e2e4 High Wycombe Congress

7th - 9th October 2011
De Veres Uplands House, Four Ashes Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP15 6LB

The event will be a 5 round swiss with a FIDE rated Open, a FIDE rated Major for players rated under 2000 (or graded u170 if unrated) and a Minor for players graded U140.

All Sections : All moves in 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move increments from move 1

Top rated players are GM Hebden Mark 2506, GM Wells Peter 2497 and GM Arkell Keith 2409.

De Veres Uplands House

4th Final Masters Round 3 Report

Magnus Carlsen suffered a shocking loss when he overlooked a simple tactic after blowing a winning position against Francisco Vallejo Pons.

As I said at the start of the event "The time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves then 60 minutes and 10 seconds per move for the rest seems calculated to produce more decisive, if not necessarily better, games."

Carlsen drifted into time pressure but on twitter he said it was unnecessary for him to do so.

World Champion and world number 2 Viswanathan Anand lost a complicated struggle on the white side of a Schliemann Ruy Lopez to the mercurial Vassily Ivanchuk who ground him down in a complex ending where Anand found many resources but Ivanchuk showed great skill and patience.

Full report on TWIC

Grand Slam Bilbao - Sao Paulo 2011 LIVE!

Bilbao - Sao Paulo information / Bilbao - Sao Paulo en castellano / Live games

Live chess broadcast powered by ChessBomb and Chessdom

Trofeo Ciudad de Zaragoza de Ajedrez

The 7th Trofeo Ciudad de Zaragoza de Ajedrez will take place on 1st October at the E.M. El Olivar in Zaragoza, Spain. The rapid tournament will be played over 9 rounds Swiss and with the time control of 15 min + 5 sec per player.

Top prizes are 700 € and Trofeo Ciudad de Zaragoza, 500 €, 400 €, 300 €, etc. The organizer is Estadio Miralbueno El Olivar and tournament director is Martin Marino Veras.

Top players: GM Cifuentes Parada Roberto 2518, IM Reinaldo Castiñeira Roi 2479, IM Glavina Pablo 2468, GM Martinez Duanny Lelys Stanley 2464, GM Lalic Bogdan 2456, IM Lariño Nieto David 2455, IM Perez Mitjans Orelvis 2451, GM Komljenovic Davorin 2451, IM Forcen Esteban Daniel 2441, IM Huerga Leache Mikel 2435 etc

8th Singapore International Chess Festival 2011

In the frameworks of the 8th Singapore International Chess Festival 2011 the following events are going to be organized:

1. The 2nd ASEAN Chess Championships 2011 - Campomanes Cup
2. The 2nd Singapore International Youth Championships 2011 - Under-8, Under-11, Under-14, Under-17 (Open and Girls)
3. Singapore Open 2011
4. FIDE Arbiters' Seminar
5. FIDE Trainers' Seminar

Regulations and Registration forms

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov victorious in Mumbai

The top seed GM Aleksandrov Aleksej (ELO 2657) of Belarus emerged Champion as expected here in the 4th Mayor’s Cup International Chess Tournament 2011 organised by Venus chess Academy and co-sponsored by LIC at the Goregaon Sports club Malad West.

In the 11th round the top seed having white pieces and a lead of one point over GM Kravtsiv Martyn quickly agreed for a draw with GM Deep Sengupta (ELO 2572) in just 8 moves. This is the first time that the Mayor Cup got a clear winner without any one following him.

Full press release

Oliver Barbosa Interviewed

Chessdom: How would you describe your playing style? Which game do you consider to be your best?

Oliver Barbosa: I started chess with mostly blitz games and tactical openings but as I matured and lost a lot of games tactically, it was a perfect timing to be handled by then NM (but now GM) Bong Villamayor. I was able to absorb his analytical abilities and judgment in positions and slowly in most of my games from then I can see my play to be positional but of course I don’t skip tactics and puzzles everyday.

