To all our chessfriends and colleagues
wherever you are or whoever you are, have a pleasant Christmas and a
successful and healthy 2013.
7th November 2012
The 4NCL First Weekend 2012/13 by John Carleton
Sunningdale Park
grounds in Autumn
'Dull
November brings the blast,then the
leaves are falling fast'- Sara
Coleridge.
... is typical of the generally poor profile that November
has in literature and the public imagination but once again the start of the
new 4NCL season was greeted by a beautiful crisp bright November day.
And as ever we travelled with eager anticipation ready to
play our part in the greatest chess league in Britain. Additionally this was
an excellent opportunity to catch up on old friends, some not seen since
May, and a welcome chance to fill in mutual progress in ailments,
medications and ...
[...Read
more].
7th November 2012
They don't like it, Upham
There are signs that concern and indeed anger levels are
rising in the chessworld after BCM's peremptory termination of their
agreement with July issue cover-boy, journalist, Spirit of Atticus stalwart
and all-round good egg Andy Smith.
The chess public are particularly concerned that the
conciliatory and constructive approach of editorial board member John Upham
was overturned by another member of the board. We will advise of any
developments in this sensitive matter.
William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Andy
Smith and Fred Reinfeld are just some of the famous Spirit of Atticus
players to have put pen to paper.
They have now been joined by Nick Ivell in
the October 2012 issue of CHESS magazine with Learning to Love the
Endgame - Nick Ivell teaches the Vancura position. Bravo! - JC.
On 4NCL: Now that the draw for the
first seven rounds is
available the Sp. of Atticus teams for the first two rounds will be
announced in a couple of days.
3rd October 2012
FIDE Grand Prix, Topalov, Gelfand,
Mamedyarov tie for first
Boris Gelfand beat Rustam Kasimdzhanov,
Veselin Topalov outplayed Anish Giri with black, while the previous
tournament leader Shakhriyar Mamedyarov settled for a draw against Peter
Leko. This left three players tied for first, with 7.0/11 points each, and
although Topalov had the highest tiebreak the official tournament report
calls all three winners.
Late information and unusual website
arrangements, by design or by accident - who knows, has resulted in a muddled
beginning to the 2012/13 World Championship cycle. Nonetheless 12 players (average
rating 2739) have arrived suited and booted to play for a prize fund
approaching 170,000 � (Euros).
Favourites are probably Ivanchuk and
Gelfand but behind the scenes deals, not unknown for such high profile
events, could mean just about any outcome is possible.
Previously announced rest days have been
changed but the schedule until yesterday failed to say what the new dates
were. All very confusing. Largely because of space restrictions, spectators
are not allowed into the chosen venue despite the
availability of a plethora of top ranking alternatives in central London.
25th August 2012
4CNL | Best Game Prizes 2012
Well done to Spirit of Atticus player Andy Smith for winning one of the three £50 best game prizes in the
4NCL's 2011/12 competition.
Judge Paul Littlewood awarded the prize
for Andy's 'imaginative' win against Paul Girdlestone (Brown Jack) during
round 6 at De Vere Sunningdale in February 2012.
Andy has been a game inputter at the prestigious Gibraltar Masters and
is a highly original player. He holds the FIDE Master title and is currently
rated 2194.
He has organised some Lewisham Congresses and often writes on chess. He was
captain of the Jersey team in the 2006 Olympiad.
Svetozar Gligoric has died in his home
city of Belgrade at the age of 89 as a result of a stroke. Born Belgrade
February 2nd 1923 died 13:30pm 14th August 2012.
Gligoric was a three time World
Championship Candidate in 1953, 1959 and 1968 but did find these events
rather tough going. His professional career was delayed by the war but he
became an IM in 1950, GM in 1951.
A 12 time national champion he won many
international tournaments remaining competitive into the early 1980s where
he met Kasparov. His last published chess was a two game USSR vs Yugoslavia
match in Moscow 2007 where he lost 1.5-0.5 vs Korchnoi. He won 13 medals in
the Chess Olympiad for Yugoslavia - two gold, six silver and five bronze.
