy hopes to turn Grandmaster this year
The 14-year-old Srinath, who is one of the youngest International Masters in the country, is a former under-12 world champion. He was also the youngest to win the World Youth Chess Championship in France in 2005 and went on to win the Asian Youth Chess Championship the same year. In his recent tour of Sri Lanka, he was declared joint winner in two meets and second in a third. The teenager said that the Sri Lanka tour was “tiresome but rewarding”. But it has given him immense confidence to become a Grandmaster by this year. “My game is improving and I hope to turn GM before the end of 2009,” Srinath told IANS in an interview. Srinath, who sees a role model in Viswanathan Anand, went on to add: “I have decided that chess will be my career and am preparing to be a GM first. I will pass my school finals with some three months’ preparation in 2010. I need to concentrate much more on my game to reach the heights achieved by my idol Anand.” 2-7-2009
Collectors SIXTH WESTERN HEMISPHERE
CCI MEETING The Sixth Western Hemisphere CCI meeting will be held on the Memorial Day weekend, May 22-24, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency (Princeton NJ) Hotel. SPECIAL HOTEL RATES OF $129 PER NIGHT, ARE BEING HELD FOR US UNTIL 4/12/09. To obtain your special room rate, be sure to indicate that you are part of the Chess Collectors International Group. You can reserve rooms by calling 609 987 1234, or 800 233 1234. Highlights of this meeting will be the viewing of a fantastic collection of old ivory, wood and bone playing chess sets of the 1800's which are part of the extraordinary Crumiller collection, along with viewing the outstanding eclectic Raphaelli chess collection and a visit to the legendary antique chess book collection of the Princeton University Library. As usual, we will have the opportunity to acquire new chess sets at our largest ever “chess fair”. Included in this years “chess fair” will be a number of ivory chess sets which can no longer be sold or purchased on eBay. Our program will start with registration on Friday, May 22, 2009, from 3 to 7 PM, and a get together “welcome” dinner at the hotel. Saturday’s program which will start at 9 AM, will include lunch at a Princeton restaurant as well as our banquet dinner followed by a program at The Comedy Club of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The chess fair will take place on Sunday morning followed by a farewell brunch at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Any one interested in presenting a 20 minute seminar, or paper of interest to your fellow CCI members should contact Bernice Sarisohn at 631 543 1330, or email Lichess@aol.com, before March 2, 2009. Attendance fee for members and their families will be $175 per person. Non members fee will be $200 per person. Attendance fee will include Saturday lunch and dinner, Comedy Club admission as well as Sunday brunch and all bus transportation. The above fees will be good for those who register prior to May 1, 2009. Registrations after May 1, 2009 will incur a $25 per person surcharge. Cancellations prior to May 1st will get a full refund. Cancellations after May 1, 2009, will allow for a $100 per person refund. Cancellations after May 15th, may not be eligible for a refund. REGISTRATION FEES ARE PAYABLE TO ‘CCI’ AND SENT TO OUR TREASURER, BILL FORDNEY AT; 6 East Greenbrier Dr, York, PA. 17407-1014. For further information contact Bernice or Floyd Sarisohn, PO Box 166, Commack, NY 11725; phone 631 543 1330; fax 631 543 7901; email: Lichess@aol.com.
200 Grand Prix Points (enhanced)!! USCF and FIDE-Rated. IM/GM Norms may be possible. Tournament director: Steve Immitt
Renaissance Knights sponsored the visit of Leonid Timoshenko, Vice President of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, to Galileo Math and Science Academy (Chicago) where he visited with Mrs. Lasisi’s 5th grade class whose theme for the year is chess.
Ukrainian Chess Federation Vice President Visit To Galileo School RENAISSANCE KNIGHTS FOUNDATION A 501 (C) (3) nonprofit org formed to improve academic, intellectual & social skills through chess... www.RenaissanceKnights.org ; www.IllinoisScholasticChess.org; www.CPSChess.com.
Here is a very cheerful chess video from Washington State – about four minutes featuring players who have just about got the moves together, plus a couple tyros.
The direct URL is http://vimeo.com/2968004. In addition Northwest Chess has the following resources to share [thanks to Rusty Miller]. A BEST of Section has been added recently to the website for NORTHWEST CHESS Magazine the publication started in 1947 to cover chess in Washington and Oregon and some times British Columbia. Read about Yasser Seirawan playing in his first International Event and about Dan WADE written by Larry Parr.
The 2009 Moscow Open features a good win for USA’a Alex Onishuk with the black bits: Round 6 A
- top board results: Here is the state of play reporting in sort of English:
February 7, 2009
The quintet of the leaders who scored by 6 points was formed in the main tournament “Open A”. In 7th round the games between Alexander Onischuk (USA) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS), Artyom Timofeev (RUS) and Ernest Inarkiev (RUS) ended in a draw. Thanks to this, two more chess players were allowed to enter this lead group – Sergey Tiviakov (NED) and Viorel Iordachescu (ROM). They defeated Rafael Vaganian (ARM) and Alexander Riazantsev (RUS). Official site: http://www.moscowchessopen.ru/eng/index.php
After leading so long in Corus B Nigel Short failed by half a point to win it. Whereas young Karjakin clinched Group A and the even younger Wesley So soared over group C. Final standings: Corus A 1. S.
Karjakin 8 Corus B 1. F.
Caruana 8½ Corus C 1. W. So
9½ Official website: www.CorusChess.com.