My best game for this tournament I think is my game against Goh Wei Ming on the first round. I sensed that he was fully prepared against the line I played (which I didn’t review that day before our game) so just in the opening I played a different line I haven’t fully finished studying. I managed to have space advantage in the opening and as he was trying to concentrate on move c5 which would free his pieces, I decided that my play should be directed to attacking on the kingside. I made some accurate moves during my attack and due to time trouble he blundered in the end.

Read the full interview

3rd London Chess Classic

The timetable for the third London Chess Classic has been announced. The strongest tournament in the history of British chess will be complemented by a chess festival with tournaments for all levels and of course free chess coaching for schools.

The tournament runs from 3-12 December 2011 and falls on two weekends so we expect even more spectators as well as more players in the FIDE Open as amateur players will only have to take one full week off work. It also means there will be two sets of weekend tournaments and blitz tournaments every evening.

Viktor Korchnoi has agreed to come back again as guest of honour and will give two simultaneous displays. We will have at least one Women’s all-play-all.

Read the press release

Chessdom in Spanish

Chessdom has announced the Spanish version of the website. Starting Thursday the news for the Spanish speaking community and fans of ajedrez will appear at es.chessdom.com en castellano.

The top Cuban player Leinier Dominguez agreed to have an interview for the new language version.
"My goal was to advance to the 3 top positions of the World Cup, but I am satisfied with my play in general," said Dominguez. "The World Cup is a strong tournament and luck is also needed to be at the top. As every system the knockout is not perfect, but it fits well the necessities of chess in the moment," commented the Cuban Grandmaster.

Read the full interview with Leinier Dominguez here

GM Christian Bauer winner in Lausanne

The 12th Lausanne Young Masters chess tournament was held as a 7-round Open from 16th to 19th September in Lausanne, Switzerland. 98 players, including 11 Grandmasters, took participation.

GM Christian Bauer took a clear first place with 6.0 points. Five players remained half a point behind. The total prize fund of 11’000 CHF was distributed to 23 prizes.

Final standings:
1. GM Bauer Christian 2631 FRA - 6.0
2-6. GM Hamdouchi Hicham 2610 FRA, GM Raetsky Alexander 2437 RUS, GM Ulibin Mikhail 2561 RUS, IM Dambrauskas Virgi 2316 LTU and GM Antal Gergely 2531 HUN – 5.5
7-13. IM Krivonosov Oleg 2439 LAT, GM Starostits Ilmars 2480 LAT, IM Adrian Claude 2292 FRA, IM Zozulia Anna 2377 BEL, GM Gleizerov Evgeny 2585 RUS, FM Janoszka Arnd 2338 GER and IM Peric Slavisa 2205 SRB – 5.0 etc

Tournament website

Dutch Chess Federation protests against increased fees

It is with great concern that we have taken note of the proposals of the Events Commission for the Executive Board Meeting in Krakow. We feel that the interests of both chess players and chess organizers will be severely harmed if these proposal were to be accepted. And what is more we think that these proposals are a direct threat to the FIDE rating system – a system that is one of the great success stories of FIDE.

Download full letter in PDF

Kindle Chess Books

The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media.

The Kindle hardware devices use an E Ink electronic paper display that shows up to 16 shades of gray, minimizes power use and simulates reading on paper.

By time a number of chess books have been converted to the PDF format and added to Kindle download system. Among them are the popular Practical Chess Exercises: 600 Lessons from Tactics to Strategy by Ray Cheng, The Mammoth Book of Chess by Graham Burgess and Winning Chess Strategies by Yasser Seirawan. Check them out.

Continental Class Championships 2011

The 2nd Annual Continental Class Championships will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA, from October 6-10, 2011.

The event has a $60,000 projected prize fund with $40,000 guaranteed!

The event has 7 sections, Master, Expert, Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D and Class E.

The Master and Expert Sections have a 5-day schedule, the Class A and Class B Sections have 5-day, 4-day and 3-day schedules and the Class C, Class D and Class E Sections have 4-day, 3-day and 2-day schedules.

Master: Open to all US players currently or formerly rated at least 2200 USCF or 2100 FIDE, foreign players rated at least 2000 USCF or 1800 FIDE, and invitees. Prizes $5000-2500-1500-1000-700-600-500-500-400-400, clear or tiebreak first bonus $200, FIDE Under 2400/Unr $2000-1000.
GM and IM norms possible, FIDE rated.

