Friday, December 30, 2011

Reggio Emilia, Round Three Report

The third round of the 54th Reggio Emilia Tournament saw Vassily Ivanchuk downing the local favourite and reigning Italian champion Fabiano Caruana in a deep endgame.

The game started as Sveshnikov Sicilian, which Caruana himself likes to play with black pieces. In the development typical of this opening, with several pieces' exchanges and narrowed front, Ivanchuk maintained the slight pull throughout most of the game which eventually transposed into the N vs B ending with three pawns on each side.

Ivanchuk maneuvered on all sides trying to break white's fortress. Eventually, after five hours of play, he succeeded so but not without the help from Caruana. With this victory Ivanchuk moves ahead to the shared 2nd place.

Vassily Ivanchuk

In the highly anticipated clash between two wizards of chess, Alexander Morozevich and Hikaru Nakamura, Moro couldn't get any advantage with white from the Queen's Gambit Exchange and the draw was agreed relatively early on. Morozevich maintains the lead in the tournament while Nakamura is on shared 2nd place.

Nikita Vitiugov - Anish Giri was a very interesting Gruenfeld Indian defence with pawns flying on all sides of board. Inevitably, too many pieces were traded and the material was quickly reduced. Nevertheless, the players continued to fight for another 20 moves and only after the first time control a draw was agreed.

In the women's tournament Sopiko Guramishvili wins yet another game and leads with the perfect score, while Anna Sharevich was stopped by Marina Brunello.

In the third game Mariagrazia De Rosa takes a draw against Iva Videnova.

LIVE Games with computer analysis

Official website

Round 3 standings (3 points for a win, 1 for a draw):
1. Morozevich Alexander 2762 RUS - 7
2-3. Nakamura Hikaru 2758 USA and Ivanchuk Vassily 2775 UKR - 5
4-5. Giri Anish 2714 NED and Vitiugov Nikita 2729 RUS - 2
6. Caruana Fabiano 2727 ITA - 1

Round 1 report / Round 2 report

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Interview with Hikaru Nakamura

Interview with GM Hikaru Nakamura performed in Reggio Emilia



Courtesy of Dario Pedini and Scacchierando Blog

Live games with computer analysis

Reggio Emilia LIVE

Live games with computer analysis from Torneo di Cappodano Reggio Emilia 2011 - 2012 chess tournament. Games start at 15:00 CET.

Participants and full information here



Live chess broadcast powered by ChessBomb and Chessdom


Donostia Chess Festival LIVE

Live games with computer analysis from the Donostia Chess Festival



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Monday, December 26, 2011

Vandoeuvre Open 2011

The 8th Open international d échecs de Vandoeuvre was held from 19th to 23rd December, 2011, in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France. A total of 295 players competed in three events.

The strongest Open A had 70 participants. Grandmasters Tornike Sanikidze GEO 2531 and Christian Bauer FRA 2641 (Vandoeuvre winner in 2008) shared the first place with 7.0/9 points each.

3-7th are GM Dmitry Svetushkin MDA 2621, GM Matthieu Cornette FRA 2548, GM Alberto David LUX 2597, IM Thorsten Michael Haub GER 2462 (two times Vandoeuvre winner, in 2007 and 2009) and FM Benoit Tadei FRA 2308 with 6.5 points each. Taddei also claimed the IM norm.

Open B boasted 96 participants. Denis Mager GER 1886 and Alexandre Pigeat FRA 1790 shared the first place with 7.5/9 points each.

Open C had 29 players. Louise Adrian FRA 1417 convincingly won with 9.5/10 points.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

XXI Magistral de Elgoibar de Ajedrez

The Azeri Grandmaster Azer Mirzoev won the XXI Magistral Elgoibar tournament that has taken place on 14-20th December in Guipúzcoa, Spain.

The young Aragon Daniel Forcen had an extraordinary tournament, as well as the other youngster David Anton who obtained an International Master norm.

Santi Gonzalez from Bilbao started well, defeating Korneev and Mirzoev, but then fell victim to David Anton and Daniel Forcen and finally finished in the middle of the table.

The tournament was organized by the Basque Federation of Chess, Elgoibar Zubiondo club and sponsored by the City Council of that town.

Final standings:
1. Azer Mirzoev - 6
2. Oleg Korneev - 5,5
3. Daniel Forcen - 5,5
4. Zenon Franco - 5
5. David Anton - 5
6. Santi González - 4,5
7. Dragan Paunovic - 4,5
8. Alejandro Franco - 3,5
9. David Astasio - 3
10. Patrice Etchegaray - 2,5

Rafael Leitao wins Brazil Championship

The 78th Brazil Chess Championship was held from 10th to 20th December, 2011, at the Hotel Dann Inn Cambuí in Campinas. 12 players competed in the round robin tournament.

GM Rafael Leitao, previously four-times champion of Brazil, drew the legendary Henrique Mecking in the final round to finish clear first with a total of nine points and claim his fifth title of the national champion.

More information

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Whining according to Sergey Tiviakov

The naturalized Dutch Grandmaster continues to play in the tournaments all over the globe, usually picking top prizes, visiting museums and sending photo reports to Chessbase.

