TWIC -
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. He called his recent results a "disaster" for which he had no
explanation. Hikaru Nakamura took a lot of risks using the King's Gambit
against Michael Adams but after the latter missed a win in time trouble
Nakamura brought home the full point to finish second.
The memories of a year
earlier when the 4NCL adventure began for the
Spirit of Atticus came flooding back when we
were greeted this year, as then, by a beautiful
sunny November morning.
The butterflies in the stomach that were in place in
anticipation of the unknown last year were active this time with the
prospect of upgrading ourselves from medium sized fish in a small pond to
life in the big pool.
And what opponents were likely to be more fearsome than
our first round opponents, the Sharks? [Read
John's report in full]
25th November 2011
Women's World Championship
FIDE World Women’s
Championship starts
17.11.11 - Two of the top 2012 Masters
competitors locked horns in battle for the Women's World
Championshipin Tirana, Albania.
Hou Yifan retained her titlecomfortably 5½-2½ after only 8 of
the 10 games.
Several top players competing in
the 2012 Gibraltar Masters also too part in the recent ETCC
event in Greece. Notable results include;
Kosintseva sisters Nadezhda and Tatiana
ready to start play (Russian Women’s
Team)
Men: Mickey Adams - Gold: board 1 (Mickey had
the best TPR of anyone on board 1); Zoltan Almasi - Silver: board 2;
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - Gold: board 3.
Women: Anna Muzychuk - Gold: Board 1 (with an
amazing 8½/9 and a TPR of 2782!); Nana Dzagnidze - Bronze: Board 1;
Tatiana Kosintseva - Gold: Board 2; Maria Muzychuk - Silver: Board 5.
It's especially nice that both Muzychuk sisters won
medals. Of course Anna's result is out of this world!
The
ETCC was a nine-round
Swiss, with one open section and one section for the women’s teams.
17th August 2011
Gibraltar Chess Congress 2012
Another update for the Masters
and Challengers 1 & 2 has been posted. New entries are being
received all the time so regular updates will be made. In the
Masters we
now have 39 GM's, 13 IM's, 7 FM's amongst others in a
total of 108. Currently nine of the top ten players are rated
over 2700. Full details
here.
Mickey Adams has won the
British Championship sponsored by Darwin
Strategic Limited after a dramatic tie-break
playoff with Nigel Short. Both Adams and Short
finished the 11-round event with 8½/11 which
then required a
2-game play-off to decide the title.
The 89th Championships took place at Ponds Forge,
International Sports Centre in Sheffield, 24 July - 6 August.
After a draw in the first rapid game, Adams won the
second to successfully defend his title and claim the championship. Mickey
Adams and Nigel Short are joint winners ofthe English Chess Championship
2011. They will jointly hold the Tony Miles Trophy.
Jovanka Houska also defended her women's title after
finishing the best placed woman on 7/11, making it her fourth British title.
TWIC -
The 2011 London Chess Classic is the strongest
yet with World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand
and World Number One Magnus Carlsen returning.
World Number three Levon Aronian is a new
invitee as the field is extended by one. The
full field will be announced shortly. Read the
new press release of 4th July 2011 with the
dates of the rounds and side events.
There will be two extra rounds, as the addition of one
more top flight player to this year’s main event will make it a nine player
all play all. One player will sit out each day and keep the spectators at
Olympia and online, doubly entertained by joining the commentary team. The
English players will again be led by the UK number one Michael Adams and
former world title challenger Nigel Short and David Howell.
Chessbase -
The 5th edition of the Kings‘ Tournament is
over. The leaders’ game Carlsen-Karjakin
finished in a draw after 30 moves, when neither
player was willing to take too much risk. Thus
both players shared 1-2 places. According to the
tie-break rules the first place is taken by
Magnus Carlsen.
On
his blog Carlsen
wrote: "I’d like to forget my game against co-leader Karjakin as
quickly as possible. On another off-day (the first was round six against
Nakamura), I really missed a lot and quickly squanderedmy slight
opening advantage. Knowing that a draw would provide the 1st prize on better
tie-break and 1st place on the July 1, 2011 FIDE rating list, the result
itself was fully acceptable today." [Full
report with pictures].
