Gujarat claims Guinness record

20,486 players come together to test their skills at Gujarat University ground and beat four-year-old Mexican record

Gujarat today created a new world record for most number of chess games played simultaneously at a single venue, with 20,486 players coming together to test their skills at the Gujarat University ground here. The state broke the record created by Mexico in 2006 when 13,346 players had played together at a similar event.

A Guinness certificate was presented to the state Youth and Culture Department Secretary, Bhagyesh Jha, by Guinness Book of World Records representative Tarika Vara.

Gujarat plays chess, checks into Guinness

53rd Torneo di Capodanno in Reggio Emilia

From December 28th 2010 to January 6th 2011 the 53rd edition of the international chess tournament "Torneo di Capodanno" will be played in Reggio Emilia. Free day is on January 1st and opening ceremony takes place on December 28th, morning. Games starting daily from 14:30. The tournament will be played at hotel Astoria Mercure.

53rd event in succession is probably one of the records for a Fide closed tournament, beside Hastings.

Players:
Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2754
Sergei Movsesian SVK 2723
David Navara CZE 2722
Vugar Gashimov AZE 2719
Alexander Morozevich RUS 2700
Fabiano Caruana ITA 2700
Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2697
Nigel Short ENG 2690
Alexander Onischuk USA 2688
Michele Godena ITA 2551

53rd Reggio Emilia index page

Hou Yifan Becomes World Champion

Hou Yifan, a 16-year-old chess player from China, became the youngest world chess champion on Friday, toppling a record held since 1978.

Ms. Hou defeated another Chinese player, Ruan Lufei, in the final of the Women’s World Chess Championship, which was held in Antakya, Turkey.

Maia Chiburdanidze of the Republic of Georgia had previously held the record for youngest champion. She won the title in 1978, when she was 17, and held it until 1991, when she was defeated by Xie Jun of China.

Ms. Hou is the fourth women’s world champion from China, following Ms. Xie, who was champion from 1991 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2001; Zhu Chen, 2001 to 2004; and Xu Yuhua, 2006 to 2008.

Record Set for World’s Youngest Chess Champion

GM Patrick Wolff starts his own hedge fund

A managing director at Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital is starting a new hedge-fund business that will be seeded by the PayPal co-founder.

Patrick Wolff, a two-time U.S. chess champion and international grand master, has formed a management company called Grand Master Capital Management LLC. The firm's hedge fund is scheduled to launch Jan. 1.

The Wall Street Journal

Patrick Wolff: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess, Third Edition