43rd Rubinstein Memorial

The information about this festival is limited, probably due to the fact that official website is offering Polish version only. The festival was held on 17-12 August in Polanica Zdroj. There was main 14th category tournament and five different rating and age group opens. Local player GM Bartosz Socko won the main tournament on better additional criteria.

The standings:
1-2. GM Bartosz Socko (POL 2660) and GM Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR 2568) 5.5
3-4. GM Tomasz Markowski (POL 2573) and GM Mateusz Bartel (POL 2609) 5.0
5-7. GM Zaven Andriasian (ARM 2540), GM Viktor Laznicka (CZE 2594) and GM Grzegorz Gajewski (POL 2556) 4.5
8-9. GM Suat Atalik (TUR 2564) and GM Rainer Buhmann (GER 2583) 4.0
10. GM Pawel Czarnota (POL 2575) 2.5

Ukranian GM Vladimir Malaniuk won the 10-rounds open "A" with 8.5 points.

Website

Waiting Lines in Barcelona

While some tournament managers are having headache over the poor turnouts, people from the IX Open of Sants, Hostafrancs and la Bordeta in Barcelona have formed a waiting list to cover the possible nonappearances after, could you believe it, 500 players have signed up. That makes 305 in the main rated group, 195 in U2000 group. Sants Open is the last event in the Catalan Circuit Rating for "Generalitat de Catalunya Prize".

Tournament is taking place on 24th August to 2nd September in 79 Sants st, Barcelona (Auditori del Centre Cívic de les Cotxeres de Sants). 10 rounds of swiss system will be played, entry fees are affordable 22-37 Euros and total prize fund 12.300 Euros.

Top players: GM David Shengelia (GEO 2569), GM Friso Nijboer (NED 2568), GM José Manuel López (ESP 2567), GM Walter Arencibia (CUB 2563), GM Viktor Moskalenko (UKR 2560), GM Marc Narciso (ESP 2552), GM José Gonzalez (MEX 2540), GM Saraunas Sulskis (LIT 2537), GM Joszef Pinter (HUN 2535), GM Mihail Marin (GM 2533), IM Sébastien Mazé (FRA 2530), GM Thomas Luther (GER 2529), IM Alexander Cuartas (COL 2504), GM Omar Almeida (CUB 2501), IM Stefan Bromberger (GER 2500), IM Fidel Corrales (CUB 2499), IM Jordi Fluvia (ESP 2497), IM Matthieu Cornette (FRA 2487), GM Lars Karlsson (SWE 2481) etc

Shredder for iPhone

Our famous chess program Shredder is now also available for the Apple iPhone. You can play against the Shredder chess engine with three levels of difficulty and solve daily updated chess puzzles. Just go to www.shredderchess.com/iphone with your iPhone to play.

From Shredder website

Google goes Silk Road

Google is looking to acquire "one or two Chinese internet companies" and will invest in five in the next 12 months as part of a continued push to increase market share in the worlds fastest growing internet market.

From TechCrunch. Be careful what you type in Google.cn though, or someone might knock on your doors.

Fischer is banned word?

Chess Classic Mainz 2007 is conspicuously using Chess960 as name of the variant we know better as Fischer Random chess. Perhaps it has something to do with branding, as they boast about hosting Chess960 FiNet World Championship, which is nothing more than strong lineup.

Even ICC, enjoying regular "Fischer is genius" vs "Fischer is lunatic" arguments during its live broadcasts, says Chess 960 Internet Championship 2007.


First official Fischer Random event was match between young Peter Leko and GM Stanimir Nikolic in Kanjiza.

Viswanathan Anand about India's new sense of identity

In 2007, as we complete 60 years of Independence as Indians, we seem to have got a new sense of identity. Not just the kind of identity that comes from having Aloo Tikki burgers or Bollywood pop but a true sense of being a country. As we add to an impressive list of billionaires and top class corporates, Indians are extremely proud of seeing the Indian Tricolour fly high.

For me personally, becoming World No. 1 meant that it was not a first for me but a first for my country. Recently I was with the mayor of a picturesque German town. She mentioned that they were now keen to have Indian tourists rather than Japanese. This was an eye-opener. She said Indians came, stayed at the best hotels and spent on fine food and wine. They were not keen on mass tourism in crowded buses. This is a paradigm shift. India is now seen not as a country with a future but a country where the purse strings are beginning to open and the purse itself is bulging.

Full article in India Times

Queen of LA, King of Montreal

"A couple of childhood friends gave Serbia one of its best sporting days Sunday." - comments AP Sports Writer.

Novak Djokovic ended Roger Federer's 16-match Rogers Cup winning streak after defeating him 2-1 in Montreal's final. "Djokovic became the first player since Boris Becker in 1994 at Stockholm to defeat the top three ranked players at an ATP event. Besides Federer, he took out Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals and Rafael Nadal in the semifinals."

His childhood friend Ana Ivanovic followed the example and beat Nadia Petrova 2-0 to take the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles.

"Ivanovic and Djokovic have been friends for about 14 years. They met as 4-year-olds at his parents' mountaintop restaurant in Belgrade. Growing up, they practiced together and played hide and seek."

Chess-Tennis tournament
Can we have it in chess?