Gibraltar Chess Festival 2012

The 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is set to take place from 23rd January to 2nd February 2012 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The main event of the Festival will be the 10-round Masters tournament from 24th January. Already 25 strong Grandmasters are signed to participate (list bellow).

In addition, there will be the 1st Amateurs and Challengers events from 23rd to 27th January, the 2nd Amateurs and Challengers from 28th January to 1st February, two evening blitz events and Master classes with elite players.

Prize money has been increased to an amazing £155,000. There is to be a further prize of £5,000 to celebrate the HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee – it will be awarded to the top scoring player from a Commonwealth country.

Top three prizes in Masters: £20,000 – £12,000 – £10,000;
Top three female awards: £10,000 – £7,000 – £5,000;
Top three prizes in Challengers: £2,000 – £1,250 – £750;
Top three prizes in Amateurs: £1,000 – £800 – £600.
Full prize list

Leading confirmed entries for the 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Masters as of 20th July (July ratings listed):
ALMASI, Zoltan, 2726g, (HUN); VACHIER-LAGRAVE, Maxime , 2722g, (FRA); ADAMS, Michael, 2715g, (ENG); SHIROV, Alexei, 2714g, (ESP); POLGAR, Judith, 2699g, (HUN); SHORT, Nigel, 2687g, (ENG); BOLOGAN, Victor, 2678g, (MDA); ONISCHUK, Alexander, 2675g, (USA); FRIDMAN, Daniel, 2659g, (GER); EDOUARD, Romain, 2587g, (FRA); YIFAN, Hou, 2575g, (CHN); KOSINTSEVA, Nadezhda, 2560g, (RUS); ROBSON, Ray, 2560g, (USA); KOSINTSEVA, Tatiana, 2557g, (RUS); KORCHNOI, Viktor, 2553g, (SUI); MUZYCHUK, Anna, 2538m, (SLO); DZAGNIDZE, Nana, 2537g, (GEO); STEFANOVA, Antoaneta, 2524g, (BUL); ZATONSKIH, Anna, 2522m, (USA); KRUSH, Irina, 2486m, (USA); CHEN, Zhu, 2485g, (QAT); CRAMLING, Pia, 2472g, (SWE); MUZYCHUK, Mariya, 2469m, (UKR); BELLON LOPEZ, Juan Manuel, 2420g, (ESP); HOUSKA, Jovanka, 2418m, (ENG).

The 2011 Gibraltar Masters was won by GM Vassily Ivanchuk.

More information on the official website

The Star features GM-elect Oliver Barbosa

Less than a year ago, I overheard a comment that the Filipino players who were taking part in the Penang open of 2010 could not seriously be considered contenders for any future Philippine Olympiad chess team.

Sometimes it is dangerous to say such things because it is possible that something may happen to show up the folly of this sweeping comment. Time has shown that in the case of Oliver Barbosa.

Ten months ago, Barbosa was virtually unknown in Malaysia despite being an international master with a 2451 rating. But he came to Penang in December last year and snatched the first prize.

Read the full article by Quah Seng Sun

GM Jan Markos' First Simul on ChessFriends.com

On Tuesday, 14/9/2011, the very first simultaneous exhibition by the best Slovak chess player, Grandmaster Jan Markos, took place at ChessFriends.com. He faced six chess players from five countries. This time, challenging players were more successful than in the last simul against GM Ipatov.

The final score was 4.5 to 1.5 for the Grandmaster.

Jan has made the event interesting by the choice of his first move. In contrast to Ipatov, who moved to 1.b3 every time, Markos started every game by a different move, which concluded in several different positions.

During opening, Brazilian player called brazilian has acquired the greatest advantage. By very clever exchange of Queens, brazilian got into markedly better endgame and due to lack of active counter attack, Slovak Grandmaster had to congratulate his opponent a few moves afterwards.