After returning from Bogota and the 2nd Jahv McGregor de Ajedrez ITT, Tiviakov bashed the organizers in his "museum report".

His main complaint had been that the playing conditions were terrible. This is probably a valid argument as players and organizers are constantly trying to improve the comfort for the participants in the tournaments.

However, does Tiviakov, who already played in Bogota last year and took the 1st prize, hold the right to attack Orlando Ruiz and others? Did he pay for the hotel, food and airfare himself? If yes, an apology note will be attached. Otherwise, the players who bore their own expenses are actually entitled to complain about the hospitality.

His attitude becomes even more annoying in the second part of the article where he "protests the absurdity" of the tie-break criteria. The mathematics is probably solid, but ultimately the organizers who put the money into event should make the order of the criteria at their discretion.

Wow, Lazaro Bruzon, who "played badly in one game"(!), robbed Tiviakov of 1000 USD!

Women World Team Chess Championship Round 2

Round 2 results:
Ukraine - Russia 1:3
Greece - Vietnam 1,5:2,5
Georgia - Armenia 2,5:1,5
China - RSA 4:0
India - Turkey 3,5:0,5

Round 2 standings:
1-3. Georgia (6,5), China (6,5) and Russia (5,5) - 4
4. India (5,5) - 3
5-6. Armenia (5,5) and Vietnam (4) - 2
7. Ukraine (3) - 1
8-10. Turkey (2), Greece (1,5) and RSA (0) - 0

Round 3 pairings:
Russia - Greece, Turkey - Ukraine, RSA - India, Armenia - China, Vietnam - Georgia

Live games with computer analysis

WWTC website

Interview with Pavel Eljanov

Pavel Eljanov is Ukrainian Chess Grandmaster born on May 10th, 1983 in Kharkov (Ukraine). Eljanov holds the title of GM since 2001. He is twice Olympic Champion with the Ukrainian National team. His peak ELO was 2761 on 01.09.2010, placing him on the 6th place in the world.

Best achievements :
- Winner of the Olympiad with the Ukrainian National Team (2004 and 2010);
- Winner of Montreal International Chess Tournament (2006);
- Winner of Corus B (2007);
- Winner of Sarajevo International Chess Tournament (2009);
- Winner of FIDE Gran Prix in Astrakhan (2010);
- Winner of Politiken Cup (2010);

Interview with Pavel Eljanov conducted by GM Alexander Ipatov

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Monday, December 12, 2011

Vladimir Kramnik first in the 2011 London Classic

Vladimir Kramnik drew comfortably in his final round game against Levon Aronian to take clear first place in the 3rd London Chess Classic. Kramnik beat the four English players and drew with the rest.

Magnus Carlsen could have caught his points total but he was held to a draw by Nigel Short.

Luke McShane was drained from the effort of the day before and took a quick draw against Viswanathan Anand who said he would almost immediately be starting to prepare for his match in May against Gelfand. Full report on TWIC.

Final standings (win/draw/loss/points/elo):
1. Kramnik Vladimir 4 / 4 / 0 / 16.0 / 2800
2. Nakamura Hikaru 4 / 3 / 1 / 15.0 / 2758
3. Carlsen Magnus 3 / 5 / 0 / 14.0 / 2826
4. McShane Luke 3 / 4 / 1 / 13.0 / 2671
5. Anand Viswanathan 1 / 6 / 1 / 9.0 black win / 2811
6. Aronian Levon 1 / 6 / 1 / 9.0 white win / 2802
7. Short Nigel 1 / 3 / 4 / 6.0 / 2698
8. Howell David 0 / 4 / 4 / 4.0 / 2633
9. Adams Michael 0 / 3 / 5 / 3.0 / 2734

Friday, December 09, 2011

London Chess Classic Round 5 Video

Norwegian Chess Final

IM Frode Elsness and GM Berge Østenstad will play the Norwegian Chess Final this year. The games will be live with the following schedule:

Game 1 (IM Frode Elsness - GM Berge Østenstad): Saturday, December 10,
13:00 CET (14:00 EET)

Game 2 (GM Berge Østenstad - IM Frode Elsness): Sunday, December 11,
9:00 CET (10:00 EET)

In case of the 1-1 after classical games there will be 2 rapid games. If the result is still 1-1 there will be again 2 more rapid games, followed if necessary by 2 blitz games and Armageddon. The rapid games will start 30 minutes after the classical game on Sunday has finished. Time controls for games: Classical games: 2 h / 40 moves, 1 h / 20 moves, 30 min / rest of game. Rapid games: 25 min + 10 sec. Blitz games: 5 min + 3 sec Armageddon: White 6 min, Black 5 min

This information is available in Norwegian at http://www.sjakkhuset.no/2011/09/nm-sjakk/



Live chess broadcast powered by ChessBomb and Chessdom


Brazil Chess Championship 2011

The 78th Brazil Chess Championship is taking place from 10th to 20th December in Campinas. 12 players compete in the round robin tournament. GM Giovanni Vescovi is defending the last year's title.