[Read
more]
Chessvibes - Magnus Carlsen
collected six points in just two days, and is now in shared first place in
Biel together with Wang Hao. On Sunday Carlsen beat Victor Bologan with
Black in their postponed game, and in Monday's 7th round the Norwegian also
won against the tournament leader from China.
The other two games, Giri-Nakamura and
Bologan-Bacrot, ended in draws. [...
more]
Photo | Biel Chess
Festival
22nd July 2012
Biel Chess Festival starts
Today the
Biel Chess Festival
starts with an exhibition blitz tournament, to celebrate the 45 years of the
festival. It's a knockout with Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamaura, Alexander
Morozevich, Wang Hao, Etienne Bacrot, Pentala Harikrishna, Yannick Pelletier
and Alexandra Kosteniuk.
Here's a press release from July 6th.
'To celebrate its 45th anniversary, the
Festival is pleased to announce that World Number 1 Magnus Carlsen, who has
already won twice in Biel (2007 and 2011), will come back for the 2012
edition. The Norwegian will replace Leinier Dominguez Perez to take part on
Sunday, July 22 in the 45th anniversary blitz tournament and from Monday,
July 23, in the Grandmaster Tournament, which will be a category XXI
tournament (2756 Elo average) for the first time in its history ...'
[read
more]
21st July 2012
Dortmund Rd8 � Caruana beats Kramnik
In round seven, all the games were drawn
although Vladimir Kramnik pressed Peter Leko for over 130 moves. He had had
a large bind throughout, but somehow the Hungarian escaped. Round eight saw
Fabiano Caruana do the unthinkable by beating Kramnik in their second
straight encounter. Leko beat Bartel in a French line rarely seen at the
top, while Ponomariov beat Gustafsson.
Dortmund is a ten-player round robin
event. Draw offers are not allowed � a game can only be declared a draw, by
the arbiter, if there is no possible win for one side, or if a position is
repeated three times. The winner of the tournament will be determined after
nine rounds.
The campaign organised by Stuart
Conquest for the restoration of the grave of Johannes Zukertort (1842-1888),
who is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London, has had a pleasing
outcome, and the work is now complete.
There will be a service of re-dedication on Tuesday June 26th
at Brompton Cemetery, at 13:00. Everyone is welcome!
Peter Svidler defeated David Navara with a
score of 3-1 in the traditional ÄŒez Chess Trophy match in Prague, Czech
Republic. The Russian grandmaster decided the match on Saturday with a
second win, and then the last game was drawn on Sunday.
The event was sponsored by ÄŒez Group, a
conglomerate of companies. It took place in the Malostranská beseda in
central Prague.
Magnus Carlsen has again won the Tal Memorial after a dramatic final
round. He outplayed Luke McShane who himself could have won the event if he
had won this game and the other results had remained the same. McShane's
solid opening allowed Carlsen to equalise quite easily and then he subsided
in time trouble after missing the key move 21...a5 in his calculations.
Fabiano Caruana misplayed a Gruenfeld sideline against Levon Aronian and
was quickly in terrible difficulties on the board and the clock. Aronian
started "playing rubbish" in his own words but won all the same.
Hikaru Nakamura played a Sicilian sideline against Teimour Radjabov and
this finished in a draw.
Rajdabov admitted to lousy form and many discarded chances.
Tomashevsky-Grischuk was a sort of Benoni where Tomashevsky had to hang
tough to draw. Kramnik-Morozevich was a draw in a Semi-Slav ending where it
looked like Kramnik was close to winning at one stage [...
more]
Official final round 9 standings including tie-break: 1st Carlsen 5½/9, 2nd
Caruana 5, 3rd Radjabov 5, 4th Kramnik 4½, 5th Morozevich 4½, 6th Levon
Aronian 4½, 7th Grischuk 4½, 8th Luke McShane 4, 9th Nakamura 4 and 10th
Tomashevsky 3½.
To call the eighth round incendiary is almost light. It is certainly hard
to imagine a more astonishing one. The seventh round seemed to have used up
the surprise factor, but then again, what could be odder than both leaders
losing in the same round, except losing again in the very next!