TWIC -
Magnus Carlsen defeated Vassily Ivanchuk in an
ending that should have probably been held
comfortably by the Ukrainian. Ivanchuk has been
playing quite quickly during the tournament a
sign he is out form.
Carlsen is great at getting the very most out of such
positions and eventually he was rewarded with a win and a nice finish.
Hikaru Nakamura called his opening choice dubious against Liviu-Dieter
Nisipeanu and was not sure why he played this way. Nisipeanu's confidence
seems to be quite low and he was disappointed not to make more of his
advantage, he took a lot of time over obvious decisions but couldn't stop
himself doing this. [More
... and games]
TWIC - There are strong indications that
Garry Kasparov is about to play another
exhibition rapid match, this time against his
former challenger Nigel Short.
Kasparov destroyed Anatoly Karpov in 2009 which brought
to an end to the idea of that being a series. Kasparov still has a strong
interest in chess and keeps abreast of developments in the game. He has made
it clear that he will not return to professional chess, without ruling out
such exhibitions. Nigel Short is still a very active player currently number
54 in the world, he ought to provide stronger opposition than Karpov did.
[Read
more]
Boris Gelfand won the final game with white against
Alexander Grischuk to qualify for a World Chess Championship Match against
Viswanathan Anand. Grischuk played the Gruenfeld Defence and was on the back
foot almost straight away with the Gelfand novelty 13.b3.
[Pictorial
report on TWIC] [PGN
of match games]
TWIC - Grischuk's novelty of 8.Be2
in the Queen's Gambit gave him an edge against
Gelfand in game five.
Gelfand played f6 with the idea of e5 but then decided it
was too dangerous. Grischuk didn't find a decent attacking setup and after
22.Bg4?! allowing 22...e5 Gelfand equalised and a draw was agreed a few
moves later.
Chess can never be dull or
can it? In Kazan nervous energy has created a
drama-less predictable match between Grischuk
and Gelfand, with their 3rd game (of 6) lasting
only 14 moves.
Game 4 today also ended drawn after 18 moves
after they repeated the English Opening played
in game two.
World
Champion Anand awaits the outcome but probably with little interest. The
likelihood of either player getting a chance to challenge for the World
title seems slight and the King's ransom required to fund such an event
unlikely to be forthcoming.
Earlier this year discussions about a World Championship match in London
2012 broke down when FIDE and Chess Promotions Ltd., could not arrive at an
agreement. New possibilities emerge though and it's no secret that Anand and
Carlsen, the two highest rated players currently, like London, get on with
each other and crucially, play dramatic high quality chess.
Game 5: Grischuk-Gelfand is Tues 24th 12noon UK time.
Official site.
4th
May 2011
The 4NCL Final Weekendby John Carleton
Barcelo
Hinckley Island
It was in high spirits but
with some apprehension that we set out for the
final weekend of the 4NCL not only to play in
the combined 3rd Division but to enjoy the
company of the great and the good of British
[indeed European] chess settling down to do
battle in the 1st and 2nd divisions.
For the first time in the tournament we had been
struggling to field a full team for the weekend but an approach to a former
Atticus regular, albeit her last game played was thirty two and a half years
ago, [still short of Andy Mort's all time record] found Sheila Jackson
responding enthusiastically to the call.
In the first match we were scheduled against the 2nd
placed team from the [Southern] 3rd division, Wessex 2 and we were ready for
a tough match against buoyant and resilient opponents.
[Read
full report]
28th
April 2011
4NCL Final Weekend: Round 9
Spirit of Atticus have been drawn against
Wessex 2 in round 9 on Saturday 30th April. Play starts at 14:00 at
Hinckley Island. Results will be posted online as soon as possible after
the end of the games with a PGN to follow.
At the final weekend Division 3 and the Northern League
combine into a single division, with match and game points carried over from
the first four weekends.
Pairings for Rd10
will be published at the venue following
completion of round nine. Pairings for round 11 will be published after
completion of round 10.
Chessvibes:
Only Bobby Fischer, Sammy Reshevsky, Lev Alburt and
Walter Browne did it before him: retaining the U.S.