GM Socko (2631) - GM
Nakamura (2699) [B93] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f4 Qc7 7.Be2 g6 8.g4 e6 9.Be3 b5 10.g5 Nfd7 11.a3 Bb7 12.0–0 Rg8 13.Qd2 Nb6 14.b3 N8d7 15.Bf3 Rc8 16.Nde2 Bg7 17.Bd4 Bxd4+ 18.Qxd4 Qc5 19.Rad1 Ke7 20.e5 dxe5 21.Qxc5+ Nxc5 22.fxe5 Bxf3 23.Rxf3 Ncd7 24.Re3 Rc5 25.Nd4 Rgc8 26.Ne4 Rxe5 27.Nf3 Rd5 28.Rxd5 Nxd5 29.Re2 Nc5 30.Nf2 Nc3 31.Re3 Nb7 32.Ne5 Nd6 33.Nfd3 Nce4 34.h4 Rxc2 35.Nb4 Rc1+ 36.Kg2 Nc5 37.Nd5+ Kf8 38.Nf6 Nf5 39.Rh3 Rc2+ 40.Kf1 Ke7 41.Ng8+ Kd6 42.Nxf7+ Kd5 43.b4 Rc1+ 44.Kg2 Rc2+ 45.Kf1 Na4 46.Nf6+ Kd4 47.h5 gxh5 48.Nxh7 Nc3 49.g6 Ne4 50.Nhg5 Nxg5 51.Nxg5 Ne3+ 52.Rxe3 Kxe3 53.Nf7 h4 54.g7 h3 Black wins 0–1 EVENTUALLY: Svidler beat Milov in a 10 min 10 sec/move play off series, Nakamura finished half point off the lead. Here are Svidler’s two clinching games: GM Milov (2669) - GM
Svidler (2723) [A22] 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.e3 Nc6 4.a3 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.d3 d5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bd2 0–0 9.Be2 a5 10.0–0 Be6 11.Rc1 Nxc3 12.Bxc3 a4 13.Nd2 Na5 14.f4 Nb3 15.Nxb3 Bxb3 16.Qe1 Re8 17.Qg3 exf4 18.Qxf4 Qe7 19.Bxg7 Kxg7 20.Bd1 Bxd1 21.Rxc7 Qxe3+ 22.Qxe3 Rxe3 23.Rxd1 b5 24.Rd2 Rd8 25.d4 Rd5 26.h3 h5 27.Rb7 Re4 28.Kf2 Rf5+ 29.Kg1 h4 30.Kh2 Re1 31.g3 hxg3+ 32.Kxg3 Re3+ 33.Kg2 Rg5+ 34.Kh2 Rh5 35.d5 Rexh3+ 36.Kg1 Rh1+ 37.Kf2 R1h2+ Black wins 0–1 Click here to replay the game. GM Svidler (2723) - GM
Milov (2669) [C72] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.0–0 Bd7 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 b5 8.Nxc6 Bxc6 9.Bb3 Nf6 10.Re1 Be7 11.c4 0–0 12.Nc3 Nd7 13.Nd5 Re8 14.Be3 Bb7 15.Rc1 c6 16.Nxe7+ Qxe7 17.f3 c5 18.Qd2 Ne5 19.Red1 Rad8 20.cxb5 h6 21.bxa6 Bxa6 22.Rc3 c4 23.Ba4 Rf8 24.b4 f5 25.Bb6 Nd3 26.b5 d5 27.bxa6 dxe4 28.fxe4 fxe4 29.Qe3 Rd6 30.Bb5 Nb2 31.Rxd6 Qxd6 32.Bd4 Nd1 33.Bxc4+ Kh8 34.Qd2 White wins 1–0 Final standings (top 36):
Official website: www.gibraltarchesscongress.com
Subject: CZECH TOUR 2009/2010 + CZECH OPEN 2009
CZECH OPEN -
International Chess and Games Festival -
http://www.czechopen.net
A Chessville columnist used some of the material from his column in his new title with Everyman publishing [cover provisional] to be published later this year; despite his obvious black joke about the age of his Chessville colleagues he blatantly wrote to us earlier this week:
Andy Hortillosa has also done much pro-bono work to promote inter-services chess, and especially concentrated on tactical elements of the game ion his Chessville articles. We all wished him well, and look forward to independent reviews of his title with some confidence – his general editor at Everyman is, I believe, GM Johnny Emms. 1-31-2009
Oxford: Women Don’t Like Chess Women are
just as good at chess as men - but they just don't like game, says
Oxford study. Men do not dominate chess competitions because they are better at the game but simply because women do not like it, according to an Oxford University study. By Stephen
Adams The lack of women who have broken into the top ranks of chess players is almost purely because so few of them play, academics found. Researchers at the university's Department of Experimental Psychology discovered that 96 per cent of the difference in performance can be accounted for by the vastly greater numbers of men who play. They made their conclusions after analysing results from just over 120,000 members of the German Chess Federation, in which men outnumber women by 16:1. Using a points-based scoring system, they found that men only slightly outperformed women. Research team member Merim Bilalic, author of 'Does Chess Need Intelligence?', said: "Although the performance of the 100 best German male chess players is better than that of the 100 best German women, we show that 96 percent of the observed difference is down to the fact a greater number of men play chess. There is little left for biological or cultural explanations to account for." Gerry Wade, president of the English Chess Federation, thought the conclusions were "absolutely right". He said: "At primary school level, when there are an equal number of boys and girls playing, there's a level playing field." Britain's top ranked women's player Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant only missed out on last year's British Open titled by a single game, he said. There has never been a female open world chess champion, nor a female British Open champion. Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Utah Home-Schooler is a Speed Demon
January 26th,
2009 @ 1:34pm A pint-sized chess player is proving he can run with the big dogs. Kayden Troff, 10, of West Jordan, is the winner of the 2009 Utah Speed Chess crown. It's a big achievement because the competition has never been won by a child his age before, and it's actually for grown-ups. Kayden is home-schooled and practices seven hours a day. He started playing when he was three years old. He says speed chess follows the same rules as regular chess but with a major twist. You play a game in less than five minutes, with two seconds to make your moves. Kayden tried to show KSL his best moves, but our reporters had a hard time keeping up. "I actually really like puzzle games, so, like, doing puzzles and stuff, and this is mostly just a mind game," he said. In addition to being the youngest ever winner of Utah's State Speed Chess title, Kayden's no slouch with chess when there's no time limit. He placed second in the country among fifth graders last month at the national competition in Orlando. Kayden hopes one day to become a grand master. He's studied under one, already has students of his own, and even helps his older brothers and another family run a chess camp in the winter and summer. Source: http://www.ksl.com
Except These Women – Fide Grand Prix List FIDE Women’s GP 2009-2010 / original list of players 1. Kosteniuk
Alexandra (RUS) WWC 2008 11.
