Moscow Open 2011

The traditional chess festival "Moscow Open" will be held from January 28th to February 7th, 2011, in the usual playing venue at the Russian State Social University (RSCU), 4 Pik street (metro Botanical Garden).

The festival will see a new and extended format with nine separate tournaments:
- Round robin tournament of young Grandmasters (men) - A
- Round robin tournament of young Grandmasters (women) - B
- Student Cup of Russia (men) - C
- Student Cup of Russia (women) - D
- Open Tournament, Cup of Russia among men - E
- Open Tournament, Cup of Russia among the women - F
- Individual and team tournament of chess schools and children clubs - G
- RSCU Olympiad - H
- Third World Cup of chess composition

Tournament website

FIDE reply about WWCC 2010

With great surprise I read your letter of 14 January, signed by several players, concerning the conditions of the World Women's Championship 2010 in Antakya.

It is even more surprising that the main accusation, repeatedly mentioned, is that the organisers of the Turkish Chess Federation tried to make money by overcharging the players. I would like to remind that the organisers have provided the full prize fund of the event (450,000 USD) by taking on their own cost the 20% contribution to FIDE and not deducting it from the players. This means that a total of 90,000 USD was offered free to the players by the organisers. Each participant received a bonus starting from 750 USD (for the players who were eliminated in the 1st round) and reaching up to 12,000 USD (for the World Champion). If the organisers wanted to "make more money", wouldn't they simply not offer this bonus?

Full article by FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos

Susan Polgar's opinion

Reykjavík Open 2011

The MP Reykjavík Open will be held from March 9 to March 16, 2011 in the City Hall in downtown Reykjavík. The 2011 edition is expected to field one of the strongest and largest group of chess players in years. Nearly thirty GMs have so far registered, including some of the world’s highest ranked players, the youngest GM in the world, some of the strongest women and legends of the game.

The highest ranked player is Evgenij Miroshnichenko (2670) of Ukraine, followed by Luke McShane (2664), Ivan Sokolov (2657), one of last year’s winners who also regularly features in international chess tournaments in Iceland, and German GM Jan Gustafsson (2652).

Tournament website

Justine Henin definitely retires

Former world number one Justine Henin has quit tennis, for a second time, after doctors advised her to end her career due to an injured elbow.

Henin, 28 and the winner of seven Grand Slams, became the first woman player to retire while ranked number one in the world in May 2008 but returned early last year.

"After having well considered and following the advice of doctors, it is now clear and I accept that my career here finally ends. Even though it's hard, very hard, while I came back with a tremendous fighting spirit."

Full piece on Yahoo! Eurosport

Belgrade Open Championship 2011

The 2011 Belgrade Championship with 120 players is being held from 22nd to 30th January. Five Grandmasters and six IMs compete. Top two finishers qualify for the Serbian Championship.

Tournament website

French chess players suspected of cheating

The Fédération Française des Echecs seizes its Commission of Discipline against members of the team of France, for "cheating".

Fédération Française des Echecs (FFE) announces that it engaged, on December 22, 2010, a disciplinary action against the International Grandmasters Sebastien Feller and Arnaud Hauchard, like against the International Master Cyril Marzolo, following suspicions of "organized cheating, serious failure with sporting ethics, attack carried to the image of the Olympic national team, during the Team World Chess Championship which was held in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia), September 21 to October 3, 2010".

Source

Houdini

Why waste loads of money on Rybka and Fritz when there are equally good or better engines and available free of charge. Houdini 1.5 ruled the just completed Thoresen Chess Engines Competition (TCEC) and took the first place ahead of Rybka 4 and another free engine, Stockfish 2.0.1.