Championship title. Yesterday Gata Kamsky beat Yuri
Shulman 1½-½ in the final to remain U.S. Champion for at
least another year, a prize he won in 1991 for the first
time. The women’s title will be decided today in a
tie-break. [Read
more]
The 2011 U.S. Championship and 2011 U.S. Women’s
Championship take place April 14-28 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center
of Saint Louis. The games were broadcast in a daily live show with GM
Maurice Ashley and WGM Jennifer Shahade, produced by Macauley Peterson. The
full 4+ hour live show was also available for replay in four parts each day
at www.USChessChamps.com/video.
8th
April 2011
Another 'easy' ending.
White to play and win
A study by Hoch, 1981
This looks like a straightforward position. Although a
pawn down, White's got Black in a real jam. But those two connected passed
pawns have the potential to be quite troublesome.
Chessbase:
After six rounds English GM Nigel Short was in
the sole lead in the Thailand Open 2011, half a
point ahead of five players. One of them, German
GM Jan Gustafsson, played Short in round seven
and downed him with the black pieces. That put
Gustafsson in shared first place with top seed
Paco Vallejo. The two will meet in a
much-awaited penultimate round encounter on
Saturday
German GM Jan Gustafsson (above right) threw the 2011
Thai Chess Open in Pattaya wide open by defeating tournament leader Nigel
Short in the seventh round. Gustafsson, seeded third, now shares the lead
with top seed Paco Vallejo and the two will meet in a much-awaited
penultimate round encounter on Saturday.
Chessvibes reports:
In May 2010 the Bulgarian Chess Federation,
after organising the Anand-Topalov World
Championship match, took Chessbase to court for
“violating copyright rules”. Chessbase
had transmitted the moves of the match live on
their Playchess server, without permission of
the Bulgarians.
Recently in a court in Berlin all demands of the
Bulgarian Chess Federation were rejected.
Last year, in May 2010, the Bulgarian Chess Federation
organised the Anand-Topalov World Championship match in Sofia, Bulgaria.
They managed to collect a prize fund of 3 million Euros: 2 million for the
players, 400,000 for FIDE taxes and 600,000 for organisational costs.
[Read
the story in full]
11th
April 2011
A clever knight manoevure
White to play and win
A study by Sablinksky, 1981
This position could easily occur in a normal game and
Black, with an active King and passed pawn, is hoping White slips up. With a
clever knight manoeuvre White however shows how to snuff out the few
remaining threats and deliver checkmate.
Spirit of Atticus have been drawn against Wessex 2 in the
next round of the 4NCL Division 3. Play starts at 14:00 on Saturday 30th
April at Barcelo Hinckley Island.
Note: At the final weekend Division 3 and the
Northern League combine into a single division, with match and game points
carried over from the first four weekends. Pairings for Rd10
will be published at the venue following
completion of round nine. Pairings for round 11 will be published after
completion of round 10.
Sometimes we assume that pawn endgames are just a matter
of counting, and that can be true. But such endings also require precision
or even perfection. A careless error can turn victory into defeat and in
this example White has some tricky choices to make.
This year the Royal
Automobile Club is celebrating the centenary of
its Pall Mall Clubhouse. In order to mark the
occasion and the founding in 2011 of its Chess
Circle, a 100 board simultaneous is being held
on Saturday 16 April at the Clubhouse in Pall
Mall.
In a truly unique format, ten of Britain’s highest-rated
grandmasters are taking part: Mickey Adams, Luke McShane, David Howell,
Julian Hodgson, Gawain Jones, Nick Pert, Stephen Gordon, Jon Speelman, Simon
Williams and Jovanka Houska.
This formidable team of Grandmasters will take on ten
teams of ten players drawn from the members of the Royal Automobile Club
Chess Circle, the leading players from the other London Club teams that
compete for the Hamilton Russell Trophy, ex Varsity players and two teams of
Juniors – one from the English Chess Federation and one drawn from Chess in
Schools and Communities, a charity with a mission to promote chess in state
schools and communities. [Read
the full press release]
John Saunders, Editor, CHESS Magazine. Email:
3rd
April 2011
Mikhail Tal would be proud
White to play and win
A study by Zalevsky 1981
At first glance it looks as if White is dead lost but
there is a remarkable winning line that turns the tables.
