Anand blows novelty on Adams!

Third round of World Chess Championship and Vishy Anand is playing white against Michael Adams. It started with Ruy Lopez, Zaitsev variation (eastern name). On move 23 Anand leaves his rook under N's attack and goes for novelty Qd2. Audience on WorldChessNetwork is not breathing....waiting for Adams reply...35 minutes and still nothing...

Viewers are using Fritz to evaluate the position, of course engine likes to grab the material and gives -1.40 for 23....Ne1 24.Ne1 Ra1. But Anand has probably well prepared for all complications.




Here are some audience comments:

Cristian Degl`Innocenti (Italy): Anand is burning the chessboard
D. Macht Starker (USA): Fritz likes ...Nxe1 Nxe1 ...Ra1!? -1.44
Julius Pansool (Estonia): players have done serious homework
Darrell McCaskill (USA): This is known as the Kitchen Sink Attack :)
Einar Matthiasson (Iceland): what is Anand doing?
D. Macht Starker (USA): afer 23...Nxe1 Nxe1 Ra1 Nxh6 Bxh6 Qxh6 Re5 Fritz gives edge to B - 1.06
IM Irina Krush: 23...Nxe1 24.Nf3-h4!?! Ne1-d3
Fuzzy Fuzzlenuts (Canada): white has 5 pieces actively bearing down on the black king whereas black only has 2 pieces in defence
etc.

Finally, Adams goes for 23....Bd5. Let's wait and see

Best European U18 Girls

European Youth Chess Championship - Girls U18:

WIM Melia Salome - European champion

IM Maka Purtseladze - second place

Baira Kovanova - third place

5th round of US Chess League

The Baltimore Kingfishers and IM Pascal Charbonneau, as well as New York Knights, have scored third win in a row! Boylston Chess Club Weblog took their live Boston Blitz coverage to the higher level - this time DG and Jason Rihel were commenting as a tandem.


Baltimore Kingfishers - Dallas Destiny 2,5 - 1,5
IM Pascal Charbonneau (2506) - GM Alejandro Ramirez (2565) 1-0
FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2453) - GM Magesh Panchanathan (2487) 0,5-0,5
IM Larry Kaufman (2331) - FM Andrei Zaremba (2355) 0,5-0,5
WGM Katerina Rohonyan (2309) - Andres Suarez (2087) 0,5-0,5

Carolina Cobras - New York Knights 1,5 - 2,5
GM Marcin Kaminski (2473) - IM Jay Bonin (2379) 1-0
FM Lev Milman (2474) - NM Gregory Braylovsky (2376) 0,5-0,5
FM Matt Hoekstra (2407) - WGM Jenn Shahade (2318) 0-1
NM Greg Samsa (2200) - FM Dr. Lewis Eisen (2325) 0-1

Philadelphia Masterminds - Miami Sharks 2-2
FM Norman Rogers (2307) - GM Julio Becerra (2622) 0-1
IM Richard Costigan (2295) - IM Blas Lugo (2426) 0,5-0,5
NM Matthew Bengtson (2264) - NM Miguel Espino (2272) 0,5-0,5
NM Elvin Wilson (2239) - FM Javier Torres (2231) 1-0

Boston Blitz - San Francisco Mechanics 2-2
IM Eugene Perelshteyn (2576) - IM John Donaldson (2442) 1-0
IM Josh Friedel (2477) - FM Dmitry Zilberstein (2435) 0,5-0,5
NM Charles Riordan (2272 - FM David Pruess (2432) 0,5-0,5
Ilya Krasik (2123) - NM Andy Lee (2231) 0-1


IM Eugene Perelshteyn made a nice rook capture in his game:

White: IM Eugene Perelshteyn (2576)
Black: IM John Donaldson
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Be2 d6 9. O-O Nxd4 10. Bxd4 Bd7 11. Qd2 Bc6 12. f3 a5 13. Rab1 Nd7 14. Be3 Nc5 15. b3 Qb6 16. Rfc1 Rfc8 17. Rc2 Qd8 18. Bf1 Qf8 19. a3 h5 20. b4 axb4 21. axb4 Ne6 22. b5 Bd7 23. Nd5 Ra3 24. Bf2 Rd8 25. Nb6 Be8 26. Qc1 Ra5 27. Qd2 Ra3 28. Rd1 Rb8 29. Ra2 Rb3 30. Nd5 Rc8 31. f4 Nc7 32. Nb6 Rb8 33. e5 Nxb5 34. cxb5 1-0


IM Pascal Charbonneau shows no respect for Grandmasters. His third consecutive win was against GM Ramirez.

White: IM Pascal Charbonneau (2506)
Black: GM Alejandro Ramirez (2565)
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c3 O-O 12. Nc2 Bg5 13. a4 bxa4 14. Rxa4 a5 15. Bc4 Rb8 16. Ra2 Kh8 17. Nce3 Be6 18. O-O g6 19. Qa4 Qc8 20. b3 f5 21. exf5 gxf5 22. f4 Bd8 23. Kh1 e4 24. Bb5 Ne7 25. Qd4+ Kg8 26. Bc4 Nxd5 27. Nxd5 Rb7 28. Ba6 Qb8 29. Bxb7 Qxb7 30. c4 Qxb3 31. Rb2 Qd3 32. Qxd3 exd3 33. Rd1 Re8 34. Kg1 Bxd5 35. cxd5 Bf6 36. Ra2 Re4 37. g3 Bd4+ 38. Kf1 Re3 39. Re1 Re4 40. Rxe4 fxe4 41. Ra4 Bc3 42. Rxe4 Kf7 43. Kf2 Bb4 44. Ke3 d2 45. Ke2 Bc3 46. Rc4 1-0

More photos from Herceg Novi

Can I get a higher chair, please?

European U18 champion - IM Pawel Czarnota from Poland

GM Spiridon Skembris and kids from Greece

Hikaru Nakamura fan club

The European Youth Championship has recently ended. Looks like locals were well prepared to host chess event. It also seems they are well informed about modern chess heroes. Bellow is photo of an old wall in Herceg Novi.

European Club Cup review by GM Alex Finkel

The European Club Cup has ended this Saturday. Three teams shared for first place with 12 points but Russian squad Tomsk 400 won the title on tiebreaks.

GM Alex Finkel provided audio commentary for this event. He also wrote an summary article about the tournament.

Tomsk gained their victory due to a great play on the low boards: Tkachiev scored 6 out of 7 on board 4, Inarkiev matched Karjakin’s performance on the last board with 5 out of 6, while Jakovenko and Smirnov on boards 3 and 5 respectively scored 5 out of 7. Aronian did a good job on board 1 scoring solid 4.5 points of 7 without a loss.

Speaking of individual performances, an undisputed hero of the event was Ivanchuk, showing another fantastic result with 6 points out of 7 on board 2 with an incredible 2940 rating performance.

17-year-old wins Arab Chess Championship

I was reporting earlier about Arab Chess Championship. At the end, seventeen-year-old IM Amin Bassem from Egypt won the championship title and the GM norm. It has to be mentioned that IM Al Sayed, who has been leading from the start, lost his last round game and slipped to 2nd place tie.


Final standings:
1. IM Bassem Amin (EGY 2400) with 6,5 points out of 9 rounds
2-6. IM Mohamad Al Sayed (QAT 2478), IM Fouad El Taher (EGY 2456), GM Slim Belkhodja (TUN 2468), GM Ahmed Adly (EGY 2503) and GM Moussa Taleb (UAE 2508) 6 points each etc.

Sunny Beach Open

4th Kesarovski - Georgiev Memorial was played on 16 - 24 September in Bulgarian seaside place Sunny Beach. This event had 9 rounds of Swiss pairings with 84 participants.

GM Stanislav Savchenko (UKR 2506) and GM Boris Chatalbashev (BUL 2499) have tied for the first place with 7 points each. 3rd-4th place was shared by IM Milen Vasilev (BUL 2419) and GM Julian Radulski (BUL 2502).

European Youth Chess Championship has ended

The European Youth Chess Championship was held on September 13-28th in Herceg Novi, Serbia and Montenegro. Herceg Novi is on the Adriatic coast surrounded with high mountains - beautiful landscapes.

This festival had 643 participants from 42 countries and the organization was perfect. "After a disappointment in Belfort we get such a nice surprise" - Igors Rausis from Latvia said. All credits to Mr. Vladimir Sakotic team.

IM Pawel Czarnota (2461) from Poland is new U18 European champion (on tiebreak). Second place goes to untitled but strong Russian Nikita Vitiugov (2519), famous over his 2-0 win against GM Stripunsky in New York -St. Petersburg match. Third is (also on tiebreak) IM Viktor Laznicka (2517) from Czech.