The game against German chess player nicknamed Husplayer resulted in a draw. In this game, Markos was not able to prevail in a King’s gambit while playing white and as Husplayer played without apparent flaws, the game ended peacefully.
The rest of the games did not bring any surprises, Jan was always triumphant.

We would like to congratulate to players, who did remarkably well. To the rest of the protagonists, including GM Jan Markos himself, we would like to thank on behalf of the complete ChessFrends.com team and more than 50 viewers.

The next simul takes place on Wednesday, 21/9/2011 at 17:00 GMT. The qualification will held on Tuesday and is open to everybody registered to ChessFriends.com.

More information and registration can be found it in the site's tournament section.
"We would like to offer an opportunity for anybody to play against a grandmaster," says Marek Holeva from ChessFriends.com. "And everybody is invited to try to defeat him," he adds, smiling.

GM Marius Manolache Wins Baia Mare Open

The Municipiului Baia Mare organized an open tournament from 5th to 11th September in Baia Mare, Romania. 62 players took participation and among them seven Grandmasters. Top seeded was GM Gergely Szabo.

GM Marius Manolache convincingly won the race by collecting 7.5 points from nine rounds and leaving the nearest followers a full point behind.

Final ranking:
1. GM Manolache Marius ROU 2535 - 7.5
2-6. GM Nevednichy Vladislav ROU 2540, GM Berescu Alin-Mile ROU 2495, FM Georgescu Tiberiu-Marian ROU 2391, GM Szabo Gergely-Andras-Gyula ROU 2546 and IM Filip Lucian ROU 2483 - 6.5
7-11. GM Genov Petar BUL 2447, FM Dobre Claudiu-Cristian ROU 2344, IM Carmaciu Lucian-Catalin ROU 2385, IM Soltanici Ruslan MDA 2371 and GM Nanu Costica-Ciprian ROU 2526 - 6.0
12-20. NM Bonte Andrei-Mihai ROU 2364, GM Sanduleac Vasile MDA 2430, IM Manea Alexandru ROU 2415, WCM Radu Eudochia ROU 1808, IM Bogdan Dan ROU 2367, IM Florescu Codrut-Constantin ROU 2239, WNM Pomirleanu Ana-Daniela ROU 1995, I Lupascu Matei-Alexandru ROU 1979 and WNM Adoamnei Roxana ROU 1975 - 5.5 etc

Balaton Chess Festival in Hévíz, Hungary

Hévíz is one of the most important centres of health tourism in Hungary. The focal point of the spa is the unique thermal lake with its peat bottom and 4,4 hectares of surface area, the largest such lake int he world. The curing caress of the famous waters, a glass of Hungarian red wine int he row of wine-cellars, a walk under the alders of Egregy, the sight of the red fairy roses and the traditional hospitality – thats Hévíz.

Tournaments: 9-round Swiss system open tournaments, time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves + 30 minutes + 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from the first move. FIDE rules are valid at the tournament.

Tournament venue: Assembly Hall of Major's Office, 8380 Hévíz, Kossuth u. 1.

Players list:
GM Vajda Levente ROU 2557, GM Sergeev Vladimir UKR 2526, GM Czebe Attila HUN 2513, GM Janev Evgeni BUL 2511, GM Farago Ivan HUN 2488, GM Inkiov Ventzislav BUL 2465, IM Tissir Mohamed MAR 2454, IM Bokros Albert HUN 2452, IM Hunt Adam C ENG 2437, IM Vaibhav Suri IND 2430 etc

Website

Istanbul Open 2011

The International Chess Festival "Istanbul Open 2011" is taking place in Istanbul from 11 September (the date of arrival) to 18 September 2011 (the date of departure).

Two Open Tournaments (A and B) are made up according to the rating of the participants. This time, the Qualification Tournament for the Blitz Tournament will be held within the festival, in addition to the open tournaments.

99 players in Open A and 293 in Open B compete. Top rated are GM Andrey Sumets UKR 2579, GM Konstantine Shanava GEO 2562, GM Oleg Romanishin UKR 2537 and GM Valeriy Neverov UKR 2508.

The total prize fund of the tournaments is USD 14.200 and TRL 1000 for Blitz Tournament. First place 2500 USD, second 2000 USD.

