7th Memorial Narciso Yepes

The open tournament with 63 participants took place on June 23rd-29th in Murcia, Spain. After 9 rounds GM Vladimir Baklan of Ukraine scored 7 points to take clear 1st place.


Final standings:
1. GM Vladimir Baklan (UKR 2606) 7.0
2-4. GM Alexander Kovchan (UKR 2499), GM Kevin Spraggett (CAN 2578) and GM Oleg Korneev (RUS 2671) 6.5
5-13. GM Alexander Rustemov (RUS 2565), IM Ibragim Khamrakulov (ESP 2513), GM Davor Komljenovic (CRO 2468), GM Fernando Peralta (ARG 2524), GM Aleksa Strikovic (SCG 2501), IM Diego Flores (ARG 2494), GM Branko Damljanovic (SCG 2615), IM Dragan Paunovic (SCG 2495) and GM Sergey Fedorchuk (UKR 2576) 6.0 etc


Oleg Korneev 2671 - Mohamed Tissir 2439
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Qd2 Be7 9. f3 O-O 10. O-O-O b5 11. g4 b4 12. Nd5 Bxd5 13. exd5 a5 14. Kb1 a4 15. Nc1 Qa5 16. g5 Nfd7 17. h4 f5 18. f4 Bd8 19. g6 h6 20. Nd3 Na6 21. fxe5 dxe5 22. Bxh6 Qxd5 23. Bg5 b3 24. cxb3 axb3 25. Qe2 bxa2+ 26. Ka1 Ndc5 27. Nxc5 Nxc5 28. Rh3 Nb3+ 29. Rxb3 Qxb3 30. Qh5 Rf6 31. Rc1 Ra4 32. Bxf6 1-0


Official website

34th World Open

34th World Open will be held on June 28th-July 4th in Sheraton Hotel, Philadelphia. Prize fund is $500.000 based on 1800 paid entries, guaranteed minimum is $300.000. The open section is US championship qualifier, awarding two spots in the final.

Official website is awful, too bad TWIC is not providing games and results. 45 players have started in 7-Day Open Section and two girls are heroes of the day. WFM Tatev Abrahamyan has defeated GM Alexander Shabalov, while WGM Subbaraman Meenakshi drew GM Sergey Kudrin. Canadian junior Eric Hansen lost to GM Magesh Panchanathan.

Football players moving like chess pieces

Australia - Italy, 80th minute.

Speaking again in chess terminology, there is one Grandmaster on each of the sides (Hiddink and Lippi), but we haven't seen much on the field.

Miroslav Stevic, former Minhen1860 and Borussia Dortmund player, commenting the game on Serbian National Broadcast.

Underground Q&A column

GM Larry Evans will continue to write and publish his Q&A column. One of the places to read will be Evans on Chess section on WorldChessNetwork.

Chess Life abruptly cancelled Evans On Chess in June 2006 on the grounds that the magazine no longer requires a Q&A column. Here is the one the USCF paid for in June but did not use. More rejected columns will appear in coming months. The new editor, recently interviewed in THE CHESS JOURNALIST, said that cutting several regular monthly columnists will free up space for more features. Like what? He cited an article on "women in correspondence chess" as his vision of what might interest readers.

And here is an interesting quote from his latest Q&A article:

In a preface to Viktor Korchnoi's MY BEST GAMES (Vol. 1) GM Genna Sosonko mentions a 1963 simul where an official told Korchno before the game: "Che Guevara loves chess passionately, but he is a rather weak player. He would be extremely happy to draw against you." Later Tal asked what happened. "I won them all," said Korchnoi. "Against Che Guevara, too?" inquired Tal. "Yes, he doesn't have the faintest idea what to do against the Catalan."

You can send your feedback and questions to evans@worldchessnetwork.com

Midnight Sun Chess Challenge

The Midnight Sun Chess Challenge will be held on June 24th-July 2nd in Tromso, Norway. Tromso is the northeast settlement in Norway. Their football team beat my Red Star Belgrade last year 3-1 after being 0-1 down.

Although listed with preregistered participants, GM Mark Paragua is not playing. There are 7 GMs among 62 participants, GM Michal Krasenkov (2650) and GM Magnus Carlsen (2646) are highest rated.


In the 1st round Magnus Carlsen sold an old trick to his inexperienced opponents in Rubinstein French.