WIM Salome Melia (2305) from Gergia is Girls U18 champion. She scored 7,5 out of 9. IM Maka Purtseladze (2313), also from Georgia, finished second. Third is Baira Kovanova (2312) from Russia.


Now the official site, managed by Goran Tomic, was really pleasant surprise for me. We, in Serbia and Montenegro, were not used to such expedience. Website was updated with results, standings and games in PGN almost instantly after the round ends. I`m sure that parents and friends of those children in Herceg Novi were happy to have fast access to all necessary information.

FM Josip Asik was responsible for official bulletins which are available for download. He also posted large number of photos in the gallery.

ChessLecture.com sample video

...is actualy working. As David Green from Support Team explained, the problem with sample videos was fixed. Therefore I correct my previous post.

4th round of US chess league

Week 4
Wednesday September 21

New York Knights won their match against Philadelphia Masterminds to take over the lead in Eastern division. Small suprise(?) in Western group as San Francisco Mechanics scored their first match win vs leaders Miami Sharks.

Games are being played live on Internet Chess Club and DG from Boylston Chess Club Weblog is doing great job with his independent coverage. He`s announcing new, interactive approach for next wendesday. I`m looking forward to see it.


Boston Blitz - Baltimore Kingfishers 0,5 - 3,5
GM Larry Christiansen (2596) - IM Pascal Charbonneau (2506) 0-1
IM Josh Friedel (2477) - FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2453) 0-1
NM Charles Riordan (2272) - IM Larry Kaufman (2331) 0,5-0,5
Ilya Krasik (2123) - WGM Katerina Rohonyan (2309) 0-1

New York Knights - Philadelphia Masterminds 3 - 1
IM Irina Krush (2445) - FM Norman Rogers (2307) 1-0
IM Jay Bonin (2379) - NM Carl Boor (2329) 1-0
NM Gregory Braylovsky (2376) - IM Richard Costigan (2295) 1-0
John Fernandez (2116) - NM Daniel Pomerleano (2193) 0-1

San Francisco Mechanics - Miami Sharks 2,5 - 1,5
IM John Donaldson (2442) - GM Julio Becerra (2622) 0,5-0,5
FM Dmitry Zilberstein (2435) - FM Marcel Martinez (2469) 0,5-0,5
FM David Pruess (2432) - Jorge Diaz (2180) 1-0
NM Nicolas Yap (2209) - Dr. Eric Moskow (2127) 0,5-0,5

Dallas Destiny - Carolina Cobras 2 - 2
IM Dmitry Shneider (2488) - GM Marcin Kaminski (2473) 0-1
IM Amon Simutowe (2471) - FM Lev Milman (2474) 0-1
IM Peter Vavrak (2476) - FM Matt Hoekstra (2407) 1-0
Sam Copeland (1960) - NM Greg Samsa (2200) 1-0


Live Blogging: US Chess League - Week 4


White: FM Milman (2474)
Black: IM Simutowe (2471)
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Bd3 b5 7. O-O Bb7 8. Qe2 Ne7 9. Kh1 d6 10. Bd2 g6 11. e5 Nd5 12. f4 dxe5 13. fxe5 Nd7 14. Rae1 Nxc3 15. Bxc3 Nc5 16. Nxb5 axb5 17. Bxb5+ Bc6 18. Qf3 Ra6 19. Ba5 Qd7 20. Bxc6 Rxc6 21. Rd1 Bd6 22. Rxd6 1-0


White: FM Enkhbat (2453)
Black: IM Friedel (2477)
1. Nf3 Nc6 2. d4 d5 3. Bf4 Bg4 4. e3 e6 5. c4 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Rc1 Ne4 8. Be2 dxc4 9. h3 Bf5 10. Qa4 O-O 11. Bxc4 a6 12. Be2 b5 13. Qb3 Qe7 14. a3 Nxc3 15. axb4 Nxe2 16. Kxe2 Be4 17. Rc5 a5 18. Ng5 e5 19. dxe5 Bxg2 20. Rg1 Nxb4 21. Qc3 h6 22. Rxg2 hxg5 23. Bxg5 Qd7 24. e6 fxe6 25. Rxc7 Nd5 26. Rxd7 Nxc3+ 27. bxc3 Rf7 28. Rxf7 Kxf7 29. Bf4 a4 30. Rg1 1-0


Third round of US chess league

World Championship in Siberia

FIDE Knockout World Championship will be held from December 3rd to 25th in Khanty-Mansiysk, the capitol of Yugra region in Russia. The city has 56000 residents and is placed 2200 km east of Moskow.

128 players will fight for the World Cup Champion title and prize fund of 1.572.000 USD.

In the World Cup Tournament 128 players shall be participating according to the knockout format: World Champion + four (4) semi-finalists from the Libya World Championship, Women's World Champion, two (2) World Junior U-20 Champions (2004 & 2005), ninety (90) players from Continental Championships, twenty (20) rated players, seven (7) FIDE President nominees, three (3) Organiser nominees.

Nakamura lost in Matrix!

GM Andrei Volokitin is the winner of 6th Lausanne Young Chess Masters Tournament. After passing knockout qualifications he met GM Hikaru Nakamura in the final match. Volokitin wins first game in deep ending and for 2nd round Nakamura pulls out his Matrix attack (1.e4 c5 2.Qh5). Andei was not impressed with this Queen dance and he grabs initiative in the early stage of the game. He kept cool head in the complications and scored an (easy) point to win the trophy.

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan finished third after he won "sudden death" game against GM Pentala Harikrishna. I wanted to post this game but it was impossible to record it due to fast time control. GM Magnus Carlsen is 5th and IM Nana Dzagnidze is 7th.


For 1st place:
GM Andrei Volokitin - GM Hikaru Nakamura 2-0

For 3rd place:
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - GM Pentala Harikrishna 4-3

For 5th place:
GM Magnus Carlsen - GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2-0

For 7th place:
IM Nana Dzagnidze - IM Elisabeth Paehtz 1,5-0,5


White: GM Hikaru Nakamura 2660
Black: GM Andrei Volokitin 2671
B20
Final match
1. e4 c5 2. Qh5 Nf6 3. Qh4 Nc6 4. Be2 e5 5. d3 Be7 6. Qg3 d5 7. Nd2 O-O 8. c3 b5 9. Nh3 d4 10. c4 Ne8 11. cxb5 Bh4 12. Qf3 Nb4 13. Bd1 f5 14. a3 Nd6 15. axb4 fxe4 16. Qh5 Bxh3 17. g3 Qf6 18. Bb3+ Kh8 19. f3 exf3 20. Kf2 Bg5 21. Nxf3 g6 22. Bxg5 Qf5 23. Qxh3 Qxf3+ 0-1


White: GM Magnus Carlsen 2528
Black: GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2527
B84
Match for 5th place
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 a6 6. Be2 e6 7. f4 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. a4 b6 10. Bf3 Ra7 11. Be3 Rc7 12. f5 Rc4 13. g4 h6 14. Qd2 Nh7 15. Rad1 Bg5 16. Bxg5 Nxg5 17. Bg2 Nd7 18. fxe6 Ne5 19. exf7+ Ngxf7 20. h3 Ng5 21. Nf5 Bxf5 22. exf5 h5 23. Qxd6 Qxd6 24. Rxd6 hxg4 25. Bd5+ Kh7 26. Bxc4 Nxc4 27. Rd3 Nxh3+ 28. Kg2 Nxb2 29. Rd4 Rc8 30. Nd5 Rxc2+ 31. Kg3 Ng5 32. Rxg4 Nf7 33. Nf6+ gxf6 34. Rh1+ Nh6 35. Rg6 Rc3+ 36. Kg2 Rc2+ 37. Kf3 Rc3+ 38. Ke4 Rc4+ 39. Kd5 Rc5+ 40. Ke6 1-0


White: GM Hikaru Nakamura 2660
Black: GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2646
A22
Semifinal match
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. e3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bd6 7. d4 Nd7 8. Be2 O-O 9. O-O Qe7 10. Nd2 Ba3 11. Bxa3 Qxa3 12. Nc4 Qe7 13. Qc2 b6 14. Nxe5 Nxe5 15. Qe4 Bd7 16. Qxe5 Qxe5 17. dxe5 Rae8 18. f4 f6 19. Rad1 Bc8 20. Bc4+ Kh8 21. exf6 Rxe3 22. Rfe1 Rxe1+ 23. Rxe1 gxf6 24. Re7 Bf5 25. h3 c6 26. g4 b5 27. Bb3 Bd3 28. Rxa7 c5 29. Be6 f5 30. Rd7 c4 31. g5 Re8 32. Bd5 Be4 33. Bf7 Ra8 34. h4 b4 35. Rc7 bxc3 36. Bxc4 c2 37. Bb3 Rd8 38. Kf2 Rd2+ 39. Ke3 1-0


