News
Archive - 2009
[2013
2012
2011
2010
2008
2007
2006]
29th December
2009
Magnus Carlsen: The 19-Year-Old King of
Chess
At age 13, he was the third youngest grandmaster in history.
A few years later, he was already beating the world’s top players. And on Jan
1st, 19-year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway will officially become the youngest
person in history to achieve chess's No. 1 ranking. TIME caught up with the
grandmaster at a tournament in London to probe the mind of a chess genius.
Read
more ...
In December 2009 Carlsen won the
London Classic
ahead of Kramnik, Nakamura, Short and others. As a result of this victory he
will become the first teenaged chessplayer in history to occupy the first place
in the official world rankings (to be published on 1st January 2010).
28th December
2009
Korchnoi-Spassky match in Elista,
17th-27th Dec
Two of the most legendary chess players have just
completed their 8-game match in Elista, Kalmykia.
The match for a prize fund of US $20,000 had a time
control of 90 mins + 30 seconds per move.
Photo © Official site
The match ended all square at 4-4.
Official site
(Russian)
Games in
PGN
16th December
2009
London Chess Classic, December
8th-15th, 2009
 |
|
|
Winner: Magnus Carlsen |
|
Magnus Carlsen won the London Chess
Classic after a nail-biting finish against Nigel Short.
The game ended in a draw and the single point gained was
enough to put him one point clear of Vladimir Kramnik,
who drew with Hikaru Nakamura. The other two games ended
decisively. David Howell played a superb game with Black
to defeat China’s Ni Hua, while Michael Adams outplayed
Luke McShane in another close struggle.
This is another momentous tournament victory for Magnus
Carlsen. As a result of his victory in London, Carlsen will become the first
teenaged chessplayer in history to occupy the first place in the official
world rankings (to be published on 1st January 2010) - John Saunders,
Press Chief, LCC.
•
Official site •
Reports
•
Photos •
Standings and Crosstable •
All games in PGN
• Replay:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
The
€10,000
brilliancy prize was awarded to Luke McShane for his round 5 win
over Nakamura.
15th December
2009
World Cup, Khanty Mansiysk, 20th
Nov - 15th Dec 2009
Final report from
Chessbase
14th Dec: Gelfand has beaten Ponomariov to win
the World Cup. After drawing the regular games
they went into the perilous tiebreaks. They won
a rapid chess game each and drew two to proceed
to the blitz, where again each won a game. Game
three and four went to the Israeli, who thus won
the World Cup. Gelfand is now part of the
eight-player tournament to find a challenger for
the World Champion.
The FIDE World Chess Cup took place
in Khanty-Mansiysk from November 20th to December 15th
2009. It was a seven-round knockout event
... more
•
Official site
•
Schedule
•
LIVE link and photos
•
Results
•
Games in PGN
30th November
2009
BNbank Blitz 2009 - Nakamura beats
Carlsen in the final
A strong field of players competed in
the BNbank Blitz 2009 which took place in Oslo on Sat,
November 28.
Ten players were invited and divided into two groups,
insuring that the two designated finalists, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura,
would meet in the final. And that's exactly what happened!
•
Official
site
•
Full results with tables
•
Videos
and games in PGN
30th November
2009
Preston Congress 2009
Fri 27 - Sun 29 Nov at University of Central Lancashire,
Foster Building (Foster 25), PR1 2HE.
• Official
site
•
LIVE games
and further details
23rd November
2009
British Rapidplay Championships 2009
This took place at the Halifax
Leisure Centre, HX3 6TE - 11 rounds over Sat 21st & Sun
22nd November.
Final scores for the leading players:
1st= David Howell and Mark Hebden 9/11; 3rd Peter Wells
8½; 4th Richard Palliser with 8. Over 300 players took
part in 4 sections.
•
Official site
•
LIVE Games and times
•
Photos
•
Reports
19th November
2009
World Blitz Championship 2009
Magnus Carlsen lead by 2½ pts with just four rounds left
after beating Anand in Round 38. He wrapped up the title a
couple of rounds later. Anand was well clear in second
place. In addition to his World no.1 spot he is also World
Blitz Champion 2009, not bad for an 18yr old.
•
Official site
•
Results
•
VIDEO
feed
•
More
links
•
Games in PGN
16th November
2009
Tal Memorial 2009
Vladimir Kramnik has won the Tal
Memorial in Moscow. Anand was beaten easily by Aronian,
Ponomariov beat Morozevich and Svidler and Gelfand drew.
In the last game to finish Magnus Carlsen beat Peter
Leko with black and will now be the world’s number one
in the live ratings ahead of Veselin Topalov.