President’s nominee 1st reserve
by rating: Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL) 2505,50 - Oct 07 & 08 Format of the Women’s Grand Prix 2009-2010 The Grand Prix will be a series of six tournaments held over two years (2009-2010) in leading world cities. The bidding process for the final selection of cities will commence in June 2008 and be finalized by Dresden Congress, November 2008. The timing of evaluating and contracting host city offers will be very important particularly at the start of the series. Offers to host and contract three tournaments over the next six years (i.e. three cycles – for 2009/10, 2011/2 and 2013/4) will be given preference. 18 top world players will be selected to compete in these tournaments. Each player agrees and will contract to participate in exactly 4 of these tournaments. Players must rank their preference of tournaments once the final list of host cities is announced and the dates are allocated to each host city. FIDE reserves the right to assign players to tournaments according to the organizational needs and the players for each tournament will be announced before the cycle begins. Each tournament will have 12 players playing over a schedule of seventeen days. The months allocated for the organisation of the Grand Prix tournaments are March, June and September of each respective year. These months have been selected to ensure there is no conflict with any other major event. In view of an objective of harmonisation of the FIDE chess calendar, the months for the Grand Prix for 2009/2010 are fixed as above, and the World Cup will be scheduled to meet the timing of the Grand Prix series. Source: FIDE - Global Chess
Corus – Short Shines Standings after 11 rounds: Corus A 1. L. Aronian,
L. Dominguez, T. Radjabov, S. Movsesian 6½ Corus B 1. N. Short
7½ [captioned] Corus C 1. W. So 8 Here is a fine win by Nigel: GM
Navara (2638) - GM Short (2663) [B04] 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 dxe5 5.Nxe5 c6 6.Be2 Bf5 7.g4 Be6 8.f4 f6 9.Nd3 Bf7 10.0–0 Na6 11.Nc3 e6 12.Nxd5 Qxd5 13.Be3 Be7 14.Bf3 Qd7 15.c3 Rd8 16.Qe2 0–0 17.Kh1 Nc7 18.Rae1 Bg6 19.Bf2 Rfe8 20.Rg1 Bd6 21.Bg3 Nd5 22.Nc5 Qc8 23.g5 b6 24.Nxe6 Bf5 25.Bg4 Rxe6 26.Qxe6+ Qxe6 27.Rxe6 Bxg4 Black wins 0–1 Official website: www.coruschess.com
Scanning the site you can find a U-tube
video of Peter Svidler demonstrating to Irina Krush how they play cricket in
St. Petersburg these days – then Irina puts the pads on. The main site also features two live web cams, one of the tournament hall and the other of the commentary room. Live Broadcast of the games is here. I spent much of yesterday watching the live games - including the spectacular escape by Peter Svidler who accidentally [?] sac’d his Queen.
Then the 2375 player faced GM Berg in round four. From my finger notes during the game, these were the results: The leaders
Dzagnidze and Socko drew Its fascinating to look at the Lopez Svidler game - White seems to have sac'd a piece at move 16. But can White play Bd1 at 17 trapping the Black Queen. White has 28 mins, black 46. In the event Lopez chose Rd2 to trap the Queen. The net effect of the exchanges was that Black gave up a Queen and Knight for 2 Knights and a Rook; this left black with 6 pawns, 2 rooks, B and Kt, against White's 5 pawns, Q, R & B at move 20. So Svidler offered up another pawn with 20. ...b5 [this game keeps coming and going off line] white 18 mins, black 42 mins [I assume some +time delay system is also in use, at 22 white 20 mins, black 47] OH - ok all the moves appeared at once to an endgame position where remarkably Svidler built himself a fortress - White K, Q 3p, Black K, R, N 3p.
GM Xie Jun -
GM Wu Shaobin Official website: www.gibraltarchesscongress.com
Chess news from Susan Polgar
The Upset Bishop: A wild finish to the encounter between Radjabov and Smeets lead to the first serious dispute of this year's tournament. Aronian on '09 differences: Levon Aronian explains his new good luck charm, the neckerchief, and on a more serious note, how this year's event differs without the "big three," Anand, Kramnik and Topalov. Navara & the Sokolov prize: Sokolov and Navara discuss his prize winning game, and Navara addresses the Grand Prix news. Many more videos can be seen here: https://webcast.chessclub.com/blog/ 1-24-2009
Published
January 19, 2009 06:23 pm
The white king must therefore to f1. The knight then jumps back to h2, checking white. Moving the white king back to g1 simply repeats moves. The king thus steps over to e1. After the knight jumps back to f3, checking white, the king is forced again to f1. And so the king dances to the knight checks ad infinitum. The lesson is here is that Michelle has Barack on a string.
BLOOMINGTON -- Benjamin Nielsen and his friends don’t speak Russian but language was not a barrier Saturday as they gathered for a chess tournament against a team in Bloomington-Normal’s sister city. The Internet provided the conduit for 10 area students sitting at laptop computers to challenge players from Vladimir, Russia. The event was sponsored by Colley’s Chess Cafe, 320 N. Main St., Bloomington. Nielsen, a sixth-grader at Parkside Junior High School, played a warm-up game before his big match. Aware of Russia’s reputation for producing chess champions, Nielsen was a little nervous as he waited his turn to play.
J.D. Theile, a member of Grove Elementary School’s chess club, enjoys the mental exercise offered by the game. “It’s good for my brain and it’s fun,” he said. Theile was looking forward to seeing how Russian students approached the game. “They might have different openings they use because they’re from the other side of the world or they may use the same old openings we practice,” Theile said before his game. The crowd at the chess café cheered as Spencer Jackson, a Bloomington fourth-grader, won his first match. Father Steven Jackson said after the 20-minute game that his son managed to come back from a disadvantaged position. “He was down in the middle of the game,” before leading his opponent into several game-ending moves, said Jackson. Chae Chu, father of player Ethan Chu, watched the tournament with other parents. He said his son has developed into a skillful player in the past four years — to the point of beating his father on a regular basis. “That happened two years ago. Now I have to try to keep up and just give him a good game,” said Chu. Chu pointed out that chess provides youngsters with an alternative to activities requiring less thinking. “It gets them
out of the house and instead of sitting in front of the television, it gets
them in front of a chess board,” he said. Cafe owner Colley Kitson said it took about three months to arrange the international tournament. The effort was worth it for a community so supportive of chess, he said. “We have 1,000 kids playing in a town of 100,000. I’m teaching 400 kids a week now,” said the chess club owner. Ronald Pope, Illinois State University professor and founder of Serendipity-Russia, an organization with a cultural school in Vladimir, helped Kitson with contacts for a chess school in Russia. Chicago chess instructor Mikhail Korenman [captioned] helped translate Russian e-mails and set-up the Internet meeting that took into account a nine-hour time difference. Korenman said Saturday that players had no problem communicating. “Chess is a very international language. You have the same rules anywhere in the world,” said Korenman.
GM Kamsky (2725) - GM
Morozevich (2771) [C78] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 d6 8.a4 Rb8 9.axb5 axb5 10.d3 0–0 11.h3 Ne7 12.Na3 Ng6 13.Nc2 h6 14.Re1 Bb6 15.Ne3 c6 16.Nh2 Kh8 17.Nhg4 Nxg4 18.hxg4 Qh4 19.d4 exd4 20.cxd4 Qf6 21.Nf5 Kg8 22.Be3 Bxf5 23.gxf5 Ne7 24.Bc2 Rfd8 25.b4 c5 26.bxc5 dxc5 27.Qg4 Rxd4 28.Bxd4 Qxd4 29.Qg3 Nc6 30.e5 c4 31.Rad1 Qb2 32.f6 g5 33.Re2 Qb4 34.Qh3 White wins 1–0 Corus A 1. S.