White: GM Andrei Volokitin 2671
Black: GM Pentala Harikrishna 2645
C41
Semifinal match
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Be7 6. Bf4 O-O 7. Qd2 Nc6 8. O-O-O Nxd4 9. Qxd4 Be6 10. f3 Nd7 11. Qe3 Qb8 12. g4 Ne5 13. h4 c6 14. g5 b5 15. Bg3 Qb6 16. Qxb6 axb6 17. f4 Ng4 18. f5 Bxa2 19. Bxd6 Bxd6 20. Rxd6 b4 21. Nd1 b3 22. c3 Ra4 23. Bd3 Rfa8 24. Kd2 Kf8 25. Rd4 c5 26. Rxa4 Rxa4 27. Rf1 b5 28. Ne3 Nxe3 29. Kxe3 c4 30. Be2 Ra8 31. Rd1 Re8 32. f6 b4 33. Kd4 gxf6 34. gxf6 Re6 35. e5 bxc3 36. Kxc3 Rxe5 37. Rd8+ Re8 38. Rxe8+ Kxe8 39. Bxc4 h6 40. Bxb3 Bb1 41. Kd4 1-0

New chess site launched

Chess Lecture is finally open for public. This site will provide online video lectures with daily update monday to friday. Owner is also promising interactive approach, meaning you can suggest material or subject for the lectures.

Current video producers are IM David Vigorito (2360), IM Bill Paschall (2399), IM Jesse Kraai (2416) and IM Attila Turzo (2352).

Watching videos online is not the best expirience for dial-up users, but others might try. I was a bit dissapointed to find that no sample videos are available. Hope they will change that soon. Homepage is very nice, hats down for webmaster.

More Wallpapers

I have posted this link few days ago. Now I'm inviting you to look what GM Alexandra Kosteniuk is offering.

Loek van Wely and Peng Zhao Qin are Dutch champions

Netherlands championships were held in "chess" city Leeuwarden during september 5-16th.


Final standings (mens):
1. GM Loek van Wely (2655) with 5,5 points
2-3. GM Daniel Stellwagen (2533) and GM Sergei Tiviakov (2678) with 5 points
4-7.IM Ruud Janssen (2501), GM Friso Nijboer (2529), GM Jan Smeets (2537), and IM Jan Werle (2514) 4,5 points
8-9. IM Erwin l'Ami (2519) and GM Erik van den Doel (2587) 4 points
10. IM Sipke Ernst (2457) 3,5 points


Final standings (womens):
1. GM Peng Zhao Qin (2405) 8 points
2. WIM Marlies Bensdorp (2225) 6 points
3. WIM Bianca Muhren (2269) 5 points
4. FM Petra Schuurman (2266) 4,5 points
5. Arlette van Weersel (2173) 3,5 points
6. Laura Bensdorp (2108) 3 points


White: GM Loek van Wely (2655)
Black: GM Stellwagen (2533)
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 Nh5 10. Re1 f5 11. Ng5 Nf6 12. f3 c6 13. Kh1 h6 14. Ne6 Bxe6 15. dxe6 Ne8 16. Qb3 Nc7 17. c5 d5 18. exd5 cxd5 19. Bb2 Qe8 20. a4 a6 21. Rad1 Rd8 22. Nxd5 Rxd5 23. Bc4 Rxd1 24. Rxd1 Qb8 25. Rd7 Bf6 26. f4 b5 27. cxb6 Qxb6 28. fxe5 Qf2 29. Qd1 Bg5 30. Bd4 Qh4 31. Rxc7 Rd8 32. Rd7 Rc8 33. Bf1 Rc1 34. Qe2 Qe4 35. Bg1 Qb1 36. Qxa6 Rxf1 37. Qb6 Kh8 38. a5 Re1 39. Qc5 Rc1 40. Qb6 Re1 41. Rd8+ Kg7 42. Re8 h5 43. Qc5 Rc1 44. Qd4 Qe4 45. Qa7 Qxb4 46. a6 f4 47. Qf2 Qb5 48. Ra8 Rf1 49. Qd4 f3 50. gxf3 Qe2 0-1

Argentinean Championship has ended

GM Pablo Ricardi and IM Diego Flores are sharing first place. Diego succeeded to win last round and catch Pablo on the top. World Chess Championship participant Gaston Needleman finished with 50%.


Final standings:
1-2. GM Pablo Ricardi (2551) and IM Diego Flores (2513) 6 points
3-5. IM Juan Facundo Pierrot (2449), IM Salvador Alonso (2457) and IM Pablo Lafuente (2435) 5 points
6-7. IM Diego Valerga (2499) and Gaston Needleman (2242) 4.5 points
8. IM Guillermo Soppe (2432) 4 points
9. FM Leandro Pedromo (2345) 3.5 points
10. Leonardo Duarte (2317) 1.5 points

Arab Chess Championship

UAE are really active in chess events organizing. Latest in a row is Arab chess championship, being held in Dubai from 12th to 21st september.

Standings after 5th round (22 participants):
1. GM Belkhodja Slim (2468 TUN) 4
2. IM Al Sayed Mohamad (2478 QAT) 4
3. IM El Taher Fouad (2456 EGY) 3,5
4. GM Adly Ahmed (2503 EGY) 3,5
5. IM Amin Bassem (2400 EGY) 3,5 etc.

Third round of US chess league

Eastern leader Philadelphia Masterminds lost to Baltimore Kingfishers while Dallas and Miami have agreed to draw since Miami team had internet problems.


Carolina Cobras - Boston Blitz 1,5-2,5
IM Lev Milman (2474) - GM Larry Christiansen (2596) 0-1
IM Jonathan Schroer (2462) - IM Josh Friedel (2477) 0-1
FM Matthew Hoekstra (2407) - FM William Kelleher (2383) 1-0
NM Greg Samsa (2200) - Ilya Krasik (2123) 0,5-0,5

Philadelphia Masterminds - Baltimore Kingfishers 1-3
FM Norman Rogers (2307) - IM Pascal Charbonneau (2506) 0-1
NM Carl Boor (2329) - FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2453) 0-1
IM Richard Costigan (2295) - IM Larry Kaufman (2331) 0-1
NM Elvin Wilson (2239) - NM Ray Kaufman (2231) 1-0

Dallas Destiny - Miami Sharks 2-2
GM Alejandro Ramirez (2565) - GM Julio Becerra (2622) 0,5-0,5
GM Magesh Panchanathan (2487) - FM Marcel Martinez (2469) 0,5-0,5
IM Dmitry Shneider (2488) - IM Blas Lugo (2422) 0,5-0,5
Sam Copeland (1960) - Jose Cabrera (2093) 0,5-0,5

New York Knights - San Francisco Mechanics 2,5-1,5
GM Alex Stripunsky (2663) - IM Vince McCambridge (2502) 1-0
NM Gregory Braylovsky (2376) - IM John Donaldson (2442) 1-0
WGM Jenn Shahade (2318) - FM David Pruess (2432) 0-1
FM Dr. Lewis Eisen (2325) - NM Mark Pinto (2200) 0,5-0,5



White: IM Lev Milman (2474)
Black: GM Larry Christiansen (2596)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. d3 Qd6 8. Nbd2 Nd7 9. b3 c5 10. Nc4 Qe6 11. Bb2 Bf6 12. h3 O-O 13. Nh2 b5 14. Ne3 Bb7 15. Neg4 Be7 16. f4 exf4 17. Rxf4 f6 18. Kh1 Bd6 19. Rf1 f5 20. exf5 Rxf5 21. Rxf5 Qxf5 22. Qe2 Qg6 23. Nf3 Re8 24. Qd2 h5 25. Nh4 Qe6 26. Qc3 Re7 27. Nf5 Qxf5 28. Nh6+ gxh6 29. Qh8+ Kf7 0-1