Dramatic news that the Auditorium at
Olympia had been closed for a year due to structural
damage was an April Fool's
prank. At least one British senior arbiter was taken
in.
The London Chess Classic takes place a little earlier
this year on 3-12 December and will involve 9 players, one more than usual.
The official site has more
information.
1st
April 2011
No-one does it like Chessbase
Chessbase 2006:In the past years our web site has
published a series of elaborate April Fool's
stories. Not this year, and not any more. An
international watchdog group which calls itself
the League for Truth and Veracity, is
threatening news services as well as private
pranksters all over the world with lawsuits for
publishing false information. This unfortunate
activity spells the end of an old tradition.
The April Fool tradition has it roots in ancient Rome,
where playing practical jokes on friends was part of the celebrations of
Hilaria (March 25). It evolved into the current-day April 1st practice in
18th century Europe. In England you were supposed to play your pranks during
the first half of the day. The Scots reserved 48 hours for it. In France the
tradition is known as "April Fish", in Spanish the "dia de los Santos
Inocentes". The tradition came to America with early Scottish, English, and
French settlers, where it was mainly about sending people on fool's errands
... more
The 3rd London Classic has
been rocked by news that the Auditorium at
Olympia will not be available for use during the
event. Routine maintenance work revealed a
'very deep and dangerous crack' at right
angles across an external wall. Part of the
conference centre has been closed to the public
and structural engineers have estimated work
could take 'up to 12 months to repair ... if
we're lucky'.
Implications for the chess are dramatic. The Classic
could either be withdrawn as a separate event or take place within the same
hall as the FIDE Open.
A more dramatic idea currently being explored is that the
Classic and FIDE Open are combined into one event. The Classic organising
committee have been quoted as saying 'nothing is ruled in or out at this
time but if we have to go the moon and back we'll find a solution'.
30th
March 2011
The French cheating problem
It has been reported widely
that the recent cheating case investigated by
the French Chess Federation is affecting the
players and the atmosphere at the European
Championship in Aix les Bains.
It has led to the players signing an open letter
demanding that additional measures be taken to prevent any form of unfair
assistance during the games. One item on the letter is that 'electronic
boards can be unplugged if one of the players demands it'. If such a
request is allowed it could have quite dramatic effects on the LIVE
broadcasts at 100's of major chess events.
FIDE, arbiters or even sponsors, nervous of the damage
cheating allegations might have on their events, could join forces with the
players and change the way chess is broadcast for good. See the
latest
coverage on Chessbase.
28th
March 2011
The Northern 4NCL 4th Weekendby John Carleton
There was a feeling of
familiarity on our return to Wychwood Park on
the outskirts of Crewe, not only for the
prospect of the welcoming venue, but the
awareness amongst the the Spirit of Atticus team
of a tough match in prospect on the Saturday.
Our opponents were to be locally based Holmes Chapel
placed third in the league and as such hot on our heels. There were other
interesting tussles in prospect, not least the bottom of the table collision
between Aigburth and Manchester Manticores ... [more]
TWIC - The 3rd London Chess
Classic has been announced on 26th March 2011.
The event will take place 3rd-12th December 2011
and will again be at the Olympia Conference
Centre.
This time there will be an additional player making it a
9 round 9 player event. 1 player per round will have a day off and help the
commentary team. In the tradition of promoting chess in the UK there will be
junior training, lectures, GM and amateur opens.
Read more.
24th
March 2011
2011 European Championship
The 2011 European Individual Championship
(Mixed) is currently underway, and will run from
March 21st to April 3rd in Aix-Les-Bains,
France.
The first round is on March 22nd, and the last
on April 2nd, with no tie-break matches to
decide the final places. Besides determining the
title of European Champion, the top 23 finishers
also qualify for the 2011 World Cup.
Rounds 7 and 8 in Divisions 1 and 2 take place at Staverton
Park, Division 3s at Barcelo Daventry and Div 3n (NL) meet at
De Vere Wychwood Park
(pictured left).