With five leaders, and two rounds to go, the stage was set for upsets and
players to be upset, and it was all there. The only table that didn’t have a
leader playing was Alexander Grischuk against Hikaru Nakamura, but the
American was in no mood for a quiet game, and the Sicilian Dragon said it
all. Being the kind of opening where the smallest misstep can have huge
consequences, it was a logical looking move that turned out to be the
culprit, and it was all downhill from there for Nakamura.
Teimour Radjabov had the unenviable task of having to beat Levon Aronian,
and the nervy game saw the advantage swing both ways before they finally
concluded a double-edged draw.
Whatever had been ailing Luke McShane in the beginning of the tournament
with his 0-2, the win over Kramnik the previous round had been just what the
doctor prescribed. [...
more]
The 7th Tal Memorial resumed after Friday's rest day and saw both leaders
defeated by the tail-enders. This has left Carlsen, Morozevich, Radjabov,
Kramnik and Caruana tied on 4/7, Nakamura on 3½, Grischuk, Aronian and
McShane on 3 and Tomashevsky on 2½.
Alexander Morozevich tried one too many tricks against Tomashevsky in time
trouble in a King's Indian and was lost at first time control. Vladimir
Kramnik seemed to be the one pressing in Luke McShane's time trouble but the
Englishman had his own trumps and after first time control it gradually
became apparent to the players and audience alike that it was Kramnik who
had to defend. The position was very hard to calculate but in the end
McShane got his win.
Teimour Radjabov blew a winning advantage against Fabiano Caruana and only
drew.
Aronian survived Grischuk preparation for a draw and Nakamura - Carlsen was
a drawish Catalan that eventually became drawn [...
more]
Tal Memorial: Round 6 Kramnik joins
Morozevich in the lead
It was a tumultuous round with dramatic results on several boards, though
not all, and shifts in the leaderboard.
Magnus Carlsen tried to keep his quest for gold alive, but faced an
equally resolved Levon Aronian who refused to be the tournament sob story in
spite of his two losses. He held his ground and after a long struggle they
shook hands. Teimour Radjabov and Alexander Grischuk also squared off in a
protracted fight, but neither was able to create any momentum, and the draw
came as no surprise.
The first dramatic result was the incredibly hard fought game between the
leader Alexander Morozevich and Hikaru Nakamura. Unsurprisingly, Morozevich
played his risky brand of chess to create chances against the American’s
king, and seemed to be getting just that. As time trouble appeared on the
horizon for both players, Nakamura managed to cutoff White’s pieces from his
king, and proceeded to setup his own counter chances. A slip by the Russian
suddenly left him wide open to Hikaru’s clever optimism, and a few blows
later, it was over. Morozevich was unconsolable in the post-game conference
[...
more]
Alexander Morozevich took control of the 7th Tal Memorial Chess tournament
with a dramatic victory over Levon Aronian. Morozevich lined up a kingside
attack with black but Aronian sacrificed a piece first. Aronian's pawn
centre disintegrated in terrible time trouble and he resigned on move 40.
Morozevich move a point clear of the field after Magnus Carlsen scored his
first win. Carlsen was allowed to equalise fairly early as black against
joint leader Teimour Radjabov and then he worked his endgame magic to put
pressure on and win a fine endgame. Nakamura vs Kramnik. Nakamura again
didn't know old theory, Kramnik only vaguely did. They drew an ending.
Caruana built up a huge advantage vs Grischuk but a careless move (He
"forgot about 20.Nc7" - 19...Re8!) turned the game around.
Grischuk eventually forced a draw in time trouble. Tomashevsky and McShane
went at each other as predicted, McShane lost an advantage in his usual time
pressure and drew. Right now I'm not seeing the upside to a lot of the clock
handling we're seeing in this tournament [...
more]
The 7th Tal Memorial returned after
Monday's day off with four draws and just one win, for Fabiano Caruana over
Evgeny Tomashevsky. The most exciting game was between Magnus Carlsen and
Alexander Grischuk which rather got out of hand on the board and the clock
for both players.
Fabiano Caruana beat Evgeny Tomashevsky really rather easily in an
Anti-Marshall Ruy Lopez which turned out to be mostly theory. Tomeshevsky
took ages on the clock and played worse than Aronian did in 2008 in the same
position.