Participants:
GM Giovanni Vescovi 2637
GM Rafael Leitão 2626
GM Henrique Mecking 2590
GM Alexandr Fier 2573
IM Diego Di Berardino 2491
GM Everaldo Matsuura 2487
GM Krikor Meckhitarian 2487
GM Felipe El Debs 2477
FM Paulo Jatobá Reis 2438
IM Evandro Barbosa 2412
FM Yago Moura Santiago 2335
FM Haroldo Cunha dos Santos 2250

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Schachbundesliga - Rounds 6 and 7

At 10th and 11th of December the 6th and 7th round of the Schachbundesliga will take place. Take a look at the pairings at the venues Bremen, Baden-Baden, Hamburg and Katernberg.

The top match of the weekend will take place in Bremen where the host will meet the team of Eppingen. Both clubs are at the top of the table together with Baden-Baden and belong to the highest rated teams of the Schachbundesliga.

Baden-Baden is facing at home the teams of Wattenscheid and Dortmund. Though the German champion showed some unexpected difficulties so far in this season they are still the top favourite for the title and odds-on favourite against the clubs from West Germany.

In Hamburg probably the most interesting match will take place between the host and the team of Remagen. Both teams are struggling so far and fight against relegation.

In Katernberg the host and Mülheim Nord expect their rivals Dresden and Berlin-Tegel. These are matchups between two established teams against two promoted teams from the second league.

Live coverage:
All games of the Schachbundesliga are covered live via our Liveportal. Its possible to follow any game just by one click and all games are analyzed by one of the strongest engines in the world - Houdini 2.0. There are further features like players portraits, chat function, statistics etc.

Singapore International Chess Festival

The Singapore International Chess Festival will be held from 24th December to 31st December 2011.

The Festival includes the Asean Championships for Men and Women, the Singapore Open and the Singapore International Youth Open (separate categories for open and girls U8, U11, U14 & U17). Concurrent will be seminars for Trainers and Arbiters.

Until now, a total of 350 entries have been received from 17 federations.

Details are available at www.singaporechess.org.sg

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Vladimir Kramnik - Hikaru Nakamura LIVE with GM Naiditsch

London Chess Classic live games commentary provided by Arkadij Naiditsch and the Chess Evolution team.



Live chess broadcast powered by ChessBomb and Chessdom


Magnus Carlsen - David Howell LIVE with GM Naiditsch

London Chess Classic live games commentary provided by Arkadij Naiditsch and the Chess Evolution team.



Live chess broadcast powered by ChessBomb and Chessdom


Fiji International Open

Dates: May 5th to 11th, 2012
Venue: Peninsula International Hotel, Suva, Fiji
Format & Time Control: 9-Round Swiss with time control of 90 minute plus 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

Entry Fees:
The entry fee will be F$250 (approx A$135/NZ$175). Free entry for GM, IM, WGM, WIM.
There will be a discount of 20% on entry fee for those who register on or before 31 March 2012.

Prizes:
Guaranteed minimum total of F$10,000 as follows:
1st- $3,000, 2nd- $2,000, 3rd- $1,500, 4th- $1,000, 5th- $700, 6th- $500, 7th – $300. Best women- $500. Best local player: 1st- $300, 2nd- $200.
Trophies will also be awarded to the top winners (men & women). Prize money shall be shared equally among tied players.

Tournament website

London Classic 2011 LIVE!

The London Chess Classic 2011, the strongest tournament in the history of British chess, runs from 3-12 December 2011. The 2800 club makes yet another meeting right after the Tal Memorial and Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, and Kramnik will face each other in a round robin tournament together with Nakamura, Adams, Short, McShane, and Howell.

GM Arkadij Naiditsch and the Chess Evolution team will join the Chessdom.com commentary for all rounds, while the Chessdom / Chessbomb live games platform will have Houdini analysis of the tournament.

LIVE commentary here

Friday, December 02, 2011

Vizag GM International Open Chess Championship

Vizag GM International Open Chess Championship was held from from 23rd November to 1st December, 2011 at Swarnabharathi Indoor Stadium in Resapuvanipalem, Visakhapatnam, AP, India.

The 11-round Swiss tournament with 200 participants was organized by the All Vizag District Chess Association together with Andhra Pradesh Chess Association and under the aegis of All India Chess Federation.

The reigning India champion Abhijeet Gupta entered the final round with a full point advantage ahead of the competition but then he was defeated by the 2nd-seeded Tigran L Petrosian from Armenia.

Eventually five players shared the first place with 8.5 points each. Abhijeet Gupta still claimed the winner’s trophy on superior tie-break. Full standings.

12th Bangkok Chess Club Open 2012

The Bangkok Chess Club and Thailand Chess Association have the honor of inviting all Chess Players to participate in the 12th Bangkok Chess Club Open 2012 from 13th to 19th of April 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Tournament will be held in a 5-star Dusit Thani Bangkok Hotel. We are looking forward to attracting more than 250 players from 50 countries. Tournament is expected to be the biggest and strongest ever held in Thailand.

The winner of the 2011 Open was GM Jan Gustafsson.

Tournament website