Wonderful Sunday has been completed with news from basketball and waterpolo. Serbian national team won U18 European Basketball Championship after beating Greece in the finals. This summer Serbia won U16, U18 and U20 European titles and U19 World Championship. How is this relating to chess, you might ask. Shooter Stefan Stojacic was already mentioned on this blog as former bronze medalist from U10 European Chess Championship.


Finally, Serbian waterpolo team outplayed our arch-rivals Hungary 9-6 to claim the third World League title.

I'm flattered

Someone found these posts good enough to steal them. Chessmanual.com, registered by "Domain Privacy Group, Inc." from Toronto, and hosted by Softlayer Technologies Inc, is copying content from CNE and possibly other blogs/sites.

For a moment I was tempted to keep my mouth shut and simply stuff all future writing with various CNE links. The guy is copying as it is, with all the links included. Funny thing, I accidentally found him in Google, listed just bellow CNE. Apparently, Google is taking some time (if) to ban the double content.

Click on the image for full screenshot

Chess-Tennis Tournament

One of the many activities during the 40th Biel Chess Festival was chess & tennis tournament. We don't know how the points have been calculated, but here are the standings according to official website:

1. Thomas Tscherrig SUI and Claudio Gloor SUI 56
2. Lara & Michael Stock GER and Ulrich Gass GER 56
3. Nam Phong Ho SUI and GM Alexander Raetsky RUS 46
4. David Grüninger SUI and Günter Hüttig SUI 44
5. Marc & Ralf Hermann Jud SUI and Stéphane Bläser SUI 20
6. Hubert Eschle GER and Olaf Stebahne GER 18

Vlissingen Open 2007

11th Hogeschool Zeeland is being held on 4-11 August in Vlissingen. Prize fund is 6.600 Euros and there are 247 players.

Top rated are: GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB 2683), GM Michal Kraseknov (POL 2660), GM Sergey Tiviakov (NED 2648), GM Daniel Stellwagen (NED 2631), IM Diego Flores (ARG 2560), GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov (RUS 2558), GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA 2549), GM Fernando Peralta (ARG 2546), GM Oleg Romanishin (UKR 2546), IM Ralf Appel (GER 2512), WGM Marie Sebag (FRA 2491), Ilja Zaragatski (GER 2480), GM Dibyendu Barua (IND 2462), IM Jop Delemarre (NED 2457), IM Deep Sengupta (IND 2435), IM Sebastian Siebrecht (GER 2431), IM Herman Van Riemsdijk (BRA 2420) etc 247 pl 6.600 eur


Round 4 update:
Young French WGM Marie Sebag, Italian star GM Fabiano Caruana, Politiken Cup winner GM Michal Kraseknov, IM Ralf Appel, IM Jop Delemarre, GM Daniel Stellwagen, GM Fernando Peralta and Ilja Zaragatski are leading with 1005 score after four rounds. Top rated GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov and GM Sergey Tiviakov lost to Marie Sebag and Ilja Zaragatski respectively.


Round 6 update:
Fabiano Caruana beat 2630-rated GM Daniel Stellwagen in round 6 and is now the only player with maximum score, followed by a bulk of others with five points. No time for celebration though, as in round 7 he is playing black pieces against heavy-weight Sergei Tiviakov.


Round 7 update:
Unfortunately, Fabiano Caruana lost to Sergei Tiviakov. The hero of the day was French WGM Marie Sebag, who after beating Rustam Kasimdzhanov in one of the earlier rounds, took the scalp of 2nd rated Michal Krasenkov.


Round 9 update:
Fabiano Caruana still managed to win the trophy, if only on better tiebreak. This 2700 performance will earn him 17 FIDE points. FM Migchiel De Jong, rated 2286, won five consecutive games to tie the first place. He earned IM norm, while IM Ralf Appel scored GM norm.

Standings:
1-4. IM Fabiano Caruana, GM Sergei Tiviakov, IM Ralf Appel and FM Migchiel De Jong 7.5
5-9. GM Michal Krasenkow, GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov, GM Dibyendu Barua, GM Oleg Romanishin and FM Lorin D'Costa 7.0 etc



Official website

Mexico City WCC PR

Two months ago I wrote how awful is 2007 World Championship website. I was also complaining that "emails I have sent to Director de Operaciones and Press department are left without reply". Update.

Empty Promises was posted on May 24, I said they didn't reply to my email sent two days earlier. Well, Jorge Quintanilla, Public Relations and Media Manager, replied on June 21, accepting to answer my questions and recommending to register for their newsletter. I waited for few days, maybe it's normal in Mexico, and sent questions back on June 27. No reply to date, guess I'm not that big fish.

Nothing new about the website, it still sux. But I finally received (July 16) "First Newsletter from Chessmexico" which says: "Our most recent monthly visitors' count of www.chessmexico.com reached one million." Probably another million run away screaming. The newsletter featured "In his first contribution to Chessmexico, Rumanian G.M. Mihail Marin makes an extensive and deep analysis of Levon Aronian, one of the main favorites to take the Championship in September". 17 days later, I'm still waiting for the 2nd player profile. At this pace, they might finish the preview right on time for Christmas.


World Chess Championship Mexico 2007