White: IM Josh Friedel (2477)
Black: IM Jonathan Schroer (2462)
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 Ne7 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. Qg4 Qc7 8. Bd3 c4 9. Be2 Nf5 10. a4 Qa5 11. Kd2 Nd7 12. Ba3 Qxa4 13. Nf3 Qa5 14. Nh4 Nxh4 15. Qxh4 Qd8 16. Qg3 g6 17. h4 h5 18. Rh3 Nb8 19. Qf4 Nc6 20. g4 hxg4 21. Bxg4 Bd7 22. h5 g5 23. Qf3 Rh6 24. Qe3 b5 25. Bc5 a5 26. f4 gxf4 27. Qxf4 Rh7 28. Rg1 Qc7 29. Qg5 Rh8 30. Qf6 Rg8 31. Bf5 Rxg1 32. Qh8+ 1-0


White: FM Norman Rogers (2307)
Black: IM Pascal Charbonneau (2506)
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 Nc6 8. Qd2 O-O 9. O-O-O d5 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. Bd4 e5 13. Bc5 Be6 14. Bc4 Rb8 15. h4 e4 16. Bxd5 cxd5 17. Bd4 exf3 18. gxf3 Bxd4 19. Qxd4 h5 20. Rhg1 Qe7 21. Qe5 Qb4 22. Nxd5 Bxd5 23. Rxd5 Rfe8 24. Qf6 Rb6 25. Qd4 Re1+ 26. Rxe1 Qxe1+ 27. Qd1 Qxh4 28. b3 Re6 29. Kb2 Qf6+ 30. c3 Re3 31. Rd3 Rxd3 32. Qxd3 h4 33. Qd7 Kg7 34. Qxa7 h3 35. Qf2 Qf4 36. b4 h2 37. Qe1 Qg5 38. a4 Qg2+ 0-1


US Chess League kicks off!
US Chess League launches on August 31st

Lausanne round one update

No surprises in round one, all higher rated player won their games with white pieces.


GM Volokitin (2671) - IM Paehtz (2421) 1-0
GM Nakamura (2660) - IM Dzagnidze (2438) 1-0
GM Mamedyarov (2646) - GM Vachier-Lagrave (2527) 1-0
GM Harikrishna (2645) - GM Carlsen (2528) 1-0


White: GM Mamedyarov (2646)
Black: GM Vachier-Lagrave (2527)
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. O-O Nb6 8. Nc3 Nc6 9. d5 Na5 10. Qc2 c6 11. dxc6 Nxc6 12. Rd1 Bd7 13. Be3 Nc4 14. Bf4 Rc8 15. Qc1 Qe8 16. Bh6 Bxh6 17. Qxh6 f6 18. b3 Nd6 19. Qf4 Nf5 20. Qd2 Rd8 21. e4 Bc8 22. Qe2 Ng7 23. e5 Qf7 24. Rxd8 Rxd8 25. h3 Ne6 26. Qe3 Nc7 27. Re1 Bf5 28. Qc5 Rd3 29. exf6 exf6 30. Nh4 Bd7 31. Ne4 Kg7 32. Qc2 Rd4 33. Nc5 Nb4 34. Qb2 Rd6 35. Nxb7 Ra6 36. Qd2 Nxa2 37. Nd8 1-0


White: GM Volokitin (2671)
Black: IM Paehtz (2421)
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Nf3 Ngf6 6. Nxf6+ Nxf6 7. c3 c5 8. Be3 cxd4 9. Bxd4 a6 10. Bd3 Qc7 11. O-O Bc5 12. Be5 Qe7 13. Qd2 h6 14. Qf4 Bd7 15. b4 Ba7 16. Qg3 Rg8 17. Bd6 Qd8 18. Ne5 g5 19. Qf3 Bb8 20. Bxb8 Rxb8 21. Rad1 Qe7 22. Bc2 Bc8 23. Rd4 Kf8 24. Rfd1 Kg7 25. h4 1-0


Prevoius post

Chess Wallpapers

I've been browsing this site for awhile - really nice examples.

4th Hotel Petra tournament

This tournament was held on 3rd-11th september in Rome, Italy. FM Mario Sibilio has earned IM norm.


Final standings:
1. GM Oleg Romanishin (UKR 2570) 7,5
2. GM Ivan Farago (HUN 2499) 7
3. GM Igor Miladinovic (SCG 2609) 5,5
4. FM Mario Sibilio (ITA 2380) 5
5. IM Vazquez Renier (ESP 2496) 5
6. FM Pierluigi Piscopo (ITA 2389) 4
7. FM Marco Corvi (ITA 2317) 3
8. FM Piero Mazzilli (ITA 2341) 3
9. IM Antonio Martorelli (ITA 2277) 2,5
10. Renzo Ramondino (ITA 2274) 2,5

6th Lausanne Young Masters Chess Tournament

Probably the strongest junior event of the year will be held in Lausanne from 14th-19th september.


List of participants:
GM Andrei Volokitin (Ukraine 2671)
GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA 2660)
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan 2646)
GM Pentala Harikrishna (India 2645)
GM Magnus Carlsen (Norway 2528)
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France 2527)
IM Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia 2438)
IM Elisabeth Paehtz (Germany 2421)


Event format:
Knockout system with 8 participants. Time control is 120 minutes plus 60 minutes after move 40. In case of tied match -> 2 rapid games 25 0 -> 2 blitz games 5 0 -> sudden death, white gets 5 minutes, black 4 minutes.

Open 75 Aniversario del Club de Ajedrez Alcoy

Alcoy chess club is celebrating 75th anniversary - nice occasion to organize a tourney. This event was held on 3-8th september with 65 participants and 9 rounds of swiss pairings. Russian GM Oleg Korneev scored impressive win with 8 points and rating performance of 3372.

Final standings:
1. GM Oleg Korneev (RUS) 8 points
2-4. IM Luis Maria Campos (ESP), IM Aryam Abreu (CUB), GM Ruslan Pogorelov (UKR) 6,5 points
5-12. IM Claudio Javier Minzer (ARG), IM Diego Del Rey (ARG), IM Carlos Garcia Fernandez (ESP), IM Jorge Gonzalez Rodriguez (COL), FM Luis Mullor Gomez (ESP), WGM Tatiana Kononenko (UKR), FM Jose Clement Gomez (ESP) and IM Juan Mellado Trivino (ESP) with 6 points

My friend IM Sasha Belezky from Ukraine scored 5,5.

Exciting finish in Kazan!

Russian Chess Championship Qualifier had a thrilling last round. GM Sergey Volkov (2622), who was leading most of the race, lost the last round game to GM Alexander Khalifman (2653). Still he managed to stay in top 7, which gave him ticket for Super-final tournament of 58th Russian Individual Chess Championship.

Last round results:
GM Khalifman (2653) - GM Volkov (2622) 1-0
GM Bareev (2688) - GM Bocharov (2574) 1-0
GM Motylev (2675) - GM Najer (2614) draw
GM Jakovenko (2627) - GM Rublevsky (2645) draw
GM Korotylev (2604) - GM Timofeev (2661) draw
GM Zvjaginsev (2659) - GM Shariyazdanov (2592) 1-0
GM Smirnov (2635) - GM Tomashevsky (2555) 0-1 etc.


Final standings:
1-2. Evgeny Bareev, Alexander Khalifman 6,5 points
3-9. Sergey Volkov, Sergei Rublevsky, Dmitry Jakovenko, Evgeny Najer, Vadim Zvjaginsev, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Alexander Motylev 6 points
10-15. Mikhail Kobalia, Dmitry Bocharov, Artyom Timofeev, Evgeny Alekseev, Alexey Korotylev, Alexander Galkin 5,5 points etc.

This tournament had 66 players, with 20 of them rated over 2600 FIDE. Prize fund was 100.000 USD.