1. Houdini 1.5 - 24.0
2. Rybka 4.0 - 23.0
3. Stockfish 2.0.1 - 20.0
4. Ivanhoe B47cB - 17.0
5. Critter 0.9 - 17.0
6. Shredder 12.0 - 12.0
7. Naum 4.2 - 12.0
8. Hiarcs 13.2 - 11.0

Hou Yifan is China's Sports Person of the Year

Badminton player Lin Dan and Winter Olympic champion Wang Meng won the best male and female Athlete of the Year honors at the 2010 CCTV (China Central Television) sports personality awarding ceremony here on Sunday.

Winners of the Winter Olympics figure skating Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo were once again named the best sports couple.

World Chess Champion Hou Yifan is the best athlete involved in a sport that is not included in the Olympic category.

From People's Daily

Anish Giri Beats World Number One

Anish Giri upset Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament. The young Dutchman only needed 22 moves and little more than an hour to beat the world number one with black. Second time did Carlsen lose to a player younger than himself. Carlsen is twenty years old, Giri sixteen.

Vladimir Chuchelov was one of the first to realize what was happening. 'I once checked the line myself for white and it decided that is was very bad', the Belgian coach of Giri said.

In the meantime, Giri almost could not believe his eyes in De Moriaan. 'It was so easy', he said, 'the quality of the game was not very high'. After he resigned Carlsen in a single gesture showed his disappointment about his performance, and said 'I just missed 20…e3, it's as simple as that.'

From freshly launched Anish Giri's website

Parsvnath International

New Delhi (12 Jan 2011): Sixth seed and leader of Indian hopes Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi along with Slovenian Grandmaster Lenic Luka and Ukrainian Grandmaster Mikhailo Oleksienko share the lead with six and half points after the seventh round matches of the ongoing 9th Parsvnath International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament here at Ludlow Castle on Wednesday.

Tournament website

2011 Year of Mikhail Botvinnik

FIDE has decided to commemorate 2011 as the year of Mikhail Botvinnik.

This year is 100 years since his birth in August 1911.

Mikhail Botvinnik was World Champion from 1948-1957, 1958-1960 and 1961-1963.

Chess Skills at the Casino

Chess requires a great deal of intense forethought. Players must anticipate several steps ahead, and weigh multiple complex scenarios before completing each move. These same skills are required when playing most casino games.Anyone can play the game of chess, simply by learning the rules and by moving the pieces around the board.

Being good at chess, and being a skilled casino game player (whether your game is blackjack, craps or roulette) though, takes lots of practice and time, as you learn all the possible moves, outcomes and the various openings that put players into a position of power, where chances of winning also increase.

Sites like www.onlinecasino.ca can help you find the games that suit your specific skill set.

San Sebastian Open

The 34th San Sebastian City International Chess Tournament is announced for 16-23rd April at the venue Gros Xake Taldea. Anoeta passeig, 20. Donostia- San Sebastián (Frontón Karmelo Balda). Nine rounds swiss system, top prize is 1500 EUR. More on the official website.

Berkeley International

After two years of hiatus, Berkeley International tournament is organized again on 2-8th January 2011 at the Berkeley Chess School, CA 94708, USA.

Grandmasters in attendance were Loek van Wely 2676 NED, Timur Gareev 2605 UZB, Sergey Erenburg 2600 ISR, Robert Hess 2572 USA, Axel Bachmann 2548 PAR, Davorin Kuljasevic 2545 CRO, Dejan Bojkov 2544 BUL, Magesh Panchanathan 2537 IND, Jesse Kraai 2516 USA, Anatoly Bykhovsky 2510 ISR and Josh Friedel 2508 USA. 60 players participating.

Additional side events:
January 1, 2:00 PM - Simultaneous exhibition by NM Kayden Troff, the silver medalist from the World Youth Under 12 Championships in Greece in November 2010.
January 5, 3:00 PM - One hour lecture by IM Daniel Rensch.
January 8, 5:30 PM - Blitz tournament with prizes in all categories
January 9, 2:00 PM - Simultaneous exhibition by Timur Gareev who is rated over 2600 FIDE.