Karjakin 3½ Corus B 1. R.
Kasimdzhanov 3½ Corus C 1. T. Hillarp
Persson 4 Official website: www.CorusChess.com
January 18,
2009 Grandmaster Alexander Ivanov, 52, of Newton, MA, scored a perfect 3-0 to capture first place in the 18th Mid-Winter Classic tournament, held Saturday, January 17, at the Florence Congregational Church in Florence, MA. Tying for 2nd-3rd place with 2.5-0.5 results were FIDE master John Curdo, 77 of Auburn, MA, and expert Leonid Tkach, 69, of Amherst, MA. Richard Gold of Amherst finished first in the Under-1800 section with a 3-0 tally, while Richard Zyra of Westfeield, MA and David Hall of Springfield, MA tied for 2nd-3d place with 2.5-0.5 scores. Gary Zyra of Holyoke, MA posted a perfect 3-0 to come in first in the Under 1400 section, where Frank Kolasinski of Springfield and Pierre Plante of Indian Orchard, MA finished tied for 2nd-3rd place with 2-1 results. The three-section tournament drew 40 players - a dozen more than last year's event - and was directed by Frank Kolasinski for the sponsoring Western Massachusetts Chess Association (WMCA). George
Mirijanian OPEN 1 Ivanov,
Alexander (1) 2595 3.0
Press Release / Zurich, January 22nd 2009 The Schachgesellschaft Zürich celebrates 200th anniversary with spectacular jubilee events
Highlights will be a simultaneous exhibition and a rapid chess tournament on the 22nd and 23rd of August, held in Zurich Main Railway Station. With generous sponsor support from Credit Suisse the Schachgesellschaft Zürich continues its long-standing tradition of world class chess tournaments. On Saturday the 22nd of August, in simultaneous games 200 amateurs will be honoured to face eight word-class chess players, who have made historical contributions to world chess over the last 50 years: Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Viktor Korchnoi, Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Spassky, Ruslan Ponomariov and Veselin Topalov. On Sunday the 23rd of August, these champions will compete against each other in an exciting rapid chess format. Judit Polgar, the strongest female chess player ever, and Werner Hug of Schachgesellschaft Zürich, former world junior chess champion, will replace Kasparov and Spassky, who have retired from competitive chess. A huge number of spectators, from enthusiasts to the generally curious, is expected for the events at Zurich Railway Main Station. And no one need miss it: All commemorative events will be streamed live via Internet. The jubilee commences with an open tournament; certain to be one of the most exciting open chess tournaments of 2009. Players of every skill level, from beginners to the elite world class, are expected and will be welcomed at the Zurich Kongresshaus from August 9th to the 15th, 2009. They will compete in two tournaments, 9 rounds each, for CHF 100.000 guaranteed prize money and many attractive prizes. To further honour the occasion, Richard Forster, reputable chess historian, will release his comprehensive book, researched in great detail, on the unique history of the Schachgesellschaft Zürich. Entitled "Schachgesellschaft Zürich: 1809 bis 2009", Forster's work will analyze the development of the Schachgesellschaft Zürich from the times of Napoleon to the present day. Please visit www.sgzurich2009.ch for further information about the Schachgesellschaft Zürich's jubilee. Dr. Christian
Rohrer
Jack Peters wrote the following for the LA Times:
FIDE set up a committee to evaluate future title aspirants. Inevitably, political factors influenced many decisions. FIDE's efforts in the 1970s to link the process to the completely objective rating system profoundly changed the international circuit, as young players sought tournaments offering title norms and organizers tailored events to satisfy the growing demand. Although FIDE raised the performance standard for a grandmaster from 2550 to 2600, the number of title applicants rose sharply. Rating inflation, estimated at about 80 points since the 1970s, has more than offset the change. There are now 32 players rated over 2700, a level reached in the early 1970s only by Bobby Fischer. At the same time, there are 426 grandmasters rated below 2500, a full class lower. Those who claim a grandmaster should be a serious contender for the world championship would consider hundreds of current titleholders unqualified. However, I believe FIDE should refrain from creating a new category that would damage the irreplaceable tradition of the grandmaster title. Instead, raising the minimum performance for a GM norm to 2700 would halt degradation of the title without depriving present titleholders.
Chessdom is preparing for the coming challengers match between GM Gata Kamsky and GM Veselin Topalov in Sofia. A total of 7 journalists will be covering the match for you together with live commentary, photos, and news updates. There has been a two days inspection of the venues and the facilities by the FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos The caption is the official logo for the match Official website: www.CorusChess.com
* Beginner (aiming for under 1000) It will start with one weekly class per level. In addition, I will have special classes to show parents, school teachers, and new chess coaches how to help their youngsters learn and improve chess or how to introduce chess in the schools. I will also do special exclusive lectures for World Chess Live. The special treat is I will invite many other world-class players and coaches to come on as guest lecturers. I already started to record lessons on all levels and it will be launched very soon. All details will be available via ICC and this blog shortly. If you have any suggestions, please feel to email me at SusanPolgar@aol.com or enter your comments in the comment section on this blog. I am also working on a project involving a full time global chess TV channel. It is a lot of work but I think it will be worth it. Stay tuned for more details soon. Ivanchuk – No Dope Here follows the rather pompous official announcement about the doping charges leveled against Gm Ivanchuk. After losing a crucial game for his country, Mr Ivanchuk was distraught. The Hearing Panel concludes that although the arbiter attempted to inform Mr Ivanchuk in English that he should accompany him for a doping test, Mr Ivanchuk apparently failed to understand the instructions, especially since English is not Mr Ivanchuk’s first language. If there had been a Doping Control Officer present, he would have immediately gone to Mr Ivanchuk’s board and there would have been communication between him and Mr Ivanchuk. In that case the outcome might have been different. Because there was no notification by the Doping Control officer, there was no refusal in the sense of the regulations.