Magnus Carlsen 2646 - Anders Hobber 1926
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Bd3 Ngf6 6.Qe2 Nxe4 7.Bxe4 Nf6 8. Bxb7 Bxb7 9.Qb5+ Qd7 10.Qxb7 Qd5 11.Qxd5 exd5 12.Bf4 Bd6 13.Bxd6 cxd6 14. Ne2 Kd7 15.f3 Rab8 16.b3 Rhc8 17.Kd2 Re8 18.Rae1 Re7 19.Nf4 Rxe1 20.Rxe1 Re8 21.Rxe8 Kxe8 22.h4 Kd7 23.g4 Kc6 24.Kc3 h6 25.Kb4 Nd7 26.Ka5 1-0


Official website

Pula Open 2006

This year, the tournament celebrates its 20th anniversary. In the old Yugoslavia this was main chess festival with regular gather of 1000 participants.

The tradition continues with a strong open tournament that will take place on June 18th-25th. There are 236 participants with many players from West and North Europe enjoying in beautiful Adriatic coast.


Round 5 standings:
1. GM Pavasovic Dusko (2534 SLO) with 5.0/5
2-11. GM Stocek Jiri (2565 CZE), IM Popovic Dusan (2496 SCG), Saric Ivan (2393 CRO), Rogic Davor (2540 CRO), GM Cvitan Ognjen (2527 CRO), IM Kuljasevic Davorin (2408 CRO), FM Plenkovic Zdenko (2278 CRO), IM Petrik Tomas (2515 SVK), IM Jovanic Ognjen (2473 CRO) and IM Sakelsek Tadej (2428 SLO) with 4.5/5 etc


Official website

22nd Abierto Internacional de Ajedrez Sestao 2006

This rapid tournament was held on Sunday June 18th in Sestao, Spain. There were 100 participants.


Final standings:
1-6. GM Oleg Korneev (RUS 2671), IM Ibragim Khamrakulov (ESP 2513), GM Juan Mario Gomez Esteban (ESP 2495), IM Dragan Paunovic (SCG 2495), GM Azer Mirzoev (AZE 2532) and FM Diego Del Rey (ESP 2431) with 6.5/9
7-9. GM Aleksa Strikovic (SCG 2501), IM Daniel Barria (CHI 2428) and GM Salvador G Del Rio De Angelis (ESP 2516) with 6.0/9 etc

Las Vegas International Chess Festival

The Festival took place on June 15th-19th in Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas. The main event, National Open Championship, had 104 participants.


Final standings:
1-5. Alex Wojtkiewicz, Varuzhan Akobian, Nikola Mitkov, Merab Gagunashvili and Lubomir Ftacnik with 5.0/6
6-12. Victor Mikhalevski, Vitali Golod, Nick De Firmian, Sergey Kudrin, Leonid Kritz, Emil Anka and Walter Browne with 4.5/6 etc


Games can be viewed in Monroi Database

Official website

Utrecht Open Chess Championship 2006

Chess club Paul Keres has organized the 33rd Utrecht Open Chess Championship on 16th-18th June. After 6 rounds GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov and GM Slavko Cicak have tied for the first place with 5.5 points. A nice surprise is 3rd place tie by junior Thijs Laarhoven, ahead of many strong GMs. The same evening he found time to beat me in a 3 minute game on WCN. I'm wondering if Peter Doggers on 7th place is our fellow blogger?


Final standings:
1-2. Vyacheslav Ikonnikov 2593 and Slavko Cicak 2506 with 5.5/6
3-6. Paul Hommerson 2143, Thijs Laarhoven 2113, Erik van den Doel 2591 and Harmen Jonkman 2435 with 5.0/6
7-9. Sander van Eijk 2140, Igor Glek 2560 and Peter Doggers 2213 with 4.5/6 etc

There were 86 participants.


Official website

GM Alex Finkel About Dortmund 2006

Anyway if we try to be serious for a short while, playing seven games tourney is a very tricky task. Every mistake could be crucial because there is no time to fix it afterwards, especially if you get to play 3 games with white and 4 games with black. In such a strong field with no obvious underdogs losing a single game is very likely to mean that chances of winning the tournament are getting very low. These factors might be a heavy burden for the players, as taking risks could backfire. For that reason a good start is highly important. Winning one of the first two games should be a major trump in the forthcoming play.

Read the entire article of respectable author Alex Finkel writen for World Chess Network.

