The first hip-hop chess portal

From Techdigest:

...And yes, it's called WuChess.com - and it's your place to meet like-minded chess players who are also into the lyrical poetry that is RZA's solo work and his occasional Wu Tang output. Here's how they describe it:

"WuChess is a new online chess + hip-hop community that will offer live game play, chat rooms, tournaments, lessons and exhibitions featuring RZA and special guests."

Conservative estimates conducted by me, just now, put the demographic crossover of Wu Tang-loving chess players at approximately six people on the face of the planet. But you never know...

Mtel Masters to be played under the glass pavilion

The unique air-conditioned pavilion is equipped with systems for lowering the outside noise (70db). They are developed by one of the leading experts in acoustics in Europe Elia Spasov and the engineers from Saint Goban Glass – France and the designers from 3D Glass. The walls of the pavilion are made of armored laminated glass. With different sizes of "sandwiches" almost full isolation of the players from the external factors is achieved.


The construction with measurement 8 x 8 x 3.5 meters is developed by a team with designer Altan Ibrahimov, architect Donka Zaneva and the constructor engineer Ivan Nenkov, according to Stillstroi project, the firm which will build the pavilion. It is all self-beard and lies on the floor on acoustic panels. The floor is made of tempered laminated glass formed as a chess board and four stylize colons formed as chess figures.

From the Mtel Masters website

3rd International Chess Festival "President's Cup"

Azerbaijan Youth & Sport Ministry, National Olympic Committee, Azerbaijan Chess Federation and Republican Chess Center are organizing a Chess Festival dedicated to the memory of former president Heydar Aliev.

Four tournaments will take place:
Children tournament 09-19 May, Open tournament 12-20 May, Seniors tournament 10-19 May and Blitz tournament on 21 May. The total prize fund is $85.000 US, first prize in the Open is $7.000 US.


More information on the tournament website

Jorge Sammour-Hasbun in ICC Chess Talk

Following his second consecutive win in the Dos Hermanas Online Blitz, Jorge Sammour-Hasbun was invited guest in "Chess Talk with IM John Watson", the weekly audio show on the ICC. We're hoping he will answer some of the questions raised by IM Mark Ginsburg.


The show is free to non-ICC members

GM Dusan Popovic in a game of his life

25-year old Dušan Popović, chess Olympic player and state team member, today plays the most important game in his life, GAME FOR HIS LIFE, and only with your help the result will be in his advantage!

Departure of this chess player, who is in top 10 chess players in Serbia, to the European Championship has been unexpectedly canceled due to the cruel game of destiny when both his kidneys stopped working in the middle of March. His health situation is also difficult because of his blood group 0 -, which is the reason why none of the family members could not be the organ donor.

Yet, there is a solution. That's transplantation from unknown donor, which should be performed in Russia. For this operation, financial assets in amount of 70.000 € should be provided.

We ask you to be part of team which will enable Dušan successful continuation of life by making a payment to one of the following accounts:

• Foreign currency account of Komercijalna Banka with codes:

SWIFT code: KOBBRSBGNS,

IBAN code: RS35205200122725837328

• Serbian dinar (RSD) account of Komercijalna Banka

908-20501-70

No : 205-1001525128000-14

Dušan Popović was born in Sombor on 28th February 1983. He is a forth year student of Economics Faculty in Novi Sad. Dušan is multiple cadet chess winner of Yugoslavia. He is one of the youngest Olympic players who made forth best result on his table in Olympic Games in Torino 2006. The same year World Chess Federation officially recognised Dušan as grand master (which is the highest title in chess). At the beginning of 2008, Dušan won the first prize in highly competitive international tournament in Bizovac, Croatia.

We expect that the best Dušan's results are yet to come in the future, and the first one is successful end of health crisis.


From Serbia Chess Federation

Concerns Regarding Dos Hermanas Online Blitz

ICC is hosting every year a relatively big money (2,000 Euros [$3,400] first) online blitz (3 0 time control) event named Dos Hermanas. For the second year running, an untitled player won in what must be considered a gigantic upset against numerous GMs.