Spirit of Atticus
will play
Holmes Chapel in round 7. Pairings for round 8 (jamboree) are shown
here. A
decision about our teams' precise board order is being finalised by skipper
John Carleton.
French cheating: Disciplinary Committee says guilty
Chessvibes:
On Saturday the Disciplinary Committee of the
French Chess Federation suspended GMs Sebastien
Feller and Arnaud Hauchard and IM Cyril Marzolo,
saying they are “guilty of a violation of
sporting ethics”. The Committee concluded that
there was enough proof that the three players
cheated during the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk,
in September last year.
On January 24th Chessvibes reported for the first time on
the French cheating case. In a communiqué on its website the French Chess
Federation (EFF) accused GMs Sebastien Feller and Arnaud Hauchard and IM
Cyril Marzolo of cheating.
Read more ...
20th
March 2011
Aronian has half point Amber lead
Mark Crowther - TWIC (Mar
19):
Levon Aronian leads the Amber Chess Tournament
by half a point after 7 rounds. That he has a
lead at all came courtesy of a typical blindfold
blunder by Boris Gelfand who forgot where his
opponent's knight was.
Magnus Carlsen beat Vladimir Kramnik 2-0 in their
mini-match, Kramnik is completely out of form here and the games really
weren't that good, Carlsen explains his blindfold win in a video. Vassily
Ivanchuk seems to be playing the best chess now and won a fascinating tussle
with Alexander Grischuk 1½-½ and the best game prize again for his rapid
win.
Read more ...
17th
March 2011
Chess Blog deleted
Steve Giddins has deleted his
blog. This a big blow and a decision which
will not have been taken lightly. He is one of
the UK's top chess journalists, highly regarded
and author of many top chess books.
One imagines he was tired of becoming a target. At a
personal level this is bad enough but when it had the potential to spill
over into his professional life, Steve, like others with intelligent things
to say, decided enough was enough.
The tipping point seems to have been the prejudicial
comments about his recent article 'Tournament Raider' which detailed the
deceit and trickery employed by WGM Lara Stock (rated 2346) and her father
Michael Stock (rated 2275) who competed in an event for
U1700's in New Zealand under false names. Their involvement was
initially treated as a joke but it seems this pair have been travelling
through Australia and New Zealand for a while and they’ve also tried to
enter other weak tournaments.
British Chess has been suffering a haemorrhage of top
level skill for some years and worse, there are few signs that this will
change anytime soon. The tantrums, snide comments and a disregard for
common-sense on bulletin boards, including the behaviour of some officials,
drown goodwill and energy. It is no surprise when those with something worth
listening to, step back and decide to pursue their chess interests
elsewhere.
12th
March 2011
French cheating case
The French Chess Federation
is not allowed to use SMS text messages as proof
for their claim that GMs Hauchard and Feller and
IM Marzolo cheated during the Khanty-Mansiysk
Olympiad.
This was ruled by a Nanterre court judge on Thursday.
Yesterday, however, there was news, brought by the French Chess Federation
and made available in both French and English
here.
Cheating at the highest level in chess is rare but in
amateur leagues cheating and collusion comes to light all too often. A
recent example being ably demonstrated by
this article. Such practices should not be tolerated but in the absent
of any moral authority they thrive.
One of the most publicised and
famous cases of collusion
in GM level chess took place in 1962 during the Curacao Candidates
Tournament when the three top finishers, Petrosian, Geller and Keres drew
all twelve of their games against each other, in an average of only
19 moves.
12th
March 2011
British Championships 2011
It seems early to be talking about an event that doesn't
start until late July but making arrangements for your accommodation and
getting your entry into the system now would be a shrewd move.
Ponds Forge International Sports
Centre in Sheffield, the venue for this year's Championships is being
hailed as one of the best for years and London Classic competitors Nigel
Short, Mickey Adams, Luke McShane and David Howell are all scheduled to
play.
Detailed information is available on the
official site with news about
increased prizes.