Magnus Carlsen didn't get a lot in the opening against Alexander Grischuk
but got chances by allowing his bishop to be shut in. Later rather than go
passive Carlsen launched a kingside attack the tested both player's
calculating abilities and they repeated in quite major time pressure.
The leaders Alexander Morozevich and Teimour Rajdabov drew a Ruy Lopez.
After thinking a long time over 19.axb3 white couldn't find anything
challenging for his opponent. Vladimir Kramnik was disappointed that he
didn't make more of an opening advantage against Levon Aronian and the game
was drawn in 40 moves [...
more]
Aronian 0-1 McShane An a6 Slav.
McShane ate up tonnes of time early on, sacrificed the exchange in an idea
he got from Topalov. Aronian was playing for complications after 14...Nc6
when he realised he was worse. McShane defied time trouble to bring home the
point.
Carlsen ½-½ Caruana
Gruenfeld sideline from Carlsen that
didn't go well. Caruana liquidated into a completely drawn opposite coloured
endgame. 30 moves.
Radjabov ½-½ Kramnik
A heavyweight Ruy Lopez Berlin, Kramnik
solved his problems with an exchange sacrifice and Radjabov took a
repetition that was available.
Grischuk 0-1 Morozevich
Reti/Slav - messy position where Grischuk
sacrificed on move 46 but had only a minute to make it to move 60 plus
increment. Morozevich with about half an hour on the clock found a defence
and beat him.
Nakamura ½-½ Tomashevsky
A Kings Gambit from Nakamura and he had to
find tactical compensation for the two bishops. In the end they traded to a
drawn ending) Full report at the end of play. Games and results updates
throughout the day.
Kramnik once said that the biggest lesson
he learned from the elite was how resiliently they defended.
Today Carlsen showed the same gumption as
he saved a nightmare position in which Morozevich had doubled rooks on his
seventh. McShane cracked at move 40 against Radjabov, while Kramnik played a
model game in an impressive win over Grischuk.
The event is a ten-player round robin
event, is taking place from June 8th to 18th in the Pashkov House (Vozdvizhenka
Street 3/5, p.1), Moscow, Russia.
Rest days are June 11 and 15. Time
control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20
moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30
seconds per move starting from move one.
Games start at 15:00h local time (last
round 13:00h). Draw offers are not allowed until after the first time
control.
The participants are required to comment
on their games in the press center after each round. The prize fund is
100,000 Euros [...
more]
The first round of the 7th Tal Memorial
saw four wins for white and a draw in a position that had probably been
winning.
Morozevich 1-0 Caruana (was unclear for a
long time but Caruana's 47...Bf7 stopping his own threatened Qxe3 from
working in key lines was the decisive error).
Carlsen 1/2 Kramnik (Carlsen
missed something trivial with white in the opening, played a sharp but
probably losing continuation which led to Kramnik time trouble and an
eventual draw by repetition).
Grischuk 1-0 McShane (Grischuk made
McShane struggle right from the opening), Radjabov 1-0 Tomashevsky (blunder
from Tomshevsky in a difficult position), Aronian 1-0 Nakamura (Aronian was
maybe better until 16.Bh3 but Nakamura made a more serious error with
21...g5? which was punished with 22.Bd7 after which Aronian made no mistake)
[...
more].
The Tal Memorial started with
a blitz tournament (3 mins plus 2 seconds extra per move) to determine
the draw numbers for the players. Alexander Morozevich took the �5000 first
prize on tie-break from Magnus Carlsen (�3000) who he also defeated (on
time) in their individual game.
Both players scored 6½/9 a point clear of
Alexander Grischuk and Teimour Radjabov.
Mark Crowther: The 7th Mikhail Tal
Memorial starts with its opening ceremony on Thursday 7th June 2012. They've
come up with an incredibly clever idea (one which would only work in such a
well financed event) of having a blitz tournament to decide the draw numbers
of the players.
The top 5 finishers will have more whites
than black. 15:30 start UK time. We're promised high quality video and
commentary so it should be well worth watching. Friday's Round 1 starts at
12pm BST.