The Conclusion:
The procedural error allied with Mr Ivanchuk’s state of mind led him unintentionally to miss the test. The Hearing Panel therefore concludes unanimously that there should be no penalty. 1-17-2009
ChessToday.net just reported that Boris Yeshan had just passed away. On 15 January the website of Ukrainian chess federation published sad news: the head of both the Shahcom company and the first Russian chess news site www.Ruschess.com, Boris Leibovich Yeshan, passed away, aged 59. I am in shock – Boris Leibovich was my very good friend, and for a period of 10 years we freely wrote each other about everything to do with chess in Russia and in the West. Thousands of messages of things never published! If you, dear reader, like watching live chess games broadcast to the net – here was its first pioneer and consistent developer. But this is hardly to broach his main achievement – which I find I must address at another time. For this moment I must recommend this person’s journey: The way home was through a fallow field of black earth which had just been ploughed. I walked along the dusty, gently rising black-earth road. The ploughed field was squire’s land and very large, so that on either side of the road and on top of the slope you could see nothing but black evenly furrowed fallow land, as yet unharrowed. The ploughing was well done and there was not a plant or blade of grass to be seen across the whole field: it was all black. What a cruel destructive creature man is. How many different living creatures and plants he has destroyed in order to support his own life, I thought instinctively looking for some sign of life in the midst of this dead black field.
Leo Tolstoy – Hadji Murad. And later I will try to speak of the signs of life he found and shared. Well, I wish
you well, black earth: be firm, sharp-eyed… - Osip Mandelstam, April 1935
The Parrot Proposes: a) A chess playing audit or investigation to be conducted by computer engine of the games of historic players, to determine the engine’s sense of their rating.
c) My idea acknowledges John Nunn's initiative which ‘blunder-counted’, but also includes missed opportunities. I note BTW that Convekta already build rating estimates into some of their chess training CDs, such as Advanced Chess School. d) Of the
things dismissed from this investigation have to be Elo's own ideas on
regressive ratings, which do not even use his own ‘Elo’ method!
Similarly, EDO has to go too - you can't really have a margin of error of
600 points! e) One means of benchmarking a set of software analytical tools would be to take high volumes of currently rated players - I suggest Kasparov should be excluded as the high bench mark of 2850, since distortions can occur at the very extreme of the scale – but to use a solid 2700 player. Then attempt to bracket intermediary players by choosing known games of a 2000 rated player for the lower benchmark. The software should be thus calibrated. f) Excluded should be match-games, and only Swiss and Round Robin type tournaments included. [Elo is only valid where 'x' is sufficient.] g) Finally the games of various historical players could be processed through this calibrated engine, and the objective proof of the strength of their play thus established by actual measurement. Should anyone like to take part in this research, in either small or large part, write to the Parrot.
Susan Polgar reviewed the product on her own blog site, and had this to say: Here is my personal assessment: 1. The interface is nice and easy on the eyes. 2. Everything works intuitively and it is quite simple actually. I think everyone can figure it out immediately. 3. The playing program is not bad. Obviously it is not strong enough for professional players but it is good enough to beat 95% of the chess players on this planet. 4. It is quite inexpensive. 5. It also gives an excellent entertainment and educational value, especially if you are on a flight or with kids on a road trip. I definitely prefer them playing chess or reading over playing violent video games any day. On the scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 9. Well done!
New Delhi (IANS): Nine-year old Hetul Shah created history in the first round of the seventh Parsvnath International Open Chess tournament, defeating Grand Master Nurlan Ibrayev of Kazakhstan on Sunday. Here is the game: GM Ibrayev, Nurlan
(2407) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0–0 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Qc7 12.Nbd2 cxd4 13.cxd4 Bd7 14.Nf1 Rfc8 15.Ne3 Nc6 16.a3 Bf8 17.b3 Nxd4 18.Nxd4 Qc3 19.Ne2 Qxa1 20.Qd2 d5 21.b4 d4 22.Nd1 Rxc2 23.Qxc2 Rc8 24.Qd2 Nxe4 25.Qd3 Nd6 26.Bb2 Qa2 27.f4 Qc4 28.Qb1 d3 29.Ne3 Qe4 30.Nc3 Qxf4 31.Ncd5 Qg3 32.Nf1 Qg6 33.Bxe5 Nc4 34.Nf4 Qb6+ 35.Kh1 Nxe5 36.Rxe5 Bd6 37.Re4 Bc6 38.Qc1 Qb7 39.Re1 Bxg2+ 40.Nxg2 Rxc1 41.Rxc1 Bf4 42.Rc3 d2 43.Rd3 h6 44.Kg1 Qb6+ 0–1
According to the Chief Financial Officer of the USCF Mr. Joe Nanna, the US Chess Federation under the leadership of President Bill Goichberg, Vice President Jim Berry, Vice President of Finance Randy Bauer, and Executive Director Bill Hall, lost $419,968 in the first 6 months of this fiscal year. With the $374,626 bequests, the federation still lost $45,342 year to date! There are still 5 months left in this fiscal year!
The first super tournament of the new year has begun. You can also go to the main site [see below] and watch the live games – reporting on the event is usually bi-lingual Dutch and English. Group A
Group B
Groups C
Official website: www.CorusChess.com
Iraq – US Troops and Chess This week I responded to a guy who was sending chess sets to US troops in Iraq.
If, and these things get complicated, there is a positive response, I intend to recruit among Chessville’s columnists, GMs and all! plus you, the readers, a team to play correspondence chess with these guys. Probably nothing will happen, but if… then… maybe you already decided if you would respond and play a game or two or not? We are now talking back and forth, and we’ll see if the troops want to play us. Caption: U.S. Army 1st Lt. Justin Carter plays with baby while baby’s mother is distracted during the chess club finale, in Shaykh Sa'ad City, Iraq.