But as I understand it, the matches are not proctored. Last year (2007) proctors were present for the finals in selected cases (as a hubbub over the impending upset grew - GM Ian Nepomniatchi was screaming foul), but not in 2008. Wouldn’t it be better to either proctor the match or use webcams? This to me in any event marketed so heavily should be absolutely required. Otherwise there will always be a cloud over the ‘winners’. There are so many easy ways to cheat in this event.

IM Mark Ginsburg's blog gives a strong opinion on the subject

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FIDE Website Redesign

Global Chess and Turkish Chess Federation have worked on redesigning Fide.com website. After many months, we finally see a washed face with pretty CMS, but the same old crappy content. Kirsan this, President that....

Chess Auction

British house "Bonhams" has scheduled first specialized chess auction to take place on 13th May. Items are coming from all over the world, but organizers are particularly proud of an ivory board from the era of the Italian Renaissance. Due to the fact that such relics are rarely exhibited at the auctions, the Italian chessboard has become one of the most expensive lots - it is expected to be sold for 10-12 thousand pounds sterling.

Other rarities will be 16th century complete set of wooden chess pieces, 1830 Chinese chess board with pearls and decorated dragon head, a Congo set of chess pieces made of black wood and ivory in the form of chiefs, elders and witches, and the Islamic chess set where traditional pieces were replaced with abstract objects.

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Chess Writers in a Tournament

Jack Speigel Memorial took place during the 2008 Easter Congress in Southend, England. Eight players (7 GM, 1 IM) competed in a round robin tournament, and at least five of them can be recognized as established and popular writers of chess books.

The England's youngest Grandmaster David Howell won the tournament with fantastic 6,0 points out of seven rounds. Most of the games were decided in small number of moves, clearly a sharp event.


The standings:
1. GM David Howell 2528 - 6,0; 2. GM Peter Wells 2520 - 4,5; 3. IM Lawrence Trent 2463 - 4,0; 4-6. GM Mark Hebden 2530, GM James Plaskett 2490 and GM Neil McDonald 2386 - 3,5; 7. GM John Emms 2502 - 2.5; 8. GM Chris Ward 2440 - 0,5


Neil McDonald - Peter Wells
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Bg5 Ne4 4. Bf4 c5 5. c3 cxd4 6. cxd4 Nc6 7. e3 e5 8. Bxe5 Bb4+ 9. Nfd2 Nxe5 10. dxe5 O-O 11. a3 Ba5 12. Be2 d4 13. b4 Nxf2 14. Kxf2 dxe3+ 15. Kf1 Qh4 16. Qe1 Qxe1+ 17. Kxe1 exd2+ 18. Nxd2 Bc7 19. Nc4 Re8 20. Rd1 b5 21. Nd6 Rxe5 22. Nxb5 Ba6 23. Nc3 Rae8 24. Rd2 Re3 25. Kd1 Rxc3 26. Bxa6 Rxa3 27. Bf1 Ra1+ 28. Kc2 Ree1 0-1

Lawrence Trent - David Howell
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. d4 d6 7. Qb3 Qd7 8. Nbd2 Bb6 9. a4 Nf6 10. a5 Nxa5 11. Rxa5 Bxa5 12. dxe5 Ng4 13. h3 Nxe5 14. Nxe5 dxe5 15. Ba3 c6 16. O-O b5 17. Rd1 Qb7 18. Qc2 Bd8 19. Qa2 bxc4 20. Nxc4 Be7 21. Bxe7 Qxe7 22. Nd6+ Kf8 23. c4 a5 24. c5 a4 25. f4 exf4 26. Qa3 Be6 27. Rf1 Qg5
0-1

Neil McDonald - James Plaskett
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 b5 9. Bf4 e5 10. Nxc6 exf4 11. e5 dxc6 12. exf6 gxf6 13. Ne4 Be7 14. Qc3 Be6 15. Nxf6+ Bxf6 16. Qxf6 Rg8 17. Be2 Kf8 18. Bf3 Re8 19. Rhe1 c5 20. Bd5 Bxd5 21. Qh6+ Rg7 22. Rxe8+ Kxe8 23. Qxg7 1-0

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