Follow the results on the official website

Update (8th Jan):

Dutch Grandmaster Loek Van Wely (NED 2676) took the first place with 8 points from 10 rounds. He also earned 3000 USD for the effort. Second place for GM Sergey Erenburg (ISR 2600, 7.5 points), who was joint leader with Van Wely earlier, but then stumbled against Denys Shmelov in the penultimate round. Erenburg takes 1500 USD and the third-placed GM Magesh Panchanathan (IND 2537, 7 points) takes 1000 USD.

Lots of title norms were fulfilled! IM Sam Shankland (2498, final norm), Denys Shmelov (2357) and FM Keaton Kiewra (2337) made Grandmaster norms. FM Conrad Holt (2388) and FM Daniel Naroditsky (2419) are netting IM norms. This is second norm within only two weeks for Naroditsky, who also fulfilled one in Groningen Open.

WFM Tatev Abrahamyan (2327) achieved a WGM result.

Remembering Paul Keres

Remembering Paul Keres Preliminary Tournament is being played on 7th and 8th January in Tallin, Estonia. Former World Champion Anatoly Karpov is also in Estonia, participating in the events dedicated to marking 95 years from Paul Keres' birth.

Apparently, there should be another tournament following the preliminaries.

Top rated players among total of 93 are GM Burmakin Vladimir RUS 2603, GM Miezis Normunds LAT 2546, GM Lugovoi Aleksei RUS 2531, GM Shvyrjov Igor EST 2470, IM Smirnov Artem RUS 2428 and IM Berzinsh Roland LAT 2425.

Amber Tournament Drops Curtain

The 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament will take place at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort in Monaco, from March 11 to 25, 2011. This will also be the final edition and the event becomes history.

In this final jubilee edition the following grandmasters will take part: World Champion Viswanathan Anand (India), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Hikaru Nakamura (United States), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan) and Anish Giri (The Netherlands).

Anand - Kasimdzhanov Rapid Match

The reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand will play a rapid match against the 17th World Champion, and currently his second, Rustam Kasimdzhanov. The event is set to take place in March in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, immediately after the traditional Georgi Agzamov memorial.

Chess Strategy - Step by Step with Rustam Kasimdzhanov

XXXVI Abierto Internacional "Ciudad de Sevilla"

The traditional Sevilla Open is set to take place from 7th to 15th January. The population of 242 signed to play, with 22 Grandmasters included. The top rated is Cuban GM Fidel Corrales, followed by the tireless Russian GM Oleg Korneev and Canada's GM Kevin Spraggett.

Flayer on the tournament website (Spanish)

Reggio Emilia Tournament

The 53rd Torneo di Capodanno in Reggio Emilia was held from 28th Dec 2010 to 6th Jan 2011 as a 10-player round robin.

Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain) share the first place with 6 points, but Gashimov was declared the winner on better tie-break.

Report and games

Chess in the slums of Uganda

She sits at the chessboard for her fifth match wearing a white knit hat, a black overcoat and woolly beige boots that are several sizes too large, all gifts from various mzungu. Her opponent is an Ethiopian, Haregeweyn Abera, who, like Phiona, is an African teenager. For the first time in the tournament, Phiona sees someone across the table she can relate to. She sees herself. For the first time in the tournament, she is not intimidated at all.

A moving story about the 14-year-old Phiona Mutesi from Uganda. By Tim Crothers for ESPN The Magazine.

Staufer-Open in Germany

The 23rd edition of the Staufer-Open is being played over nine rounds on 2-6th January in Germany. Total prize fund is 8500 Euro.

A huge field of 330 players is led by the Grandmasters Graf Alexander 2618 GER, Burmakin Vladimir 2603 RUS, Buhmann Rainer 2577 GER, Ikonnikov Viacheslav 2571 RUS, Epishin Vladimir 2568 RUS, Miezis Normunds 2546 LAT and Dgebuadze Alexandre 2536 BEL.

Follow the results on the official website

This is 1000th post on the Chess News & Events blog - *opening champagne*