Final standings: 1st Kramnik RUS 2772 6; 2nd=
Ivanchuk UKR 2739, Carlsen NOR 2801 5½; 4th= Aronian ARM
2786, Anand IND 2788 5; 6th Gelfand ISR 2758 4½; 7th
Ponomariov UKR 2739 4; 8th Svidler RUS 2754 3½; 9th= Leko
HUN 2752, Morozevich RUS 2750 3.
•
Official site
•
Games in PGN
•
Chessbase Rd9 Report •
Final Crosstable
12th November
2009
Magistral Casino de Barcelona 2009
The Casino GM tournament in Barcelona
finished with a surprise win for Spanish IM Daniel
Alsina Leal with 6½/9 a point clear of Josep Manuel
Lopez Martinez and Jordi Magem Badals.
Dreev, Tregubov and Fier all had a
bad time the latter having five losses and finishing on
a catastrophic 2/9. •
Final table •
PGN games
11th November
2009
World Junior Championship, Puerto
Madryn (ARG) 22 Oct - 4 Nov
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has won this
title after a dramatic last round in which he caught up
with Sergei Zhigalko from Belarus. David Howell finished
10th= with 8/13.
Express report from Chessdom.
This was a massive 13-round Swiss
system event. Results were compiled thankfully by
chess-results.com as the official site struggled
severely thoughout. David lost to Vachier-Lagrave in Rd9
and to the newest US GM Ray Robson in Rd10 so his
chances of a medal were scuppered after that •
Official site •
Results Boys •
Results Girls
5th November
2009
4NCL 0910
The new season started over the weekend
24th/25th Oct.
Divisions 1&2 took place at De Vere Venues, Sunningdale
and
Division 3 at Barcelo Hotel, Daventry.
LIVE games were
broadcast on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th.
Click for
all results and PGN games. See photos and a short video
here.
5th November
2009
Karpov v Kasparov, Rapid Match,
Dec 2009
Karpov's planned return match with
Kasparov in December has been cancelled. Not a bad idea
from Karpov's viewpoint given his poor performances. At
58 and with a rating well over 2600 he is still a
considerable force in world chess. With some better
preparation he will ready for his return and a
re-scheduled match in 2010.
4th November
2009
Magnificent win at 13th Univé
Open, 18th-24th October
Stewart Haslinger (right) from Formby
has won the 13th Univé Tournament, Hoogeveen,
Netherlands with 7½/9, a clear point ahead the field and
with a TPR of 2707.
Stewart's event took place alongside
the Crown group which saw Sergei Tiviakov the
surprising winner with 3½ ahead of Vassily Ivanchuk,
Anish Giri both on 3 and Judit Polgar 2½. See the
official
site for all the latest details, crosstables and PGN
games.
4th November
2009
New ECF Board members
CJ de Mooi (BBC Eggheads fame) is the
new ECF President, Nigel Short is the new FIDE delegate
and Adam Raoof the new Director for Home Chess. This
must be good news for Chess in England.
However, the ECF will still have
their work cut out following a decision by the DCMS
(Department for Culture, Media and Sports) to suspend
the annual £60,000 grant until a properly formulated
business plan is submitted and they appoint a Finance
Director.
2nd November
2009
Anand v Karpov, Rapid Match
World Champion Vishy Anand played
former World Champion Anatoly Karpov in a rapid match in
France. The event took place in
Bastia
on October 31st and continued in
Ajaccio
on November 2nd.
All games were 15 mins + 3 secs per
move. The match was held alongside Corsica Masters,
taking place in Bastia.
Official site. Karpov was beaten easily finding it
hard to equalise against the much sharper and in-form
Anand. See the
games here.
.
|
Rapid
Match Corsica
(FRA), 31 x - 2
xi 2009 |
|
Name |
Ti |
NAT |
Rtng |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
Perf |
|
Anand,
Viswanathan |
g |
IND
|
2788
|
1 |
½ |
1 |
1 |
3½ |
2812 |
|
Karpov, Anatoly
|
g |
RUS
|
2619
|
0 |
½ |
0 |
0 |
½ |
2595 |
1st November
2009
European Team Championships phone
incident
In the round 3 Bulgaria v England
match Alexander Delchev's cellphone went off just before
the start of play. See about 2:40 into the video
(courtesy of Europe Echecs). Stuart Conquest was the
beneficiary and as Cheparinov lost to McShane on board
two, England won the match 2½-1½.
Full report on Chessbase.
.
1st November
2009
Anand, Kramnik and Carlsen will play in
Grandmaster group A of the 2010 Corus Chess Tournament.