India needs to host
top-level chess events now: Anand
"India should now work on hosting more and more top-level tournaments, including category tournaments. It's very important for the growth of the sport in the country," Anand said. Asked about the minimum number of tournaments that should be organised, Anand said any number would be an improvement. "Actually no number can be enough but since there are hardly any top events in the country at the moment, any number would be an improvement," he told reporters during his visit to the capital city. Except the women's world crown, Indian players bagged all top honours last year, including the youth and age-group titles. Besides, India also boasts of as many as 18 Grandmasters and an umpteen number of International Masters. However, Grandmasters like K Sasikiran and P Harikrishna, who are the top Indian players after Anand, have so far failed to capture people's imagination. Although India has such a large talent pool in chess, Anand said, it was still some distance away to catch up with superpower Russia. "We're narrowing the gap with Russia but they are still ahead on many counts. We can't write them off so soon," he felt. On who would be the best player to step into his shoes, Anand quipped that "I am still playing chess and not considering retirement for sometime". Source: http://www.hindu.com 1-10-2009
Wanted – A Few Good Swabbies 2009 Navy chess team seeks players Staff report If you’re rehearsed in the use of rooks and practiced in the pushing of pawns, the Navy chess team wants you. The chess team is looking for six sailors to represent the Navy this May at the inter-service chess tournament, according to a Navy-wide message released Dec. 29. That tournament, at Fort Benning, Ga., will determine who goes on to form an all-military team that will take on America’s allies in June at the NATO chess tournament, which this year is taking place in Germany. The Army, Air Force and Marine Corps chess teams are also looking for volunteers. Last year’s U.S. armed forces team only included one Navy member, Lt. Cmdr. Paul Choate, of Fleet Readiness Center Southwest at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif. That team finished eighth out of 18 teams; Turkey won the tournament, followed by Germany and Poland. Germany had won each of the preceding 11 tournaments. The U.S. has never won, although the Americans did take second place in 2002. To apply for this year’s Navy chess team, sailors must submit an application available from the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Web site including their chess ranking, U.S. Chess Federation number and other information by March 13, according to the Navy message. Source: http://www.navytimes.com
The interesting comparison is with Russia, still listed as #1 country – just look at all those 2700 ratings!
Chess will soon be part of Olympics - Ilyumzhinov By K.R.Nayar,
Senior Reporter
Speaking to Gulf News, after the felicitation function for the Al Ain Chess Club that won the first Asian Chess Champions League at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, Ilyumzhinov said: "My aim is to ensure that chess becomes a part of the Olympic movement and is one of the events in the Olympic Games soon. Today, FIDE is made up of 165 countries and we would jointly appeal to get recognition from the International Olympic Committee." Ilyumzhinov is one of the most powerful and influential sports administrators in the world today. He is the President and Head of Republic of Kalmykia and has been the president of FIDE since November 1995. He has been travelling extensively promoting the game around the world. Asked in which continent is chess spreading at a fast pace, Ilyumzhinov said: "Chess is now being played in all continents. However, Asia, Europe and America are organising more chess tournaments every day. It is nice to see chess even being played regularly in Mexico and Argentina. "In Asia there has been a boom of tournaments especially in Vietnam and I am delighted that the UAE is also contributing immensely to popularise the game. Shaikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan as president of Asian Chess Federation is a very active organiser of tournaments. I am also very impressed with the amount of young talent in this region," Ilyumzhinov has obtained degrees and titles from National Academy of Applied Sciences of Russian Federation and New York Academy of Sciences. The ‘full story’ is here: http://www.gulfnews.com/sport/Chess/10272255.html
At Round 8 here was the picture:
Bd WHITE Result BLACK Final scores were: 1st Kurnosov, 7.5, 2nd-3rd. Neverov and Berg 7, and 4th-5th Hebden and Williams. Official website: http://www.hastingschess.org.uk/2009/masters.htm
CHESS FESTIVAL STARTS IN GJØVIK, NORWAY A close thing at the finished resulted in a rapid play play-off between Carlsen and Svidler which Svidler won. Third place went to GM Nakamura, USA. The final round presented this scenario:
GM Nakamura (2699) - GM
Carlsen (2776) [D14] 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.d4 d5 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bf4 Bf5 7.e3 e6 8.Bd3 Bxd3 9.Qxd3 Bd6 10.Bxd6 Qxd6 11.0–0 0–0 12.Rac1 Game drawn ½–½ With this draw, they are guaranteed to tie for first in the preliminary round of the Aker Chess Challenge. Standings: 1-2.
Nakamura, Carlsen 4.0 Svidler had to beat Lie in the final round to catch up, which he did. Then Carlsen defeated Nakamura: GM Nakamura (2699) - GM
Carlsen (2776) [D15] 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.d4 d5 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4 b5 6.e5 Nd5 7.a4 e6 8.axb5 Nxc3 9.bxc3 cxb5 10.Ng5 Bb7 11.Qh5 g6 12.Qg4 Bd5 13.h4 h6 14.Ne4 Nd7 15.h5 g5 16.Be2 a5 17.0–0 b4 18.Nd2 Nb6 19.f4 bxc3 20.Nf3 gxf4 21.Bxf4 Kd7 22.Ne1 Kc6 23.Nc2 Bb4 24.Rf2 Qe7 25.Qh3 Rag8 26.Bf1 Rg7 27.Ne3 Kb7 28.Ng4 Nd7 29.Bc1 Kc6 30.Ne3 Nb6 31.Nxd5 Nxd5 32.Bxc4 Rhg8 33.Bxd5+ exd5 34.Bxh6 Rg3 35.Qf5 Qe6 36.Qxe6+ fxe6 37.Bf4 R3g4 38.Be3 Kb5 39.h6 Kc4 40.Kf1 Kd3 41.Rf3 Kc4 42.Rh3 Rf8+ 43.Kg1 Rfg8 44.Kh1 Kb3 45.Rf1 a4 46.Bd2 Rxd4 47.Bxc3 Bxc3 48.Rc1 Rc4 49.h7 Rh8 50.g4 a3 51.g5 Kb2 52.Rg1 Bxe5 53.Rg2+ Rc2 Black wins a few moves later 0–1 And the final play-off was a Rosolimo which like this: After losing to Carlsen twice in the preliminary round and blitz playoff, Svidler got his revenge winning the 2nd game of the final with the black pieces to clinch the Aker Chess Challenge title. GM Carlsen (2776) - GM
Svidler (2723) [C84] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Bd2 b4 10.c3 Rb8 11.Bc4 Qc8 12.Re1 0–0 13.d4 Bg4 14.Be3 Na5 15.Bd3 Bxf3 16.Qxf3 Nb3 17.Ra2 Ng4 18.Nd2 bxc3 19.bxc3 Nxe3 20.Qxe3 Bf6 21.Nf3 Re8 22.Rb1 c5 23.dxe5 dxe5 24.Bf1 c4 25.Nd2 Nxd2 26.Rxb8 Qxb8 27.Rxd2 Qb3 28.a5 h6 29.Rd5 Rd8 30.g3 Bg5 31.Qf3 Bf6 32.h4 Qa2 33.Rxd8+ Bxd8 34.Qd1 Bxa5 35.Qd5 Bb6 36.Kh2 Qxf2+ 37.Bg2 a5 38.Qxc4 Qc5 39.Qa4 g6 40.Qb3 h5 41.c4 Kg7 42.Kh3 Qc6 43.Qc3 Qe6+ 44.Kh2 Qe7 45.Qb3 Qb4 46.Qd3 Bd4 47.Qe2 a4 48.g4 a3 49.gxh5 Qb2 50.Qg4 Qd2 51.Kh3 Qe3+ 52.Bf3 Qf4 Black wins 0–1
www.gjovikfestival.sjakkweb.no 1-3-2009
“…even way back before their original 1972 meeting, called the Match of the Century, when the eyes of the world were riveted on him as a shining emblem of American will, innovation and brilliance (the match in which he took on the Soviet chess machine and single-handedly crushed it, but not before the fabled call from Henry Kissinger, urging him to put aside his jumbled demands and just play) . . . even before his brazen, almost obnoxious deconstruction of a cavalcade of grandmasters who stood in his path to Spassky (he won 20 games in a row, the longest winning streak in modern chess) . . . before he traded the rags of his youth for his new wardrobe of expensive suits . . . before his mind slowly unhinged and he became a walking paradox (the anti-Semitic Jew; the anti-American national hero, the wastrel-wizard of his craft) . . . yes, before the whole circus of his life unfolded, he was a 13-year-old kid in the first flush of the thing he most loved in the world: chess.” Read the complete article.