This event is taking place at
the Barceló Imperial Hotel, North Promenade,
Blackpool, FY1 2HB Friday 11th March to Sunday
13th March, sponsored by Blackpool Borough
Council and The Barceló Hotel Group. Over £9000
in Prizes, Six Sections + Two British
Championship Qualifier places
There are several sections: The Barceló Open, Imperial
Major, Median, Intermediate, Minor and Standard.
The third weekend took us to
the luxurious Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate to
play in the aptly named Majestic Hotel.
This hotel is famous for its Victorian facade
impressively visible from much of the town centre but also because it was
the only building in Harrogate hit by a bomb [unexploded fortunately] during
the second world war ... [more]
14th
February 2011
4NCL 3rd Weekend, 19th & 20th Feb
Rounds 5 & 6 in Divs 1 & 2
take place at De Vere Venues, Wokefield Park,
Berkshire, Div 3s at De Vere Venues, Sunningdale
and Div 3n at Barcelo Majestic Hotel, Harrogate.
Matches start on Saturday at 14:00 and Sunday at
11:00. 4NCL
website.
Chessvibes:
In what could be loosely described as the
unofficial world championship of chess engines,
free chess engine Houdini beat commercial engine
Rybka. The match lasted forty games and the
final score was 23½-16½. Organizer Martin
Thoresen: “I think open source is the way of
the future.”
For years and years it was Fritz. Then, when top GMs
analyzed their games for a chess magazine, sometimes they would mention
other engines, like Shredder, Hiarcs or Junior. Then, around 2005, Vasik
Rajlich’s Rybka started to rule the chess engine scene like Kasparov had
done in regular chess. Eventually, in July 2008, Chessbase had to admit that
Fritz wasn’t the strongest anymore, and started selling Rybka ...
[Read
illustrated report in full].
The tenth Aeroflot Chess Open features a prize fund of
125 000 euros. Top seeded and favourite for the first prize (20,000 euros)
is GM Gata Kamsky, who is leading the list of participants in Aeroflot A.
He will have strong competition, facing the new Armenia
player GM Sergey Movsesian, GM Dmitry Jakovenko, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave,
GM Wesley So, GM Alexander Motylev, GM Nikita Vitiugov, GM Dmitry Andreikin,
GM Emil Sutovsky, the ex World Champions Kasimdzhanov and Kosteniuk, as well
as close to 100 players above 2550 ELO.
Tournament A and B: 100 mins the first 40
moves, 50 mins for the next 20 moves and 15 mins for the rest of
the game with an increment of 30 secs per move, starting from
the first. Tournament C: 90 minutes for the whole game with an
increment of 30 seconds per move from move 1.
10th February 2011
World Chess Championship Candidate Pairings
The pairings for the
World Championship Candidates Matches have been
announced by FIDE. The matches will take place in the
Russian city of Kazan from the 3rd-27th May. The winner
of the Candidates will challenge Vishy Anand for the
title next year but the venue and conditions are far
from clear following the withdrawal of the London bid.
The matches line up:
Topalov (Bulgaria) - Kamsky (USA)
Kramnik (Russia) - Radjabov (Azerbaijan)
Aronian (Armenia) - Grischuk (Russia)
Gelfand (Israel) - Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan)
The winners of the bottom
and top matches face each other in the semi finals. The
two favourites, Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian will
meet in the semi finals if they win their first matches.
The quarter finals and
semi finals will be the best of four games and the final
is the best of six with Rapid Chess tiebreaks.
4th February 2011
Ivanchuk wins the Tradewise Masters, Gibraltar
Winner: Vassily Ivanchuk
Photo: S Connor
Vassily Ivanchuk has won the
Gibraltar Masters tournament with 9/10
(+8,=2,-0). Runner-up Nigel Short scored an
impressive 8½/10 (+8,=1,-1); he was one of
Ivanchuk's 'victims'.
Ivanchuck's win today against Daniel Fridman typified his
play in this tournament - unforgiving and relentless. Short commented during
the event that 'it's almost impossible to prepare against the guy so I
decided to just play some random opening'. Other players found this to
the case as well, and Ivanchuk now picks up a nice winners cheque of
£17,500. Short in clear second receives £8,000.