Hard to calculate a move

The Empire has certainly spent much time and effort to set the Balkans board and get the pieces in motion. But life is no game of chess, and the pawns on this board are moving in unexpected ways.

Nebojsa Malic's article at AntiWar.com

Las Vegas Masters Chess Tournament

This open tournament with 36 participants (6 GMs) took place on June 10th-14th. My "neighbor" GM Dejan Antic tied for the first place with GM Leonid Kritz and GM Robert Fontaine. FM John Bartholomew and FM Robert Hess have played extremely well to earn IM norms. Canadian IM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon needed a win in the last round for GM norm, but Leonid Kritz was too strong.

Chris Bird, Tournament Organizer, was issuing nice pdf daily bulletins in cooperation with The Chess Chronicle. You can download them from the homepage. MonRoi has provided live game broadcast (I was watching last round, very nice) and a bunch of photos.

Fiesta in Las Vegas continues with National Open Chess Tournament to be held on June 16th-18th.


Final standings:
1-3. GM Leonid Kritz (GER 2578), GM Robert Fontaine (FRA 2521) and GM Dejan Antic (SCG 2491) with 6.5/9
4. GM Victor Mikhalevski (ISR 2566) 6.0
5-9. GM Vitali Golod (ISR 2571), IM Enrico Sevillano (USA 2472), IM Alan Stein (USA 2434), IM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon (CAN 2419) and FM John Bartholomew (USA 2406) 5.5 etc


Leonid Kritz - Robert Fontaine
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. e3 Bb4 4. Qb3 Nc6 5. Nge2 O-O 6. a3 Bxc3 7. Nxc3 Re8 8. d3 b6 9. Be2 Bb7 10. O-O d5 11. cxd5 Na5 12. Qc2 Nxd5 13. b4 Nxc3 14. Qxc3 Nc6 15. Rd1 Re6 16. Bf1 Qh4 17. b5 Ne7 18. Qxc7 Bf3 19. Re1 Rc8 20. Qd7 h6 21. e4 Rg6 22. g3 Rc2 23. Bh3 Qh5 24. Re3 Rf6 25. Re1 Rd6 26. Qe8+ Kh7 27. Bf1 Rg6 28. h3 Rxg3+ 29. fxg3 Qg6 30. g4 Bxg4 31. Qxe7 Bxh3+ 32. Bg5 Qh5 33. Rac1 Qg4+ 34. Kh1 Qf3+ 0-1

Vitali Golod - Robert Hess
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 c5 7. dxc5 h6 8. Bxf6 Qxf6 9. e3 O-O 10. Nge2 Na6 11. a3 Bf5 12. Qd2 Nxc5 13. axb4 Nd3+ 14. Kd1 Nxf2+ 15. Ke1 Nxh1 16. g3 Rfe8 17. Bg2 Bh3 18. Bxh3 Qf2+ 19. Kd1 Qxh2 20. Bd7 Red8 21. Qxd5 Nxg3 22. Nxg3 Qxg3 23. Kc2 Rac8 24. Rd1 Rc7 25. Qe4 b5 26. Kb3 Rc4 27. Be6 Rxc3+ 28. bxc3 Rxd1 29. Qa8+ Kh7 30. Bxf7 Rb1+ 31. Ka3 Ra1+ 32. Kb3 draw


Official website

The Happy Talk Commandment

Some editors waged lonely struggles on behalf of readers kept in the dark as various USCF regimes buried mistakes and misdeeds in the pages of what they regarded as THEIR magazine. Too often editors were caught in the middle, lacking support and independence, serving at the pleasure of petty bureaucrats with agendas of their own.

A good example is what happened after Yasser Seirawan won the U.S. championship in 1986 and decided to run for USCF president. Editor Larry Parr was ordered to remove Yasser's picture from the cover of Chess Life. Parr told them to put the order in writing. They refused. Parr ran the cover in February 1987, as planned. He was axed about a year later but extracted a large settlement.

GM Larry Evans writes about the new "Chess Life" management.

Bad Opening

The first three moves often determine the course of a chess game and the first match in a World Cup often decides a team's ambitions...

Serbia & Montenegro coach Ilija Petkovic said before the football match against Netherlands. Looks like his chess skills are not on the highest level as we went down 1-0 after few odd tactical decisions.