2009 Susan Polgar National Open for Boys and Girls 7SS, G/45 - Sunrise Mountain High School, 21200 N 83rd Ave, Glendale, AZ 85382. Winners in the Girls sections will qualify for the 2009 SP National Invitational, if meet eligibility requirements.
Prizes (All Scholastic Sections): Laptop Computer to 1st, $200 (in Chess Prizes) to 2nd, $150 to 3rd $100 to 4th, $50 to 5th All the above are in kind, chess prizes such as chess books/DVDs etc, and not a cash prize. Digital Clock to 7-0 score, Trophies to top 20 Individuals, Trophies to top 3 teams, Medals to 21st-30th Individuals, and to 4-6th Teams, Trophies to top 3 Parent/Child/Sibling Teams.
Adult Section: $300-$200-$150-$100 in cash prizes, based on 20 paid entries. All sections: EF: $55 by 1/10; $59 by 1/24; $65 by 2/6; $69 after. On Site registration will receive Rd 1 (1/2 pt) bye. Byes: (1/2 pt) must be scheduled by the start of round 2. Schedule: Opening Ceremony 2/14 9:00 am; Rounds: 2/14 9:15-11:30-1:30-3:30; 2/15 9:00-1:00-3:00. Side-Events: Puzzle Solving Championship 2/13 6:00pm. EF: $15 if by 2/6; $20 after. Registration closes 5:30pm. Susan Polgar 64 Board Simultaneous Exhibition 2/13 7:15pm. online registration available at www.chessemporium.com, or mail entry form to Chess Emporium, 10801 N. 32nd St, Suite 6, Phoenix, AZ 85028. Info or Phone Credit Card entries: 602-482-4867. E-mail Kids@chessemporium.com.
I was going through some old correspondence and found this reference to "Elektronnaya Vychisllitelnyaja Mashina" forwarded to me by Natalia Glagoleva in 1999 on the first GM games against a chess computer. An acronym for the "Electronic Calculating Machine" was EVM
M-20, the M20 being the model number, so to speak. The Grandmaster was David Bronstein and the games played in 1963. The anecdote goes that Bronstein offered it Queen-odds in the first game, and to his mortification he lost! After insisting on a second game played not-at-odds, Bronstein was able to announce a mate-in-10. World Champion programmer of Crafty, Bob Hyatt, then told me that this 10-move forced mate was still used as a bench-mark for chess engines. A little more poking around revealed the tech specs of the EVM M20: 4096 45-bit words Mr. Charles Milton Long also confirmed much of this information, but was unable to name a location other than "USSR 1963", from Bronstein's 200 Open Games. Does any reader know of the location, and subsequent development of Soviet-era chess programming?
> Perhaps any/all USCF financial data Now here is a message worth taking note of - especially to those who are told, 'join up or shut up' since there are 2 presumptions in that statement; a) that joining up will provide
information not available to non-members, and Neither seem to be true - indeed, if you cannot review the financial status of an organization why should you join it, and secondly, if membership constitutes no rights to determine what goes on, then...? > Simply put there shouldn't be any secret During the previous election I posed candidate Bauer the question if disputes between membership and the organization should be resolved by arbitration? He said no.
Once more, in a standards-based world, USCF behave abnormally - and its management will not submit to independent assessment of right or wrongs. Instead we have successive unresolved law-suits which paralyze the board as a coherent body of governance of chess, while bleeding away member's money and bequests on what has always seemed to me to be the inevitable /result/ of such lack of standard. Its a form of crisis or response management actually necessary for military activities and designed for emergencies - but does USCF think it is at war with?
After defeating the previous co-leader Caruana to earn a share of the lead, Sasikiran did the same to other tournament leader Vallejo Pons to take over the sole lead of the 2008 Pamplona tournament in Spain. Official Site Pamplona round 5 results: Sasikiran - Vallejo 1-0 Standings after 5 rounds: 1. Sasikiran 3½ Final
Round 1 results: Cebalo - Ni Hua 0-1 Latest Standings after 7 rounds:
PRESS RELEASE
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov held an online conference with the top World Chess Grand Masters in Elista, Russia. He thanked them and their representatives for their contribution to a fruitful online discussion regarding the World Chess Championship Cycle. The World Champion Anand Vishwanathan, Grand Masters Veselin Topalov, Vasily Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen (represented by his father Henrik) and Levon Aronian explained their views to the FIDE Officials present which included FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Deputy President George Makropoulos, Vice President Zurab Azmaiparashvili, FIDE Commercial Director & Global Chess CEO Geoffrey Borg and PA to FIDE President Berik Balgabaev. The meeting lasted more than an hour and different opinions, suggestions, recommendations and constructive criticism was made by the players. FIDE President said that he would take the views of the players to the Presidential Board to be held in mid-March 2009 in Budapest where they will be reviewed closely. The context of the meeting in detail with full text reports for FIDE President and from Mr Henrik Carlsen (kindly sent to us also electronically) and edited versions of FIDE Deputy President Makropoulos, GMs Anand, Topalov, Ivanchuk and Aronian will be reproduced tomorrow. Source: FIDE
New FIDE Ratings On the 30th December FIDE published new ratings. It is hard to believe, but Nanjing (Category 21) was not counted, while Elista (Category 19), which finished later, was counted. The explanation from the yesterday's FIDE article is: "His (Topalov's) victory in the Pearl Springs tournament in Nanjing, China, which ended 22nd December, will be rated for April 2009, according to FIDE regulations." But who writes these terrible regulations, one may ask once again. And why not have a rule say, that all events with the participation of the world's top 10 players are counted as operatively as possible? The top of the rating list now looks as follows (with the names of Nanjing participants in bold): 1. Topalov 2796
The 2008-09 Congress is taking place between December 28, 2008 through to January 5, 2009.