Attacking Chess: King's Indian, Volume 2 (Everyman Chess)

Attacking Chess: King's Indian, Volume 2

The King’s Indian remains a hugely popular opening – unsurprising given the attacking opportunities it offers. In many of the ultra-sharp main lines, White wins the queenside battle but this often turns out to be a Pyrrhic victory as Black wins the war by checkmating on the kingside! Black is hunting the enemy king and – in practical play – this gives him a psychological edge.

David Vigorito presents an aggressive King’s Indian repertoire for Black based on the main lines. Vigorito is renowned for his opening expertise, and his suggested lines are full of innovative ideas.

In addition, his lucid explanations of the key plans and tactics will benefit all players. Volume 2 deals with the Four Pawns Attack, the Fianchetto Variation, the Averbakh Variation and many other lines.

ATTACKING CHESS is a brand new series which focuses on traditional attacking openings, as well as creative and aggressive ways to play openings that are not always associated with attacking chess. It provides hard-hitting repertoires and opening weapons designed for players of all levels.

* A King’s Indian repertoire for Black
* State-of-the-art coverage of the key lines
* Packed with new ideas and critical analysis

Bilbao Chess Open

This year an International Chess Open will be organized among the activities of the Chess Grand Slam Final. This tournament will be valid for FIDE rating and will allow all chess players to play next to the big glass-cube in which the world’s top chessplayers will play the Grand Slam Final.

Dates: from 6th to 11th of October 2011
Venue: Alhóndiga de Bilbao. Plaza Arriquibar, 4. Bilbao.
Rounds: 8
Rate of play: 90 minutes + 30 seconds/move

Prizes: 16650 € (1st place 2500 €)

Top rated players:
GM Oleg Korneev RUS 2580
GM Aleksandr Lenderman USA 2525
GM Alexandre Dgebuadze BEL 2522
GM Ilmars Starostits LAT 2480
GM Juan Mario Gomez Esteban ESP 2465

2nd Livigno Open with 22 Grandmasters in the field

No less than 22 GMs and 14 IMs have gathered in Livigno, Italian Alps, for the International Livigno Chess Open. The 2nd edition of this tournament has a relevant success, with a total of 90 participants. The organizers are really satisfied by this great result.

There are 54 players taking part in the Open A tournament; among them 18 with an Elo higher than 2500 and 3 with an Elo higher than 2600.

Altogether there are 24 nations represented from all over the world: Europe, Asia (India), Northern and Southern America.
This great achievement was made possible thanks to a few local Hotels, who have ‘adopted’ a GM each.

The first round closed this evening, Saturday, at 8pm. Tomorrow 2nd round at 9am and 3rd at 3pm CET. Live coverage for the Open A, rankings and results on our website.

GM Yuri Solodovnichenko winner in Rome

The 1st Barclays International Chess Festival was held on 4-11th September in Rome, Italy. 68 players competed in the main A group. Total prize fund was 16.500 EUR.

Top nine prizes: 1) 2500 € / 2) 2000€ / 3) 1500 € / 4) 1250 € / 5) 1000 € / 6) 750 € / 7) 650 € / 8) 500 € / 9) 400 €

Final standings:
1. GM Solodovnichenko Yuri 2622 UKR - 7.0
2-5. GM Durarbeyli Vasif 2526 AZE, GM Khenkin Igor 2624 GER, GM David Alberto 2588 LUX and GM Jones Gawain C B 2624 ENG - 6.5
6-12. GM Kravtsiv Martyn 2583 UKR, GM Fier Alexandr 2583 BRA, IM Tania Sachdev 2419 IND, GM Bosiocic Marin 2593 CRO, GM Gonda Laszlo 2520 HUN, GM Jankovic Alojzije 2584 CRO and GM Dgebuadze Alexandre 2544 BEL - 6.0
13-21. GM Berczes David 2557 HUN, GM Kulaots Kaido 2592 EST, GM Arutinian David 2577 GEO , GM Ortega Lexy 2475 ITA, IM Di Berardino Diego R 2483 BRA, IM Ronchetti Niccolo' 2440 ITA, FM Chueca Forcen Albert 2296 ESP, IM Vuelban Virgilio 2353 PHI and FM Scalcione Michelange 2337 ITA - 5.5 etc

GM Yuri Solodovnichenko

Gocher Open 2011 (Updated)

The 22nd Internationales Gocher Open 2011 is scheduled to take place from 29th September to 2nd October at the Kultur und Kongreßzentrum Kastell in Goch, Germany.