Milov wins in San Marino

GM Vadim Milov from Switzerland won the 2nd San Marino International by having better tiebreak then GM Varuzhan Akobian of the USA. Philippine prodigy Wesley So earned IM norm with 5.5 points and 2522 rating performance. IMs Mikulas Manik (SVK) and Bartlomiej Heberla (POL) have scored GM norms.


Final standings:
1-2. Vadim Milov (SUI 2625) and Varuzhan Akobian (USA 2575) with 7.5 out of 9 rounds
3. Merab Gagunashvili (GEO 2560) 7.0
4-11. Sergei Tiviakov (NED 2669), Jaan Ehlvest (USA 2607), Levan Pantsulaia (GEO 2611), Eugenio Torre (PHI 2543), Nenad Sulava (CRO 2493), Vladimir Epishin (RUS 2565), Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR 2554) and Ivan Ivanisevic (SCG 2598) 6.5 etc


Official website

Henrique Mecking Wins Lodi Open

Brazilian GM Henrique Mecking won the 2nd Festival Scacchistico Internazionale città di Lodi which took place on 5th-11th June. Henrique scored 7 points out of 9 rounds and this was all the info I was able to gather from the official website.

National Heroes

Chess is national sport in Armenia and Georgia. You can understand how delighted the public in Armenia was after their boys have won Olympiad Gold. Armenian government has decided to award six players and coach Arshak Petrosian with $18.000 USD each. (This is huge amount in that poor country). Arshak is also Peter Leko's coach and father in law.

(News and photo source: Sah-Mat lista)

Isn't it about time lose to a girl

That some elite sports are divided by gender is fair enough given the physiological differences that exist. However, there shouldn't be a problem with chess because it is a mind game. Yet the game is divided into male and female chess; the only girl to ever reach the exalted heights of male chess is Judit Polgar.

The "Gormallygate" incident has even inspired pure political blog to write about gender issues in chess.


I would like to add a quote from the WCN chat room

Lao- Tzu (USA) says: the average wcn player would rather listen to one of Luiz's quiet metaphor explorations than lose to a girl

2nd San Marino International

This open tournament takes place on 5th-11th June in the city of San Marino. List of 148 participants can be seen here.


Standings after 4th round:
1. Vadim Milov (2625) 4
2-7. Sergei Tiviakov (2669), Varuzhan Akobian (2575), Dmitry Svetushkin (2552), Alexander Areshchenko (2660), Jaan Ehlvest (2607) and Tomasz Markowski (2554) 3.5 etc


There are three players from Serbia as well. GM Stefan Djuric has 3.0, GM Ivan Ivanisevic 2.5 and IM Danilo Milanovic 2.0 points respectively.


Alban Delorme 2298 - Mark Paragua 2617
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be3 Be7 9. Qd2 O-O 10. O-O-O Nbd7 11. g4 b5 12. g5 b4 13. Ne2 Ne8 14. Ng3 a5 15. Kb1 Nb6 16. Nf5 Bxf5 17. exf5 d5 18. f4 d4 19. Qg2 Nd5 20. Bxd4 Nxf4 21. Qf3 exd4 22. Qxf4 Bxg5 23. Qxd4 Qc7 24. Qc5 a4 25. Qxc7 Nxc7 26. Nc5 Ra5 27. Nd7 Re8 28. h4 Rd5 29. Bd3 Be3 30. Bc4 Rxf5 31. Rhf1 Rf4 32. Rxf4 Bxf4 33. a3 bxa3 34. bxa3 Be3 35. Rf1 Ne6 36. Bb5 Ra8 37. Re1 Bd4 38. Re4 g6 39. Bc4 Bg7 40. Bb5 Nd4 41. c4 f5 42. Nb6 fxe4 43. Nxa8 e3 0-1

Bartolomiej Heberla 2497 - Vadim Milov 2625
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Be2 Nf6 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. Qd3 d6 8. Bd2 Nbd7 9. Nb3 Ne5 10. Qe3 b6 11. f4 Ng6 12. a3 Bc5 13. Nxc5 bxc5 14. e5 dxe5 15. fxe5 Nd7 16. Ne4 O-O 17. O-O-O Bb7 18. Nxc5 Nxc5 19. Bb4 Nd7 20. Bxf8 Ngxf8 21. Bf3 Qc7 22. Rd6 Rc8 23. c3 h6 24. Rhd1 Nc5 25. Kb1 a5 26. R1d4 Bxf3 27. gxf3 Nb3 28. Rd1 Rb8 29. f4 a4 30. Qe4 Qa7 31. f5 Qf2 32. fxe6 Nxe6 33. Qxa4 Nbd4 34. b4 Nc5 0-1



Official website

Breaking Dutch Defence

Great battle is ahead. Like in chess, the one who opens better wins the game.