White: GM Khalifman 2653
Black: GM Volkov 2622
2005.09.11; Round 9; ECO C07
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Ngf3 cxd4 6. Bc4 Qd6 7. O-O Nf6 8. Nb3 Nc6 9. Nbxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 a6 11. Bb3 Qc7 12. Qf3 Bd6 13. h3 Be5 14. c3 h6 15. Re1 O-O 16. Be3 Bd7 17. Re2 Rad8 18. Rae1 Rfe8 19. Bxh6 Bxd4 20. cxd4 Bc6 21. Qe3 gxh6 22. Qxh6 Nh7 23. Bc2 f6 24. Rxe6 Rxe6 25. Rxe6 Bd5 26. Bxh7+ Qxh7 27. Qxf6 Qb1+ 28. Kh2 Bxe6 29. Qxd8+ Kg7 30. Qe7+ Bf7 31. Qe5+ Kh7 32. Qc7 Qf5 33. f3 Qd5 34. a3 Qb3 35. h4 Kg8 36. Qc8+ Kh7 37. Qc3 Qb6 38. Qc2+ Kg7 39. Qd2 Qc7+ 40. Kh3 Qc4 41. Qg5+ Kh7 42. Qf5+ Kg8 43. Qg5+ Kh7 44. Qf6 Qb3 45. g4 Bd5 46. Kg3 Bc6 47. h5 Qd1 48. Qg6+ Kh8 49. Qh6+ Kg8 50. Qe3 Kf8 51. b4 Be8 52. h6 Qb1 53. d5 Qd1 54. Qe5 Bf7 55. d6 Qg1+ 56. Kh4 Qh1+ 57. Kg5 1-0


White: GM Bareev 2685
Black: GM Bocharov 2574
2005.09.11; Round 9; ECO E11
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Nbd2 O-O 5. a3 Be7 6. e4 d5 7. e5 Nfd7 8. b4 a5 9. b5 c5 10. Bb2 cxd4 11. Be2 Nc5 12. Bxd4 Nbd7 13. a4 Nb6 14. Qc2 Nxc4 15. Bxc4 dxc4 16. Nxc4 b6 17. Rd1 Qc7 18. Nd6 Bb7 19. Bxc5 Bd5 20. Nd4 bxc5 21. N4f5 Bg5 22. O-O c4 23. Qc3 f6 24. f4 Bh6 25. Qe3 fxe5 26. b6 Qd7 27. Qxe5 Rad8 28. Rfe1 Kh8 29. Rxd5 exd5 30. Nxh6 c3 31. b7 c2 32. Ndf7+ 1-0


White: GM Sakaev
Black: GM Yakovich
2005.09.11; Round 9; ECO D37
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. e4 Bb4 6. Bg5 b5 7. a4 c6 8. e5 h6 9. exf6 hxg5 10. fxg7 Rg8 11. g3 Bb7 12. Bg2 c5 13. O-O g4 14. Nh4 Bxg2 15. Nxg2 cxd4 16. Nxb5 Nc6 17. Qxg4 a6 18. Qe4 Rc8 19. Qh7 Ne7 20. Nf4 axb5 21. Nh5 f5 22. Qh6 Qd6 23. axb5 Qe5 24. Ra6 Bd6 25. Nf6+ Kf7 26. Nd7 Qd5 27. Qf6+ Ke8 28. Rxd6 Qxd6 29. Ne5 d3 30. b6 1-0


White: GM Zvaginsev 2659
Black: GM Shariyazdanov 2592
2005.09.11; Round 9; ECO B30
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Bc4 Nb6 6. Bb3 d5 7. exd6 c4 8. Bc2 Qxd6 9. O-O Bg4 10. Re1 e6 11. b3 Be7 12. Na3 cxb3 13. axb3 Nd5 14. Nb5 Qd7 15. Ra4 Ncb4 16. Nbd4 Bf6 17. h3 Nxc2 18. Qxc2 Bh5 19. Ba3 b5 20. Ra5 Bxf3 21. Nxf3 Bd8 22. Ra6 Qb7 23. Raxe6+ fxe6 24. Rxe6+ Ne7 25. Qf5 Rf8 26. Qh5+ Rf7 27. Nd4 g6 28. Qe5 a6 29. Qh8+ Rf8 30. Qxh7 Qd5 31. Rxe7+ 1-0

Impressions from Macedonian Labour Day Open 2005

My friend Danny McGlynn was playing there and he sent me a few words about his personal view of the event. Thank you for your contribution Dan!

This is my first time actually going to this tournament and first time going to any tournament in Toronto. I was very pleased by the people that were running the tournament. Things were very well laid out. Built upon well with the experience over the years. I heard in a few announcements that this tournament in particular had been running for 15 years. Very impressive to keep an event for going for such a long period of time. Congrads to all who helped to keep it running.

The actual surroundings of the tournament were great to say the least. The hall that it was played in was huge. Lots of walking space, and the #1 table was very easy to distinguish. It was at the one end of the hall all by itself...leaving lots of room around it to be viewed by 10-20 people easily.

Since this was my first tournament in the area, I did not see very many familiar faces, but there were a few that I had seen before. Some new people I did meet there were very friendly and great to talk to. Some past faces were great to see again and to chat with between the rounds.

Another interesting feature of the tournament was that there was somewhat of a small cafeteria with lots of tables. You could go there with your opponents and look over your game, or sit down and look over games with your friends, or just play a few blitz games with whoever. A very large skittles room in a sense.

The site of the tournament was very close to many restaurants and a few hotels/motels, as well as a grocery store. If anyone were to travel far, like myself, to get to the tournament, they would have everything in good distance.

The actual organizers Bryan Lamb and Randy Moysoski had done a great job, hats off to both of them. An extended handshake also goes out to them to keep their advertising end of the tournament with the prize fund that was suggested, a superb tournament. I personally am hoping to make a showing at it again next year.

Danny McGlynn

Chess Nordic Championships

This festival was held in the city Vammala, Finland.

Final standings:
1. GM Evgeny Agrest (2592 SWE) 9,5/11 points
2. GM Tiger Hillarp Persson (2511 SWE) 9
3. IM Nicolai V. Pedersen (2488 DAN) 8
4. GM Tomi Nybäck (2571 FIN) 7
5. IM Tapani Sammalvuo (2441 FIN) 6,5
6. FM Espen Lie (2300 NOR) 5
7. FM Robert Hardarson (2361 ISL) 4,5
8. Stig Tjomsland (2257 NOR) 4,5
9. FM Heini Olsen (2325 FAI) 4
10. IM Bragi Thorfinnsson (2448 ISL) 3,5
11. IM Heikki Lehtinen (2402 FIN) 3
12. Hans Kristian Simonsen (2305 FAI) 1,5

Women`s championship:
1. Lenka Ptacnikova ISL 6/9
2. Svetlana Agrest SWE 5,5
3. Viktoria Bashkite EST 5,5
4. Sheila Barth Sahl NOR 5,5
5. Ellen Hagesaether NOR 5,5
6. Leili Pärnpuu EST 5
7. Tuulikki Laesson EST 5
8. Oksana Vovk DAN 5
9. Johanna Paasikangas-Tella FIN 5
10. Viktoria Johansson SWE 4,5
11. Sandra de Blecourt DAN 3,5
12. Päivi Walta FIN 3
13. Sari Rautanen FIN 2
14. Laura Savola FIN 2

Senior`s championship:
1. Heikki Westerinen FIN 5,5/6
2. Aarne Hermlin EST 3,5
3. Rolf Ljundquist SWE 2,5
4. Derdik Lardot FIN 0,5

Argentinean Championship

80th Argentinean Championship is being held on 8-16th september in Los Polvorines, near Buenos Aires.

Young star and World championship participant Gaston Needleman lost first two games leaving him on last place share with Leonardo Duarte.

Standings after round 2:
1. IM Juan Facundo Pierrot (2449) 2 points
2-4. IM Guillermo Soppe (2432), GM Pablo Ricardi (2551) and IM Diego Valerga (2499) with 1,5 points
5-7. IM Diego Flores (2513), IM Salvador Alonso (2457) and IM Pablo Lafuente (2435) with 1 point
8. FM Leandro Perdomo (2345) 0,5
9-10. Gaston Needleman (2242) and Leonardo Duarte (2317) 0 points

Second week of US Chess League

Miami Sharks and Dallas Destiny are the winners in the 2nd round of US Chess League.

Philadelphia Masterminds - Boston Blitz 2 - 2
FM Norman Rogers (2307) - GM Larry Christiansen (2596) 0-1
NM Carl Boor (2329) - IM Josh Friedel (2477) 0-1
IM Richard Costigan (2295) - FM Paul MacIntyre (2316) 1-0
NM Elvin Wilson (2239) - Ilya Krasik (2123) 1-0

Baltimore Kingfishers - New York Knights 2 - 2
IM Pascal Charbonneau (2506) - GM Alex Stripunsky (2663) 0,5-0,5
FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2453) - IM Irina Krush (2445) 0,5-0,5
IM Larry Kaufman (2331) - IM Jay Bonin (2379) 1-0
WGM Katerina Rohonyan (2309) - Evan Rosenberg (2131) 0-1

Miami Sharks - Carolina Cobras 2,5 - 1,5
GM Julio Becerra (2622) - GM Marcin Kaminski (2473) 0,5-0,5
FM Marcel Martinez (2469) - FM Lev Milman (2474) 0,5-0,5
IM Blas Lugo (2422) - FM Matthew Hoekstra (2407) 0,5-0,5
Jose Cabrera (2093) - John Timmel (2093) 1-0

San Francisco Mechanics - Dallas Destiny 2,5 - 1,5
IM John Donaldson (2442) - GM Alejandro Ramirez (2565) 0,5-0,5
FM Dmitry Zilberstein (2435) - IM Amon Simutowe (2471) 0-1
FM David Pruess (2432) - IM Peter Vavrak (2476) 0-1
NM Andy Lee (2231) - Andres Suarez (2087) 1-0


White: FM Norman Rogers (2307)
Black: GM Larry Christiansen (2596)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Be7 5. c3 O-O 6. O-O d6 7. Nbd2 Kh8 8. a4 Ng8 9. d4 exd4 10. cxd4 f5 11. exf5 d5 12. Bd3 Nh6 13. a5 Bxf5 14. Nb3 Bg4 15. Bxh6 Bxf3 16. gxf3 gxh6 17. Kh1 Bd6 18. Rg1 Bxh2 19. Rg4 h5 20. Rg2 Bf4 21. Bxh7 Kxh7 22. Qd3+ Kh8 23. Qg6 Qh4+ 24. Kg1 Rg8 0-1

Russian Championship Qualifier

Russian chess championship semi-final is being held on september 3-11 in Kazan, capitol of Tatarstan. 66 players are fighting for 7 tickets for Super-final tournament of 58th Russian Individual Chess Championship.

