Romanian Chess-Boxing

Romanian chess international grandmaster Elisabeta Polihroniade hit two people at a meeting of the Romanian Chess Federation, which is electing a new president.

Dan Pasarelu, head of the CS Siciliana international chess festival, said Polihroniade approached him saying she wants to have a talk and slapped him across the face and then turned on journalist Viorel Sima, whom she hit with a mobile phone.

Full story

And much more in Romanian press - GSP.ro, jurnalul.ro, adevarul.ro etc

Women's Grand Prix in Nalchik

The fixed dates for the Women's Grand Prix in Nalchik are 25 April (arrival) to 8 May (departure) 2010.

Players:
Koneru Humpy GM IND
Yifan Hou GM CHN
Cramling Pia GM SVE
Dzagnidze Nana GM GEO
Xue Zhao GM CHN
Kosintseva Tatiana IM RUS
Chen Zhu GM QTR
Danielian Elina IM ARM
Batkhuyag Munguntuul WGM MGL
Yildiz Betul WIM TRK
Mrktchian Lilit IM ARM
Kovanova Baira WGM RUS

The 4th Grand Prix will take place in Jermuk, Armenia, on 23rd June – 6th July 2010
The 5th Grand Prix will take place in Ulanbaatar, Mongolia, on 29 July - 12 August 2010
The 6th Grand Prix will take place in Santiago, Chile, on 27th October – 9th November 2010

18th Fajr Open

Following the Caspian Cup which finished yesterday in Rash, another strong open is starting in Mashhad, Iran. The 18th Fajr International Chess Open Tournament with 215 participants is taking place on February 19-28, 2010. Top-seed is former European champion Sergei Tiviakov.

Chess-results.com

Which Logo for Istanbul?

The organizers of the 2012 Chess Olympiad, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, have suggested seven logo solutions for the public vote. They do not promise that logo with most hands will be actually used, but rather offer the chess clocks for people who bother to click - "Which logo do you want in Istanbul Olympiad? Vote now and win a prize!"

Voting page

Linares 2010

Linares 2010 Chess Tournament is part of the Grand Slam circuit and one of the top chess events in the world. This year’s edition will take place 12-25th February 2010 in Linares, Spain.

Participants:
Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria 2805), former World Champion
Levon Aronian (Armenia 2781), FIDE Grand Prix winner
Boris Gelfand (Israel 2761), 2009 FIDE World Cup winner
Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan 2759)
Alexander Grischuk (Russia 2736), 2009 Linares winner and 2009 Russian Champion
Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain 2705)

Preparing with chess computers

Debra Littlejohn Shinder, a technology consultant and writer, has posted an insider story on how her son Kris Littlejohn works many tournaments as "second" to U.S. Chess Champion Hikaru Nakamura.

Read it on the TechRepublic Blog

Magnus Carlsen on Time.com

Magnus Carlsen won the 2010 Corus Chess tournament this Sunday. He is also the current number one on the FIDE list and is even adding more points according to the Live Rating List. About a month ago he was featured in a Time.com article:

Q: Do you see chess as a game of combat or a game of art?
Combat.
A: I am trying to beat the guy sitting across from me and trying to choose the moves that are most unpleasant for him and his style. Of course some really beautiful games feel like they are art, but that's not my goal.

Q: Do you have any explanation for why more women have not entered the super=elite fields?
A: Judit Polgar was once in the top 10, but I don't know why there aren't more. As opposed to some other people, I don't really think there are any genetic reasons.
Actually, lots of women play very aggressive chess. So I don't buy that.

Q: Chess has had prodigies, most notably Paul Morphy and Bobby Fischer, who have been lost to madness. Do you fear that trying to master a game of near-infinite variation can make you insane?
A: It's too hard to predict the future, but right now I don’t see myself going mad. It's easy to get obsessed with chess. That's what happened with Fischer and Morphy. I don't have the same obsession. I love the game, and I love to compete, but I am not obsessed with the struggle.

Chess Players are Migrating to the Online Poker World

While it may seem strange for elite players of the highly cerebral game of chess to take up a seemingly low brow game like poker, the two games aren’t as dissimilar as one might think. While, at first glance poker is a seemingly simple game to learn and understand, the truth is that to become a successful player one must first learn more advanced theories and strategies to excel. Despite the simple nature of the basic game play many mathematical concepts can be applied to the game. Those who doubt that math has a place in successful poker need look no further than the highly mathematical playing styles of WSOP winners Dan Harrington (also a former chess player) and Chris Ferguson.

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