Serbia & Montenegro coach Ilija Petkovic speaking about first game at the World Football Cup against Netherlands.

The Next Big - Dortmund

Olympiad has ended and we have just enough time to squeeze World Football Cup in before the 34th Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting starts on 29th July. List of participants is here.

I believe main contenders for the first place are Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian. Kramnik played extremely well at the Olympiad and scored nice wins against Naiditsch, Aronian and Bruzon. He had the best tournament performance of 2847. Aronian was leading Armenians on their gold chase (his game against Ivan Sokolov is a must see). Aronian was also involved in an incident with English GM Danny Gormally.

SCG - Final Cut

This Olympiad was the last event for Serbia & Montenegro. In the future, they will participate as separated teams. Many problems followed this team before and during the Olympiad. Being annoyed by Chess Federation attitude, most of top Grandmasters refused to travel to Turin. IM Zoran Novoselski was appointed as team captain instead of Dragoljub Joksimovic. Italian embassy refused to issue visa for GM Miodrag R.Savic and he was able to join the team only after the 7th round. Italians also refused to extend visa for our 1st board GM Robert Markus so he had to miss last two rounds. Zoran Novoselski used junior Marko Krivokapic only for the first round. Being in deficit with players, this was unexpected luxury by our management.

Serbia & Montenegro men squad finished 37th, possibly the worst result ever. Women's team finished 25th. But there are some good news as well. IM Dusan Popovic had impressive score of 9.5/13 on 4th board which brought him his final GM norm. WGM Ana Benderac continues with excellent play at the Olympiads scoring 8.5/11 as the 1st reserve.

How to buy a vote

According to Carmen Kass the Estonian super model who is President of the Estonian Chess Federation their delegate was phoned by Fide and offered the European Team Championships in 2009 if they supported Ilyumzhinov. Good grief, the assembly is supposed to award that. She added that even the Russian Consulate in Tallinn called to back Ilyumzhinov! He had serious backing.

This particular paragraph drove my attention as Novi Sad was voted as 2009 organizer at the ECU congress. The only counterpart Antalia withdrew the offer and no one ever mentioned Estonia.


Read Malcolm Pein articles to see what was happening behind the curtains.
Part One
Part Two

European Team Championship 2009 in Novi Sad!

European Chess Union had its electoral congress at Turin. Boris Kutin from Slovenia will be ECU President for another 4 years. He got 28 votes while his opponent Ochoa from Spain had 21.

Important news for Serbian chess fans is that Novi Sad will host 2009 European Team Championship. After seeing presentation by WFM Sava Kizova, Ali Nihat Yazici withdrew Antalia offer and the delegates confirmed Novi Sad as organizer. The event will be held at the new Master Center of Novi Sad Fair.




There is another battle left. Budva from Montenegro is trying to get organization of the 2010 Chess Olympiad. They had a nice presentation by GM Bozidar Ivanovic, WIM Sanja Vuksanovic and WFM Sava Kizova. GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic and GM Stefan Djuric are also helping. Montenegro coast with Herceg Novi, Igalo and Budva already hosted numerous chess events. The decision should be made tomorrow.

Dragan earned his 3rd IM Norm

Only few weeks after he celebrated 2nd IM norm, Dragan had another excellent display to earn his 3rd IM norm this week. With all the rating points accumulated, he should be close to 2400 on the next FIDE list. FM Jorge Bittencourt and FM André Diamant have also earned IM norms. Congrats!


I Magistral Internacional de Guarapari

1. GM Andrés Rodriguez (URU 2502) 6.5/9
2-4. FM Jorge Bittencourt (BRA 2395), FM Dragan Stamenkovic (SCG 2334) and FM André Diamant (BRA 2244) 6.0
5-6. IM Robert Hungaski (USA 2400) and IM Martin Crosa (URU 2449) 5.5
7. FM Márcio Miranda (BRA 2302) 3.5
8. FM Marco Asfora (BRA 2287) 3.0
9. Jorge Rocha (BRA 2247) 2.5
10. Andrey Neves (BRA 2207) 0.5