This event has 9 rounds of Swiss system. Time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves, and 10 minutes for the rest of the game. 30 seconds adds after each move from the 1st. Prize fund is 100.000 USD.


Standings after round 5 of 9:
1-2. GM Kobalia Mikhail 2614 and GM Volkov Sergey 2622 with 4 points
3-12. GM Rublevsk Sergei 2645, GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2618, IM Chuprov Dmitry 2477, GM Motylev Alexander 2675, GM Kharlov Andrei 2619, GM Zvjaginsev Vadim 2659, GM Tkachiev Vladislav 2625, GM Timofeev Artyom 2661, GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2627 and GM Bareev Evgeny 2688 with 3,5 points etc.


Khalifman,A (2653) - Vorobiov,E (2552) [A46]
58th ch-RUS Semi-Final Kazan RUS (2), 04.09.2005
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 b5 4.Bg2 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.b3 Bb7 7.c4 bxc4 8.bxc4 dxc4 9.Na3 0-0 10.Nxc4 c5 11.dxc5 Bxc5 12.Bb2 Nbd7 13.Rc1 Bd5 14.Nfe5 Bxg2 15.Kxg2 Nxe5 16.Bxe5 Qe7 17.Qb3 Rfc8 18.Rc2 Qd7 19.Rfc1 Bd4 20.Qf3 Bxe5 21.Nxe5 Qe8 22.Rc7 h6 23.Nxf7 Rxc7 24.Rxc7 Nd5 25.Rb7 Qc6 26.Nxh6+ Kh7 27.Qe4+ Kh8 28.Nf7+ Kg8 29.Ng5 1-0


Motylev,Alexander - Obolenskikh,Dmitry
Semi-Final of the 58th Russian Ch Kazan (2), 2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Be3 Nbd7 9.g4 Rc8 10.Qd2 Be7 11.0-0-0 0-0 12.Kb1 Nb6 13.h4 Qc7 14.h5 Nfd7 15.Rh2 Rfd8 16.Nd5 Bxd5 17.exd5 e4 18.fxe4 Ne5 19.Qg2 Nec4 20.Bd4 h6 21.Qf2 Nd7 22.Bxc4 Qxc4 23.Qf5 Qc7 24.Rf1 Rf8 25.Be3 Rce8 26.Rg2 Bg5 27.Bxg5 Re5


28.Bxh6 Rxf5 29.gxf5 Kh7 30.Bxg7 Rg8 31.Rfg1 Qd8 32.Nd2 Nc5 33.f6 Qe8 34.Rg6 1-0


Chuprov,D (2477) - Khismatullin,D (2583) [E12]
58th ch-RUS Semi-Final Kazan RUS (3), 05.09.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 b6 4.Nc3 Bb7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 Be7 7.e3 c5 8.dxc5 bxc5 9.Bd3 Nc6 10.0-0 d6 11.Bc2 g5 12.Bg3 h5 13.Nb5 g4 14.Ne1 Ne5 15.Bxe5 dxe5 16.Qxd8+ Kxd8 17.Rd1+ Kc8 18.f3 gxf3 19.Nxf3 Ng4 20.Ng5 Bxg5 21.Rxf7 Kb8 22.Rdd7 Bc6 23.Nd6 Bxe3+ 24.Kf1 Bxd7 25.Rxd7 Rf8+ 26.Ke1 1-0

NM Brian Fiedler wins Toronto weekend

Macedonian Labour Day Open 2005 was held in Toronto on 3rd-5th september. It was 6 round Swiss event with 5 sections and time control 40 moves in 2 hours, then 1 hour sudden death. Open section had 29 participants.

NM Brian Fiedler (2222), former IBM programer, won this event with 5,5 points, even tough he took a "bye" for 5th round. Second place goes to my good friend FM Igor Divljan (2334) with 4,5 points.

Final standings (all ratings are CFC):
1. Brian Fiedler (2222) 5,5
2. FM Igor Divljan (2334) 4,5
3-6. IM Ron Livshits (2478), Nikolay Noritsyn (2414),FM Goran Milicevic (2368) and Hugh Siddeley (2050) 4
7-10. FM Christian Stevens (2354), Nat. Khoudgarian (2290), Warrick Rolfe (2186) and Kevin Chung (1952) 3,5 etc.


Lets take a look at this chess masterpiece:

White: Brian Fiedler
Black: Ron Livshits
Round 4

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bc4 e6 7. Bb3 b5 8. O-O Be7 9. f4 O-O 10. e5 dxe5 11. fxe5 Bc5 12. Be3 Nc6 13. Nxc6 Bxe3+ 14. Kh1


14...Qc7 15. exf6 Qxc6 16. Nd5 Bc5 17. Qh5 h6 18. fxg7 Kxg7 19. Rf6 Be3 20. Raf1 1-0

Budapest gambit high level failure

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is young and perspective Grandmaster from Azerbaijan, rated 2640. This time sword hit the rock. Experienced GM Beliavsky was not impressed with his opening choice. The game was played in Spanish chess team championship.


Alexander Beliavsky - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov [A52]
CECLUB Division de Honor II Sant Lluis Menorca ESP (3), 02.09.2005

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.Nf3 Bc5 5.e3 Nc6 6.a3 a5 7.Nc3 Ngxe5 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.f4 Ng6 10.Bd3 d6 11.0-0 f5 12.Rb1 c6 13.b4 axb4 14.axb4 Ba7 15.Kh1 0-0 16.Rf3 Be6 17.Rh3 d5 18.Qh5 dxc4 19.Be2 Rf6 20.Qxh7+ Kf8 21.Rg3 Bg8 22.Qh5 Bf7 23.b5 Kg8 24.Rh3 Bc5 25.bxc6 bxc6 26.Qh7+ Kf8 27.Rg3 Bg8 28.Qh5 Ne7 29.Qh8 Ng6 30.Rxg6 Rxg6 31.Bxc4 Ke7 32.Rb7+ Kd6 33.Qh5 Bxc4

34.Ne4+ 1-0

European champion GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu is the winner of Barcelona tournament

I was reporting earlier about VII Open D'Escacs De Sants, Hostafrancs I La Borde. The event had 10 rounds and not 9 as I presumed. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu won the last two games to become clear winner.


Final standings:
1. GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (ROM 2679) - 8,5 points
2-5. GM Chen Zhu (CHN 2494), GM Mohamad Al-Modiahki (QAT 2570), GM Mircea Parligras (ROM 2571), Tirta Chandra Purnama (INA 2337) – 8 points
6-15. GM Florian Handke (GER 2460), IM Mohamad Al Sayed (QAT 2478), GM Fernando Peralta (ARG 2562), WGM Anna Matnadze (GEO 2389), GM Susanto Megaranto (INA 2499), IM Jose Gonzalez Garcia (CUB 2478), GM George-Gabriel Grigore (ROM 2479), Luis AlbertoGomez Jurado (ESP 2292), Jordi Fluvia Poyatos (ESP 2443), FM Sergio Barrientos (ESP 2433) 7,5 points etc.