London Classic competitors, Nakamura and Short will play too
and Ni Hua and David Howell will play in the B group. The
event is held in the Dutch coastal town of
Wijk aan
Zee. The event runs from January 15th-31st.
Click for full details.
21st October
2009
Nanjing: Carlsen wins Pearl Spring with 3002
performance
Already sure of a sole victory, Magnus
Carlsen added even more brilliancy to his Pearl Spring
victory by defeating Dmitry Jakovenko in the last round.
Full story.
25th September
2009
Karpov v Kasparov re-match 22-24 Sept,
Valencia
.
This match commemorated the 25th
anniversary of the first Karpov vs Kasparov World
Championship match in 1984-85 in Moscow.
There were 12 games, four rapid, played
on the Tues and Wed, plus eight blitz games on Thurs. Each
round started at 18:00 (GMT).
Both players expressed 'surprise' that
their match could generate so much publicity but it was
obviously intended to be that way. The real-time game
coverage was patchy, in particular during the blitz part
(eight games with only a 30 min break) but it was
nevertheless a spectacular event. They have agreed to meet
again for something similar in December.
Official event site (in Spanish).
Click to see photos, videos and all games in PGN.
20th September
2009
John
Littlewood 1931 - 2009. A personal appreciation by John
Carleton
It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of
John Littlewood this week. His loss to the world of chess is
immense. At the personal level I have found his passing
distressing but am grateful for having known him and the
many happy memories he has left me.
Over the years I usually found myself in an opposing team to
John; we were briefly team-mates at Atticus, for Lancashire
and latterly for North-West Eagles but frequently we found
ourselves in different camps. As a result I have played John
dozens of times, over fifty serious games, far more than
against any other opponent; I doubt that he played anyone
more than he played me either.
I
can honestly say that there was never a disagreement [except
perhaps on the best move in a given position, and where
there is disagreement in such matters I would advise the
neutral to back John L's judgement] in the many years I knew
him. Read in full.
17th July 2009
Staunton
Memorial
2009
|
|
|
All games
from the Scheveningen match |
|
Final match score:
England 26½ - 23½ Netherlands
In round 10 - Van Wely 0-1 Short, Smeets
1-0 McShane, L'Ami ½-½ Adams, Sokolov ½-½ Jones & Werle ½-½ Howell.
Individual scores:
England: Short 8/10, Adams & Howell 5/10,
McShane 4½, Jones 4.
Netherlands: Smeets 6/10, Sokolov 5½, Van
Wely 5, L'Ami 4½, Werle 2½
Official site
• PGN Scheveningen
• PGN All Play All
•
TWIC
•
Chessbase
The event took place at
Simpson-in-the-Strand
8-17 August in two player groups, a double round
Scheveningen System match between the UK and the Netherlands and
an all play all single round with ten players. Adams, Short,
McShane, Howell and Jones played in the top group. Howell arrived
slightly late on the first Saturday, travelling from Torquay as the
newly crowned
British Champion.
9th July 2009
British Championships 2009
David Howell became British Champion with 9/11 after
drawing his final round game against IM Gary Lane. He also picked up the
British U21, U18 and the Tony Miles English Championship titles.
The 96th Championships was be held from, 26 July - 8 August at
the ultra-modern English Riviera Centre, Torquay.
Located just off the seafront, the Riviera Centre
is a purpose built conference and exhibition venue enjoying a wide
range of accommodation within walking distance. More information on
the
official site.
20th July 2009
116th
Scottish
Championships,
Edinburgh
This nine
round FIDE
rated event
ran from
11th - 19th
July in the
splendid
City
Chambers.
Final
scores:
1st GM Arun
Prasad IND
2556 7½, 2nd
GM Jan
Markos SLO
2555 7, 3rd
GM Mark
Hebden ENG
2468 7, 4th
GM Magesh
Chandran
Panchanath
IND 2493 6½,
5th GM Aaron
Summerscale
ENG 2454 6½
... 88
players.
Official
site.
1st July 2009
Laws of
Chess
The latest
edition was
adopted at
the 77th
FIDE
Congress in
Dresden,
November
2008, coming
into force
on 1 July
2009.
There are a
few notable
changes a)
to do with
start times
(page 9) and
b) mobile
phones (page
14). See
full details
here.
10th
May 2009
4NCL
See some
photos
from
rounds
9-11,
May 2-4
2009.
8th
March 2009
|
|
|
| |
Linares,
18 Feb - 8
Mar
Alexander
Grischuk won
the event
with 8/14
ahead of
Vassily
Ivanchuk,
also on 8.
Grischuk had
three wins
to
Ivanchuk's
two and on
the Linares
tiebreak
system they
award
victory to
the player
who has more
wins.
