A brilliant 17-years old Iranian Student, Ebrahim Jahandar, constructed a magnetic-force based robot that can play chess against humans. The playing level appears to be basic, but at least you can't fool the machine by making illegal moves! The robot will simply put the pieces back and wait for you to resume according to the rules (see video).
Technical specifications can be found on Ebrahim's personal website.
On the invitation of the President of the Chechen Republic (Russia), Ramzan Kadyrov, FIDE delegation led by the commercial director of FIDE, CEO of Global Chess, Geoffrey Borg and the FIDE President Assistant Berik Balgabaev visited Grozny.From FIDE website
The guests inspected the possible venues for official events, hotels and met with the leadership of the republic. FIDE representatives were very pleased to note the high level of infrastructure recently established in the republic, which meets the highest international standards.
Representatives of the Chechen Republic expressed the desire of chess development and popularization in the republic and to draw attention to the Chechen Republic in connection to the organizing of major international tournaments, even including the participation in a tender for the world championship match and other tournaments of such level.
The fourth FIDE Grand Prix tournament is set to take place on 15th-30th April in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaryan Republic, Russia. The organisers from Nalchik were hugely praised after the successful 2008 Women's World Chess Championship, which was also held there. This time they are helping in saving the remains of FIDE's failed project.
The players:
Akopian Vladimir (Armenia 2696)
Alekseev Evgeny (Russia 2716)
Aronian Levon (Armenia 2754)
Bacrot Etienne (France 2728)
Eljanov Pavel (Ukraine 2693)
Gelfand Boris (Israel 2733)
Grischuk Alexander (Russia 2748)
Ivanchuk Vassily (Ukraine 2746)
Kamsky Gata (USA 2720)
Karjakin Sergey (Ukraine 2721)
Kasimdzhanov Rustam (Uzbekistan 2695)
Leko Peter (Hungary 2751)
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar (Azerbaijan 2725)
Svidler Peter (Russia 2726)
Dylan Loeb McClain noted in his NY Times column: "Some tournaments resort to playoffs. If there are only two players who are tied, a playoff is simple. But what happens if there are three or four, or even more? That is the problem that confronted the organizers of the 10th European Individual Chess Championships in Budva, Montenegro..."
The official tournament commentator, GM Miso Cebalo, openly criticized the tiebreak system used in EICC, forcing the ECU Board Member Werner Stubenvol to admit that they can't find a better solution.
Russian Grandmaster Evgeny Tomashevsky, who faced only two 2600+ opponents during the regular 11 rounds, eventually won the tiebreaks and the title of European Champion.
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