2100 FIDE player wipes Hydra off the board twice....seeking his third win

Now my friend Stu Taylor sent me an awesome article about Hydra!! Please read it carefully :-)


As everyone knows, Hydra is the "Kasparov of all computers." Yet Hydra has had some recent failures which put doubt into my mind of its supposed invincibility. For one, Hydra before its match with Adams, was crushed by Correspondence GM Arno Nickel twice with White and Black! Nickel looked like Petrosian playing some 1400 in a simul. Yet for some reason, this significant feat was vastly ignored before and after the Adams match. Not only this, Hydra's slogan "it has never been beat by a human" was totally false! A politcally correct quote would have been "it has never been beat by a human in classical chess." This seems like an amazing feat by a computer until you start to look at things a little closer.

Hydra has not won a game vs. current a top 10 GM (Adams is currently 13th in the world) and the one top ten GM it has played, Hydra blundered positionally and got a losing ending. Topalov was choking it to death like a boa constictor until Topalov got into time trouble and missed a win in an endgame (says the creator of the program Junior which drew Kasparov two years ago). Topalov said that he was more impressed with Fritz 9 (will be released in the fall or christmas) though, because of its positional understanding. Yet Kasimdzhanov gained a winning advantage (drew) against that so who says GM's cannot compete against the world's best computers?

The humilation of Hydra's losses to Correspondence GM Arno Nickel was the least of its worries though. There was a freestyle tournament at playchess site which Hydra was expected to wipe away the competition. The rules of the tournament were simple... there are no rules. Meaning the point of a Freestyle tournament is that the participants are permitted to use external help. They are allowed to use computers, books, club mates, grandmasters. Getting help from Vishy Anand or Fritz, from Karpov or Deep Shredder is permitted. Participants can play alone or in a team. The use of computers is not just allowed, it is encouraged. Almost mandatory. The winner of the finals gets the first prize of US $10,000 and the title of "First PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Champion". The runner-up gets $5,000, the winner of the match for third place gets $3,000.

Anyways Hydra even had two Hydra's in the tournament which even GM Lutz was giving one version of Hydra strategical advice. The other Hydra (the slower version) was on its own. Surprisingly, both Hydra's were destroyed and knocked out in the first round by GM's armed with computers. It had 3.5/8 points an embarrassing defeat. Not only this, the Hydra programmer is still baffled on how it loses occasionally to GM's with no assistance in 3 min games. Its screen name is Zor_Champ. And amazingly a 1300 USCF rated player and his 1600 USCF brother won the tournment ahead of GM's and Hydra!

Before I get back to the main topic of a 2100 FIDE player (but GM in correspondence) crushing Hydra. There were some main concerns of the Adams-Hydra match. For one many people do not know Adams didn't even have proper preparation for the match. He just came off of a match with Leko and the MTel tournament and only had a week to prepare with Seirawan. Unlike Kasparov's and Kramnik's monthly preparation. Not only this no one seems to mention that Hydra was 3000 miles away from the match itself and was in Abu Dubai while Adams was in London. What was stopping them from using Human intervention 3000 miles away no cameras or anything? Although this isn't anywhere as suspicious as IBM kidnapping and interrogating reporters, witholding logs, guards guarding Deep Blue, etc. it is still a little suspicious.

Okay back to the topic. Here are some games by Arno Nickel with his wins over Hydra. Please note these aren't the annotated games by him because the annotations are like 7 pages long! Please private tell me for the link to the annotated games.

[Event "Corr. Chess Match"]
[Site "Abu Dhabi/Berlin"]
[Date "2004.09.16"]
[White "Hydra Chimera (C)"]
[Black "Arno Nickel"]
[Result "0-1"]
[BlackElo "2101"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Ngf3 cxd4 6. Bc4 Qd6 7. O-O Nf6 8. Nb3 Nc6 9. Nbxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 a6 11. Re1 Qc7 12. Qe2 Bc5 13. c3 h6 14. Bd3 Bd7 15. Be3 Bd6 16. g3 O-O 17. Qd2 Ng4 18. Rad1 Rfe8 19. Nb3 Nxe3 20. Qxe3 Rad8 21. Qe4 g6 22. Bf1 Bc6 23. Qe3 Kh7 24. Bg2 e5 25. Bxc6 Qxc6 26. Qe4 Qxe4 27. Rxe4 Bc7 28. Ree1 b6 29. Na1 Kg7 30. Nc2 Rxd1 31. Rxd1 Rd8 32. Rxd8 Bxd8 33. Nb4 a5 34. Nd5 f5 35. c4 Kf7 36. a4 Ke6 37. b3 g5 38. h3 h5 39. Kf1 g4 40. h4 f4 41. Ke2 Kf5 42. Kf1 Ke4 43. Ke2 fxg3 44. fxg3 Kd4 45. Kd2 e4 46. Ke2 e3 47. Ke1 Kd3 48. Kd1 e2+ 49. Ke1 Kc2 50. Kxe2 Kxb3 51. Kd3 Kxa4 52. Kc2 Bxh4 53. gxh4 g3 54. Nf4 Kb4 0-1

[Event "Corr. Chess Match"]
[Site "Abu Dhabi/Berlin"]
[Date "2004.09.16"]
[White "Arno Nickel"]
[Black "Hydra Chimera (C)"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2101"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 7. Qd2 Nf6 8. O-O-O Bb4 9. f3 Ne5 10. Nb3 b5 11. Qe1 Be7 12. f4 Nc4 13. e5 Ng4 14. Bd4 O-O 15. Bd3 Bb7 16. Qe2 Nh6 17. Nd2 d5 18. g4 Rac8 19. Rhg1 b4 20. Ncb1 a5 21. Nf3 a4 22. f5 Bc5 23. Qf2 a3 24. bxa3 Bxd4 25. Qxd4 bxa3 26. f6 Ba6 27. Bxc4 Qxc4 28. Qxc4 Bxc4 29. Nd4 Ra8 30. Rg3 Bxa2 31. Nxa3 Rfb8 32. h3 Rb7 33. Rdd3 gxf6 34. exf6 Rb6 35. Rc3 Kh8 36. Rc6 Rb4 37. Nab5 e5 38. Nd6 exd4 39. Ra3 Rb1+ 40. Kd2 Rab8 41. Rxa2 Rf1 42. Rb6 Rg8 43. g5 1-0

Photos from Paracin

Horrible Night


Last week I posted report from 5th Memorial tournament "Branislav Urosevic - Backo". Here are some photos


Uros Cvetanovic, U10 champion of Serbia and vice-champion of Serbia and Montenegro federation. Famous for his fighting attitude - it was enough to draw last round game to become Federation champion, but he played for a win (with flu and 39C temperature) and slipped to second place. All of my respect.


GM Miroslav Tosic (on the left), tied for 4th-6th place and GM Goran M.Todorovic who shared 1st place

FM Borko Lajthajm, tied 1st-3rd

GM Goran Cabrilo, tied 1st-3rd

Limari (eng. tinmans): Nikola, Uros and Nebojsa Cvetanovic and FM Boroljub Zlatanovic

VII Open D'Escacs De Sants, Hostafrancs I La Bordeta

This tournament is being held in Barcelona from august 27th till september 4th. Last round derby GM Zhy Chen (2494) - GM Mohamad Al-Modiahki (2570) will most likely decide the winner. Main group has 319 and group B has 174 players.

As usual, Spain is very active with chess events during the summer. Spanish team chess championship is also in progress but I failed to find english website. I`ll try to post some games at least.

European chess champion GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, togheter with his colleagues from Romania, is also participating in this tourney.

Standings after round 8:
1-2. GM Mohamad Al-Modiahki (QAT 2570) and GM Chen Zhu (CHN 2494) 7 points
3-12. GM Mircea Parligras (ROM 2571), IM Jose Gonzalez Garcia (MEX 2478), GM Marc Narciso Dublan (ESP 2476), GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (ROM 2679), Tirta Chandra Purnama (INA 2337), GM Viktor Moskalenko (UKR 2534), GM George-Gabriel Grigore (ROM 2479), GM Florian Handke (GER 2460), GM Juan Borges Mateos (CUB 2467) and WGM Ana Matnadze (GEO 2389) with 6,5 points
GM`s Fernando Peralta, Mihail Marin and Susanto Megaranto have scored 6 points. GM Felix Levin has 5,5 and GM Sergey Zagrebelny has 5 points.

Alexander Areshchenko is ukranian champion!

What a thriller in the final match! New title holder was decided after blitz games. Alexander Areshchenko (2625) wins first game but Zahar Efimenko (2643) strikes back. Then they play rapid match which was also tied. Finally GM Areshchenko draws first and wins second game in blitz match and becomes champion of Ukraine. By the way, both players are members of the same chess club - Kramatorsk.

GM Vladislav Borovikov (2595) is third after winning match against GM Valery Neverov (2572).