Carlsen was
3rd with 7½
disappointing
his fans
after
bizarrely
missing a
win in round
13. World
Champion
Anand
finished 4th
with 7, a
result which
will be of
interest to
Topalov who
will
challenge
him later in
the year for
the World
Championship.
Aronian,
Radjabov &
Wang finish
5th= with 6½
with
Dominguez
8th on 6. So
only two
points
separate the
players
after nearly
3 weeks and
56 games!
Final
positions:
1-2
Grischuk,
Ivanchuk 8;
3 Carlsen
7½; 4 Anand
7; 5-7
Aronian,
Radjabov,
Wang 6½;
8 Dominguez
6.
All games in
PGN.
Official
site
(Spanish). |
|
|
|
|
28th
February 2009
Aeroflot
2009
Etienne
Bacrot FRA
finished on
6½/9
alongside
Alexander
Moiseenko
UKR and
takes 1st
place (more
black piece
games). See
official
site for
details.
Games in PGN.
26th
February 2009
Candidates
Match, 16 -
28 Feb
| |
 |
|
|
Match
venue
in
Sofia |
Veselin
Topalov and
Gata Kamsky
played their
eight-game
candidates
match from
17-28 Feb
in Sofia,
Bulgaria.
The opening
ceremony was
held on 16
Feb and
Topalov had
white in the
first game.
Rated 2796
and on his
home turf,
Topalov was
hot
favourite
against
Kamsky rated
2725,
although he
admitted
beforehand
that the
match
'will be
very tough'.
The prize
fund was
mouth
watering US
$250,000.
Final
Result:
Topalov won
the match by
defeating
Kamsky in
game 7 after
Kamsky got
into time
trouble in a
good
position
[Click
to replay].
Match score
4½-2½.
All games in
PGN.
Official
tournament
site.
Topalov will
now play
Anand for
the World
Championship
later in the
year but
don't hold
your breath
over that
taking
place.
17th
February 2009
'I
was there'
Read a
nice article by John Carleton on the historic international chess events
in
Liverpool 2006-8.
6th
February 2009
Peter Svidler beat Vadim Milov 2-0 in the tie-break for first
place and the £15,000 winner's cheque after they finished tied
on 8/10. Nana Dzagnidze drew with Golod to secure the £6,000
women's prize. Leading scores: 1-2 P Svidler (RUS, won
play-off), V Milov (SUI) 8/10, 3-6 V Gashimov (AZE), H Nakamura
(USA), E Berg (SWE), V Akobian (USA) 7½, 7-11 P Harikrishna
(IND), N Dzagnidze (GEO), I Sokolov (NED), A Stefanova (BUL), P
Cramling (SWE) 7, etc
... more -
John Saunders BCM Editor.
2nd Feb 2009
Corus
2009
from Wijk
aan Zee
.
16
Jan - 1 Feb 2009. Games start
daily at 13.30 local time, 12:30 GMT.
Watch them live on the
official site.
Latest:
'The smoke has cleared, and out of
the six leaders who entered the last
round with a shot at the title,
Ukrainian Sergey Karjakin emerged as a
the sole winner.' Full details with
a
final round report here.
Mickey Adams
finished 11th= in the A group with 5½/13,
Nigel Short 2nd= in the B group
with 8/13 and David Howell
4th= in the C group with
7½/13.
The average rating of
the A group was 2716, 26 points less
than 2008 a category 19 event
instead of 20. The B group average of
2641 was 23 points higher than 2008, and
was category 16. The C group average of
2521 made it a category 11 event.
6th Jan 2009
Hasting
Masters
2008/9
Final
positions:
1st GM
Kurnosov,
Igor 2606
RUS 7½,
2nd= GM
Berg,
Emanuel 2623
SWE 7,
GM Neverov,
Valeriy 2571
UKR 7,
4th= GM
Howell,
David W L
2593 ENG
6½, GM
Conquest,
Stuart C
2526 ENG
6½, GM
Hebden, Mark
L 2515 ENG
6½ GM
Williams,
Simon K 2494
ENG 6½,
8th= GM
Jones,
Gawain C B
2548 ENG
6, GM
Pavlovic,
Milos 2524
SCG 6,
GM
Haslinger,
Stewart G
2506 ENG
6 ...
104
competitors
(performance
table).
The event
took place
between 28th
December
2008 - 5th
January
2009.
Alongside
the masters
event were
several
other
sections
including,
Weekender,
Open, Major,
Minor,
Under-100.
The congress
manager was
Stewart
Reuben. See
the official
site
www.hastingschess.org.uk
for more
details. All
master games
can be
downloaded
too in PGN.