The tournament will be played over 7 rounds of Swiss pairing system, with the time control of 90 min + 30 sec for the first 40 moves and then 15 min + 30 sec for the rest of the game.

The tournament will use Bilbao scoring system, 3 points for a win, 1 for draw, 0 for loss.

Top prizes are 1.000,- € / 700,- € / 450,- € / 250,- € / 150,- €. In addition there will be 18 prizes for the top scorers in various rating groups.

The organizers can accept only 150 players due to space limitations, and 137 are already registered.

Update

Final standings:
1. GM Miezis Normunds 2534 – 19
2. IM Podzielny Karl-Heinz 2470 – 18
3. GM Mazé Sebastien 2578 – 17
4-7. GM Gutman Lev 2455, Czybik Nils Patrick 2137, Schoonenberg Olav 2120 and Schmidt-Schäffer Sebastian 2389 – 16
8-10. FM Hintze Helge 2346, Fleuren Jan 2115 and Heinert Eugen 2208 – 15 etc

Tournament website

Viktor Erdos Takes Trophy in Trieste Festival

The 13th International Chess Festival of Trieste was held from 3rd to 10th September at Riva Tre Novembre 9 in Trieste, Italy.

The Master A gathered 38 players, including 10 Grandmasters. Three top seeded players, GM Viktor Erdos, GM Sergey Volkov and GM Vladimir Baklan, shared the first place with 6.5 points each. Erdos grabs the trophy on best tie-break score.

Nicola Pegoraro won the Group B with 7.5 points from nine rounds. 59 players competed.

Full standings and player stats

Reykjavik Chess Festival 2012

The Icelandic Chess Federation, in co-operation with the Reykjavik Chess Academy, welcomes you to the Reykjavik Chess Festival on March 6 to March 13 2012.

* Total prizes of €15000
* World-class playing conditions
* Extraordinary depth and width of chess talent
* Many side events: sightseeing, Fischer-Spassky exhibit, soccer and pub quiz

Website: www.chess.is

Shenzhen FIDE Women Grand Prix

In the third round of the Shenzhen FIDE Women Grand Prix playing White World Champion Hou Yifan gave first half a point to Turkish player Betul Yildiz. Her compatriot Zhao Xue also made a draw against Zhu Chen. Viktorija Cmilyte and Tan Zongyi managed to win their games against Elina Danielian and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya accordingly.

Munguntuul B took her first half a point in the game against Anna Muzychuk. Ruan Lufei made the third draw in a raw against Ju Wenjun. As a result the situation with leaders didn`t change – both Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue have 2.5 points after 3 games and share first place. Viktorija Cmilyte, Anna Muzychuk and Tan Zhongy share the third place with 2 points.

Live games with analysis

Tournament website

Oliver Gonzalez Memorial

The Oliver Gonzalez Memorial will be a unique chess open held from 8 to 16 October 2011 in the capital of Spain. Let’s have a look what makes this event so special:

• 5000 euros to the winner: One of the highest first prize ever seen at a Spanish open tournament.

• Side events organised for each day: Football, ping-pong, soccer, gastronomy night, karaoke, fiestas on the streets of Madrid, magic show, museums, theatre, rowing a boat at the Retiro, ‘Madrid from the air’ with a cable car, visiting the Real Madrid stadium and so on.

• Special playing system: Participants can decide to play with a normal playing schedule (one round each day from 8 to 16 October) or to play the first six rounds with double rounds (8, 9 and 12 October) and gain free days on this way. The two groups will be united for the last three rounds (14, 15 and 16 October). Players can ask for up to three bye-s (earning half a point with each bye), but this is only an option for the first six rounds.