Efimenko – Areshchenko 0-1 1-0, rapid: 0-1 1-0, blitz: ½-½, 0-1
Borovikov - Neverov ½-½ 1-0


Areshchenko,Alexander (2625) - Efimenko,Zahar (2643) [C18]
74th Ukranian Championship Rivne final(1) 01.09.2005

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 Ne7 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. Qg4 O-O 8. Bd3 Nbc6 9. Qh5 Ng6 10. Nf3 Qc7 11. Be3 c4 12. Bxg6 fxg6 13. Qg4 Qf7 14. Ng5 Qe8 15. h4 h6 16. Nh3 b5 17. Qe2 Bd7 18. g4 a5 19. h5 gxh5 20. g5 hxg5 21. Nxg5 g6 22. Qf1 Ra7 23. Qg2 Rf5 24. Nf3 Qf7 25. Nh4 Kh7 26. Ke2 Be8 27. Rh3 Qf8 28. Rg3 Rg7 29. Nxf5 Qxf5 30. Kd2 Ne7 31. Bg5 Qf7 32. Bf6 Rg8 33. Bxe7 Qxe7 34. Rf3 Rf8 35. Kc1 Kh6 36. Kb2 g5 37. Rxf8 Qxf8 38. f4 g4 39. f5 Qxf5 40. Rf1 Qe4 41. Qd2+ Kh7 42. Rf4 Qh1 43. Rf8 Bg6 44. Qg5 Qe4 45. Qe7+ Kh6 46. Rh8+ Bh7 47. Qf8+ 1-0


Efimenko,Zahar (2643) - Areshchenko,Alexander (2625) [B89]
74th Ukranian Championship Rivne final(2) 02.09.2005

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Nc6 8.Be3 Be7 9.Qe2 Qc7 10.0-0-0 Na5 11.g4 b5 12.g5 Nxb3+ 13.axb3 Nd7 14.h4 b4 15.Na4 Nc5 16.h5 Bd7 17.Kb1 Bxa4 18.bxa4 Nxa4 19.g6 Bf6 20.f4 0-0 21.h6 hxg6 22.f5 Rfb8 23.hxg7 Bxg7 24.fxg6 f5 25.Rh7 Ra7 26.exf5 Qa5 27.Qc4 Qe5 28.Qxe6+ Qxe6 29.Nxe6 Nxb2 30.Rxg7+ 1-0

US Chess League kicks off!

US Chess League started last night with Philadelhpia and Miami to score first wins.

Miami Sharks - Baltimore Kingfishers 2,5 - 1,5
GM Julio Becerra (2622) - IM Pascal Charbonneau (2506) 1-0
FM Marcel Martinez (2469) - FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2453) 0,5-0,5
IM Blas Lugo (2426) - FM Bruci Lopez (2409) 1-0
Dr. Eric Moskow (2127) - WIM Tsagaan Battsetseg (2273) 0-1

Boston Blitz - New York Knights 2 - 2
IM Eugene Perelshteyn (2576) - GM Alex Stripunsky (2663) 1-0
FM Paul MacIntyre (2316) - IM Jay Bonin (2379) 0,5-0,5
FM William Kelleher (2383) - NM Gregory Braylovsky (2376) 0-1
Ilya Krasik (2123) - John Fernandez (2116) 0,5-0,5

Dallas Destiny - Philadelphia Masterminds 1,5 - 2,5
GM Alejandro Ramirez (2565) - FM Norman Rogers (2307) 1-0
GM Magesh Panchanathan (2487) - IM Richard Costigan (2295) 0,5-0,5
FM Andrei Zaremba (2355) - NM Elvin Wilson (2239) 0-1
Sam Copeland (1960) - FM Boris Baczynskyj (2236) 0-1

Carolina Cobras - San Francisco Mechanics 2 -2
GM Marcin Kaminski (2473) - IM Vince McCambridge (2502) 1-0
FM Lev Milman (2474) - IM Mladen Vucic (2436) 1-0
FM Matt Hoekstra (2407) - FM Dmitry Zilberstein (2435) 0-1
John Timmel (2093) - NM Nicholas Yap (2209) 0-1

Efimenko and Areshchenko in the Ukranian ch. final

Both semifinal matches of the Ukranian knockout championship were tied (with the regular time control). Top seed GM Zahar Efimenko (2643) has won first rapid game against GM Valery Neverov (2572) and then drew second one to become first finalist. GM`s Alexander Areshchenko (2625) and Vladislav Borovikov (2595) have tied rapid match and then moved to play blitz games. First game was draw, Areshchenko won the second and qualified for the final.

Efimenko – Neverov 2,5–1,5
Borovikov – Areshchenko 2,5–3,5


Games from semifinal:

Neverov,Valeriy (2572) - Efimenko,Zahar (2643) [A00]
74th Ukranian Chess Championship Rivne (4.2), 31.08.2005

1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 d5 4.b3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 c5 7.Bb2 Nc6 8.e3 dxc4 9.bxc4 Qd3 10.Qb3 Rd8 11.Rd1 a6 12.Qxd3 Rxd3 13.Nc3 Rd8 14.Rab1 Rb8 15.Na4 Bd7 16.Nb6 Bd6 17.d4 cxd4 18.exd4 Be8 19.d5 exd5 20.cxd5 Ne7 21.Ne5 Nc8 22.Nbc4 Bb5 23.Nxd6 Nxd6 24.Ba3 Rbc8 25.Rdc1 Nfe8 26.Bh3 Rxc1+ 27.Rxc1 Ne4 28.Bg2 Rxd5 29.Nxf7 N8f6 30.f3 Nxg3 31.Nh6+ gxh6 32.hxg3 Bc6 33.Bb2 Kf7 34.Rc2 Rd3 35.Kf2 h5 36.Bc1 Nd7 37.Bf4 Nf8 38.Be3 Ne6 39.Bf1 Rd6 40.Bc4 Kf6 41.Bc1 Ng5 42.Ba3 Rd7 43.Be2 Kg6 44.Bc1 Rf7 45.Bxg5 Kxg5 46.f4+ Kg6 47.Rc5 Rd7 48.Rg5+ Kf6 49.Rxh5 Be4 50.g4 Rd2 51.a4 Bd3 52.Ke3 Rxe2+ 53.Kxd3 Re7 54.Rh6+ Kg7 55.Rb6 Kg8 56.Kd4 Kf7 57.a5 Kg8 58.Kd5 Kf8 59.f5 Kf7 60.g5 Rd7+ 61.Ke5 Kf8 62.Rf6+ Kg8 63.Rd6 Rc7 64.Ke6 Rc1 65.Rd8+ Kg7 66.f6+ Kg6 67.Rg8+ Kh5 68.f7 1-0

Areshchenko,Alexander (2625) - Borovikov,Vladislav (2595) [B90]
74th Ukranian Chess Championship Rivne (4.2), 31.08.2005

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Nbd7 9.g4 Nb6 10.g5 Nh5 11.Qd2 Be7 12.0-0-0 0-0 13.Rg1 Rc8 14.h4 g6 15.Kb1 Qc7 16.Qf2 Nc4 17.Bxc4 Qxc4 18.f4 exf4 19.Bxf4 Nxf4 20.Qxf4 f6 21.Qh2 fxg5 22.hxg5 Rf7 23.Nd4 Rc5 24.Nxe6 Qxe6 25.Qd2 Re5 26.Rg3 Qc4 27.a3 Rf1 28.Rxf1 Qxf1+ 29.Ka2 Qc4+ 30.b3 Qe6 31.Nd5 Rxe4 32.Rc3 Bd8 33.Nf6+ Bxf6 34.gxf6 Qxf6 35.Qd5+ Kg7 36.Rc8 Re7 37.Rg8+ Kh6 38.Qd2+ Kh5 39.Rd8 Re1 40.Qxe1 Qxd8 41.Qh1+ Kg5 42.Qxb7 h5 43.Qxa6 h4 44.Qb7 Kh6 45.Qe4 d5 46.Qd4 Kh5 47.a4 h3 48.Qd1+ Kh6 49.Qg4 Qc7 50.Qxh3+ Kg7 51.Qd3 g5 52.c3 Qh2+ 53.Ka3 Qg1 54.a5 g4 55.Qxd5 g3 56.Qb7+ Kg6 57.Qb6+ Qxb6 58.axb6 g2 59.b7 g1Q 60.b8Q Qc5+ 61.Ka4 Qxc3 62.Qd6+ Kh7 63.b4 Qc2+ 64.Ka5 Qc3 65.Ka6 Qc8+ 66.Kb6 1-0