The impressive prize fund also sees a £10,000 prize being
awarded to the highest placed female player and that went to Nana Dzagnidze
(Georgia) who just pipped her fellow countrywoman Salome Melia. The big news
at the gala dinner was that Judit Polgar would play at the 2012 Tradewise
Gibraltar Masters.
Ivanchuk has been a leading player in the world since
1988, at times reaching the second spot on the Elo rating list, but has
never won the World Chess Championship. Ivanchuk often has erratic results,
and since 2007 his world ranking has ranged from twelfth to second, before
dropping to 30th in July 2009.
From Chessbase:
30.01.11
- Nakamura won his first Super GM event, with
9.0/13, ahead of Anand, Carlsen, Aronian and
Kramnik. His 2879 performance will bring him
more than 20 Elo points on the next list.
McShane and Navara drew and tied for first in B,
after Luke found a fantastic save in a seemingly
hopeless ending. In C, Vocaturo sacrificed two
rooks and a piece to draw against Nyzhnyk and
take first.
This event took place from January 14th to 30th, 2011
in the traditional De Moriaan Center in Wijk aan Zee. There were three
Grandmaster Groups, with 14 players each and each competitor playing
against every other.
The rate of play was 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50
minutes for 20 moves and finally 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a
30 seconds/move increment starting with the first move of the game. Games
began at 13:30h local time (CET), except for the last round on January 30th,
which began at 12:00h. There were three rest days, on January 19th, 24th,
and 27th.
It was a big sporting weekend
in Crewe with Port Vale the visitors to Gresty
Road on Saturday to play the Alex [The match of
hate as it is known locally since Stoke's fairly
recently acquired lofty status].
Fortunately, two of our stars [heading for the other
major sporting event in Crewe] Andy and Mike managed to elude the police
cordon at Crewe Station and joined their colleagues at the second superb
venue for the fledgling 4NCL Northern League. This time we knew a bit more
about our opponents and were expecting a tough match against fellow 100%
scorers Cheddleton 2 in our Saturday fixture ... [more]
Next matches (19th & 20th Feb 2011)
Rnd 5: Spirit of Atticus vs.
Bradford DCA Knights A
Chessvibes -
The F.E.B. #6 is out! The London Chess Classic, Magnus and company, 2800s
galore, Gashimov wins Reggio Emilia, previewing Tata, plus, trouble with the
law redux, and the F.E.B. gives away its first prize.
The Full English Breakfast started life as a late night
brainstorm at the 2009 GibTel (now Tradewise) Chess Festival in Gibraltar.
Trent and Macauley struck up a conversation about things
missing in the chess media, and hit upon the idea of doing a podcast
combining the serious with the slightly sophomoric.
Trent quickly brought in his pal Stevie G. dramatically
raising both the intellectual and the dialectical heft of the new ensemble.
And the rest, as they say, is hysterical.
Our Mission: Bring the serious chess news analysis. VERY
serious, and not at all witty. DEFINITELY not tongue in cheek.
The Full English Breakfast #6 – the Super GM cycle
You can subscribe to The Full English Breakfast via
iTunes at TheFeb.com.
Click here to add it to your
iTunes podcasts directly.
14th
January 2011
Classic Souvenirs
The London Chess Classic has been another resounding
success on all fronts.
The
London Chess Centre is the only place to get official Classic 2010
merchandise - get your part of chess history now, while stocks last!
The London Chess Centre is Europe’s biggest chess shop
and chess resource. They stock everything you need to enjoy the game. Unlike
most online stores their shop is located in the heart of London. Their mail
order service is second to none and they ship worldwide.
Humans, like all primates, often show behaviour
largely dictated by social status and prestige. This applies to practically
everything we do: the way we talk, the way we do business, the way we do
politics, and the way we play chess ...
full story.
Occasionally in life we come across colleagues,
neighbours, even chess players who seem to possess little more than
the most basic social skills, not far removed from primates. The
self-centred, self-obsessed lives they lead is certainly not an example to
follow and their inept attempts to improve the environment they 'control' is
amusing to see, at one level. Then again if the lunatics get control of the
asylum, or the monkeys control of the zoo what can one expect?!