• Madrid in October: While the summer can be too hot and the winter quite cold, the spring and the autumn are ideal seasons to visit the Spanish capital.

Full article by WGM Anna Rudolf

Mikhail Chigorin Memorial 2011

The 18th International Chess Festival Mikhail Chigorin Memorial will take place on 12-22nd October at the “Azimut Hotel” in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Festival consists of two tournaments:

A. Rapid chess tournament, October 12-13, starts at 17:00.
Time control 15 minutes per game + 5 seconds increment for each move, 9 round Swiss.
Entry fee: 1000 roubles (juniors under 16, seniors and women – 800 roubles).
Total prize fund (granted by St. Petersburg Chess Federation) – 400.000 roubles (approx 9.600 EUR)

B. Classical chess tournament, stage of Cup Russia, October 14–22
Time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.
According to the Cup Russia regulations, players may agree to a draw after move 40 only.
Total prize fund (granted by St. Petersburg Chess Federation and Russian Chess Federation) – 1.500.000 roubles (approx 36.000 EUR).

Full regulations here. The preliminary list of participants.

Karpov and Polgar withdraw from the Kings vs. Queens match

SAINT LOUIS, September 8, 2011 — Two players have withdrawn from the Kings vs. Queens tournament, which is scheduled to begin this week in Saint Louis. Former World Champion Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov and Grandmaster Judit Polgar are both unable to attend, and tournament organizers have restructured the two fields to maintain rating equality between the two teams.

Karpov was unable to come due to political obligations while Polgar has advanced to the top eight in the World Cup.

“Although it would be a great honor for Judit to play on the Queens team,” said WGM Jennifer Shahade, “this fantastic feat for women is an inspiration to the female trailblazers who are here like World 960 Women’s Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and reigning U.S. Women’s Champion Anna Zatonskih. I think it will drive the women’s team to fight even harder.”

Polgar will be replaced by International Master Martha Fierro of Ecuador, the official alternate. To maintain rating equality, the Kings fifth board will be filled by young Saint Louis National Master Kevin Cao, making the average rating of both teams 2476.

Visit www.saintlouischesclub.org for more details.

Declining the Queen's Gambit by John Cox

This book provides a repertoire for Black with the ever-popular Queen’s Gambit Declined.

Opening expert John Cox covers not one but two key options for Black. The Tartakower Variation is a sophisticated defence used successfully by world champions such as Kasparov, Karpov and Kramnik.

The Lasker Variation is an easy-to-learn and reliable option devised by one of the legends of the game. Cox also demonstrates how to play against White’s other tries, including the Exchange Variation, Catalan and Bf4 lines.

He explains in detail the typical plans and tactics adopted by both sides, whilst also tackling the tricky subject of move-order possibilities.

- A repertoire for Black against the Queen's Gambit
- Provides answers to all of White’s main options
- Ideal for improvers, club players and tournament players

GM Jan Markos Simul on ChessFriends.com

Currently the best player in Slovakia, Grand Master Jan Markos (FIDE rating: 2596) has accepted the offer of ChessFriends.com. He is going to play regular simultaneous exhibitions on the website. The simuls will take place every Tuesday at 17:00 GMT and are open to anybody. Every week, 6 simultaneous games will be played.

Every registered user of ChessFriends.com is eligible to try his best to gain one of the six tickets to try out his/her skills against the famed Grand Master. Prospective attendees can register at ChessFriends.com in the Tournaments section. After registrations, qualification pre-tournament will be held, from which six best players will arise. They will be the challengers of GM Jan Markos.

The first simul is about to be held on next Tuesday, 13/9/2011. Qualification tournament is taking place on Monday the 12th. After 9 rounds of 5-minutes battles, the best players will receive their tickets. There are still 3 players' and 3 substitute tickets available.

The Grandmaster plays white, and players will have 30 minutes on hand to play their moves.

ChessFriends.com is an innovative online chess website, providing both AI and Player-to-Player games, chess tournaments and simultaneous exhibitions. It also provides easily implemented chess interfaces for other websites.