Round 6 matchups of the leaders: Bd WHITE Result BLACK PIN
CHESS FESTIVAL STARTS IN GJØVIK, NORWAY One of the greatest chess festivals ever in Norway is being held from December 29th to January 7th, on occasion of the 100th anniversary of Gjøvik chess club. The semiopen anniversary Swiss tournament has six grandmasters rated 2600+, with the reigning European champion on top: Tiviakov (NED) 2686, Savschenko (RUS) 2648, Malakhato (BEL) 2633, Korneev (RUS) 2623, Mchedlishvili (GEO) 2615 and Bartel (POL) 2602, followed by GMs Kulaots (EST) 2556, Gopal (IND) 2548, de Firmian (USA) 2545 and Kveinys (LTU) 2533. The highest rated IM of the field is Norway's own Jon Ludvig Hammer (18), who at 2522 runs for his final GM norm. Hammer is a class mate of Magnus Carlsen, who will face Peter Svidler (Russia), Hikaru Nakamura (USA) and Kjetil Lie (Norway) in the rapid tournament "Aker Chess Challenge" from January 2nd. The big international Norwegian company Aker has become the main sponsor of the Gjøvik chess festival. The numerous Aker companies are active within the oil and gas industry, in marine technology and fishing. The "Aker Chess Challenge" will draw the attention as a main event of the chess world during the first five days of 2009.For more information, always see the festival website.
December 29, 2008 in Everyday Science Men's Chess Superiority Scientifically Explained A study published by the Royal Society finds that men's superiority over women at chess at the top levels can be explained by population size. Since many more men play, there's a wider range of abilities, meaning more individuals at the very top. Karen Hopkin reports. Women are so much better than men at so many things. But according to a report published by the Royal Society, chess is not one of them. The topic of sex differences when it comes to matters of the mind is, needless to say, a divisive one. Those who wish to argue that women are just not as smart as men often point to chess as their proof. Although girls can obviously play, no woman’s ever been world champion. But before looking for cultural or biological explanations for the disparity, scientists say you need to do the math. Serious chess players are assigned ratings based on their performance against other players. So the scientists compared the ratings of the top hundred male and top hundred female players from Germany. And they found that the men indeed outperformed the women. However that difference can be almost entirely explained by statistics. Because the larger the population, the wider the range of measured scores—the bell curve has a longer tail. And because many more men play than women, the best male players are extreme outliers on that bell curve. As more women play, a few should also reach those extremes, right out there with the men. To which one might be tempted to say: Checkmate. —Karen Hopkin Source: Scientific American
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Mr.
Morten Sand of Norway (General Legal Counsel and Vice President of FIDE for
many years) is one of our guests at the SPICE Spring Invitational at Texas
Tech University. He was given the full tour of TTU and was very impressed
with what he saw. He will be in Texas until at least the end of the week. He
is also one of the members of the 
FIDE
Category:
Round
7 results:
Chennai,
March 14 (IANS) After a good outing in three international meets in Sri
Lanka, India’s teenage chess prodigy N. Srinath is aiming to become a
Grandmaster (GM) by the end of the year.
The
students learned about chess in the Ukraine and the success the Ukrainian
teams had at the recent Chess Olympiad. Accompanying Mr. Timoshenko was
International Master Stan Smiatankin. Also in attendance were Oleksandr
Gaman (Consulate General of Ukraine), Lisa Wiersma (CPS Interim Director of
Partnerships) and Darrin Osborne (CPS Sports Department).
For
most players this is their first tournament, and congratulations to the
organizers in Washington for making it a well lit and cheerful experience.
The
games of 7th round were played on Friday at International Moscow Open 2009
festival. At female tournament “C” Natalia Pogonina [captioned], a
member of Russia team, got leadership and moved into the top of the
tournament table. She defeated Varvara Repina using Black chess.
Pogonina scored 6.5 points afterwards.
Drama
from Nakamura towards the end: after 4 straight wins in Gibraltar, Nakamura
is now tied for 1st with Svidler, Gashimov, Milov and Harikrishna. But
Nakamura failed to join the leading pair [captioned] who then played these
play-off games:
10-year-old
making splash in the chess world
“Russians
are the best. They know chess so we’ll see,” said Nielsen, who has
played for about six years.
The
Schachgesellschaft Zürich, the world's oldest chess club, celebrates its
200th year in 2009 with spectacular jubilee events. To mark the
anniversary, some of the greatest masters of the last five decades,
including World Champions Spassky, Kasparov and Anand, will play at the
event.
I
recently reached an agreement with the Internet Chess Club to host the
Polgar Chess University online on World Chess Live, wrote Susan Polgar. The
idea is for me to conduct chess training classes online in three levels:
b)
This is a departure from the usual regressive analysis, which is merely an
estimate of playing strength by comparing results against other players of
the time.
Nine
Year Old
The
Iraq-based sergeant receiving the sets said that chess is the only game he
would allow his crew to do, since it concentrates the mind, coordination,
and overall attention of the troops to where they were.
New
Delhi (PTI): With Indians reigning at almost all levels, three-time
World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand feels it is high time India starts
hosting top events to take the sport forward in the country.
Dubai:
World Chess Federation (FIDE) President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is confident that
chess will soon be included in Olympics.
“PHOTO:
New
York Times ran a series of obituaries last week of significant people who
died in 2008. Here is an extract on the paradoxical Fischer, written
by MICHAEL PATERNITI. Published: December 23, 2008
Sections:
All-Girls and Open (Boys/Girls): Primary (K-2); Elementary (3-5); Middle
School (6-8), High School. Parents/Adults: All ages.
Scholarships
to Texas Tech University (over $100,000) and Texas A&M University -
Kingsville (over $150,000) will be offered. (Must meet entrance requirements
and chess tournament scholarship criteria –
A
New Year’s Quiz from Very Old Mail – about the
I
raised the issue because a master player had suggested it in NY Times in
order to resolve the 9-month lag in correspondence ratings, and successive
broken promises to when the situation would be resolved. The master
said that cc players paid good money for USCF correspondence ratings - so
where is the performance?
FIDE
PRESIDENT KIRSAN ILYUMZHINOV HOLDS ONLINE CONFERENCE WITH TOP WORLD GRAND
MASTERS