12th
January 2011
CHESS Magazine - File update
An updated 29 page PDF of the
London
Chess Classic report is available for download. It now features
clickable adverts (pages 15 & 29) so you can subscribe directly to CHESS,
buy the January issue, visit the webshop, buy back issues or buy Classic
2010 souvenirs.
Rounds 3&4 in Divisions 1-3 take place at the Barcelo Hotel
Hinckley Island on Sat 15th & Sun 16th Jan. The matches start at 14:00 on the
Saturday and 11:00 on the Sunday.
Spirit of Atticus who meet at
De Vere Wychwood Park
(near Crewe)
for rounds 3&4 in the Northern League will play
Cheddleton 2 on Saturday and
Jorvik on the Sunday.
Click for full details.
6th January
2011
CHESS Magazine - January 2011
Download CHESS Magazine's coverage
of the London Chess Classic 2010, a full tournament report
featuring round-by-round coverage of all the best games and
featuring exclusive annotations from world champion Vishy
Anand and England's Luke McShane.
The 2nd
London Chess Classic saw another victory for Magnus Carlsen who ends the
year atop the rating pile again after a rather uneven 2010. The tournament
attracted many more spectators, the auditorium was regularly full and the
commentary room packed to overflowing.
The event received a huge number of plaudits for the
online coverage which set new standards with live audio, video, telestrated
boards and post game analysis from the players themselves. The commentary
team of Danny King, Chris Ward, Jonathan Rowson, Lawrence Trent and Stephen
Gordon were enjoyed by over 160,000 users.
Steve Giddins reports - In a
dramatic last round at the Sussex seaside, it was the Indian
players Deep Sengupta and Arghyadip Das who emerged as joint
winners of the 2010/11 Hastings Masters.
Deep Sengupta & Arghyadip Das
Joint winners Hastings 2010/11
The first-named faced the overnight
leader, Romain Edouard, on top board and played a splendid
attacking game against the French GM's Sicilian. The black
king ended up on f8, and as lines opened, Sengupta
penetrated decisively with his heavy pieces.
The other co-winner, Das, achieved his success at the expense
of his compatriot, Shyam, who needed to win to make a GM norm. However, his
Scotch Game soon went wrong, and he was left defending a hopeless ending, which
he was unable to save. Istratescu and Howell drew a balanced game, as did
Gormally and Prasanna. The latter result gave the 16-year old Indian talent a GM
norm, on which we congratulate him heartily. Gerhana Chkartina of Indonesia won
to secure a WIM norm, but sadly, other norm-seekers were less successful. Adam
Ashton could only draw with Furman, and Griffiths lost against Bates, when only
a win would do.
Final positions: 1-2 Sengupta, Das 7/9, 3-8
Gormally, Howell, Istratescu, Prasanna, Edouard and Neverov
... 103 players
... more.
Chessbase -
Magnus Carlsen was the world's top player from January to November 2010, when he
was overtaken by World Champion Viswanathan Anand.
In the past two months Anand gained six more points,
but the 20-year-old picked up twelve to regain his top ranking. Magnus'
perennial rival Sergey Karjakin gained 16 points to enter the top-five
bracket. Top 100
list.
Armenian GM Levon Aronian has maintained his third
ranking after gaining four points, staying in that hallowed 2800+ slot.
His main rival, Vladimir Kramnik, lost seven points and is now 21 points
behind Aronian.
On place five we are startled to see another great
young talent, ten months older than Magnus Carlsen (and his natural-born
rival): Sergey Karjakin, who gained 16 points to make top-five. You
probably know that back in 2002 he smashed all records by making his
full GM title at the age of twelve years and seven months.
In the women's list not much has happened: The first eight
places remain unchanged, with three players now rated above 2600. Pia Cramling
has dropped from place nine to 12, allowing Viktorija Cmilyte to climb to her
slot from place 13. Harika remains the top Indian after the second highest
ranked female player of all time, Koneru Humpy.
World
Champion Anand awaits the outcome but probably with little interest. The
likelihood of either player getting a chance to challenge for the World
title seems slight and the King's ransom required to fund such an event
unlikely to be forthcoming. 