The event sees return to action of World
Number 1 Magnus Carlsen after a long break in a super-strong field of
Aronian, Kramnik, Radjabov, Nakamura, Caruana, Morozevich, Grischuk,
Tomashevsky and McShane.
Nigel Short, Britain’s most recognisable
name in the chess world, turns 47 today. He has had a distinguished career
which included a match with Garry Kasparov for the world championship title
in 1993.
Married with two children, in 1999 he was
awarded an MBE for services to chess. Nigel is currently rated 2705 and is
ranked 40th strongest player in the world.
WCh Tiebreak: Anand draws final game,
retains title!
The fourth game of the tiebreak brought a
tangible advantage for Challenger Boris Gelfand, who needed to win with the
black pieces to stay in the match. But World Champion Vishy Anand kept
things under control and found a very neat solution to the problems. With a
draw the World Champion won the tiebreak 2½-1½ and keeps his title.
It has not been a great match, but there
can be no peace, as the rules will not allow it. After a very strange game,
Anand entered an endgame a pawn up, and precisely when he had an advantage
and Gelfand had 15 minutes for 18 moves, they drew!
This means that the classical world
champion will be decided by rapid games, and possibly blitz.
The twelfth and final classic game of the
match epitomized this encounter in many ways. Entering the match, in spite
of the World Champion’s distinct lack of form in the previous months, it was
presumed that he had been saving his best for the upcoming battle and would
steamroll Boris when the time came.
The time came, the time passed, and the
impending massacre never took place. In fact, with few exceptions, the match
has been lacking not so much great technical qualities as great fighting
spirit.
26th May 2012
Game eleven: Anand draws with a Nimzo
Indian
Game 11 in
progress
It was the penultimate game of the match,
and the last white for Gelfand. The game was a Nimzo-Indian once more, and
though it ended in a draw after 25 moves, the tension came from Gelfand’s
extensive use of the clock, leaving him with only twelve minutes when they
shook hands. Will Anand go all out with white in the last game, or prefer
the rapid playoffs?
The 11th game was a tantalising one,
having its exciting moments initially, which perhaps raised hopes of a
positive result for fans of reigning World Champion Anand ...
[Pictures,
videos, GM commentary]
Game ten: An offbeat Sicilian is
flavour of the day
With two whites to go, Anand chose 1.e4 as
one means to try and keep his opponent off-balance. Gelfand was ready with
his Sicilian, and even Vishy's 3.Bb5, and fairly offbeat 5.b3, were replied
to nearly instantly. The queens came off by move eleven after which the
position remained equal until their handshake at move 25 ...
[more]
After a near defeat in round eight,
Gelfand regrouped and won a moral victory in round nine. Anand stuck to his
Semi-Slav, and Gelfand showed he had found a way to gain an edge once more.
But despite clearly having the better chances, he was unable to manoeuvre to
a win, and drew after making Anand suffer until move 49.
The match is being staged in the Tretyakov
Gallery in Moscow, over twelve games and lasts from May 11 to 30. The prize
fund is US $2.55 million, the winner getting $1.53 million (60%), the loser
$1.02 million (40%) ... [more]
What a game, what a fascinating turn of
events! World Champion Vishy Anand shockingly lost the sixth game and let
Challenger Boris Gelfand take the lead. Today he struck back with a
resounding 17-move win.
Anand was in full flow today and showed
his natural aggressive side. It was a fantastic effort by him as one seldom
comes across a decisive miniature less than 20 moves in World Championship
games. What is more important is the way Anand shrugged off yesterday’s
defeat and would definitely be enjoying a psychological edge and to a
certain extent some peaceful sleep and rest on the free day ...
[...
continued]
Analysis by IM Andrew Martin
19th May 2012
BBC News | Chess in India: Why is it on
the rise?
by
Rajini Vaidyanathan
The world chess championships are under
way in Russia, where Vishwanathan Anand defends his title. His success is
widely credited for the growing popularity of chess in his home country,
India, the nation widely believed to have given the game to the world.
He's been described by some as the Sachin
Tendulkar of chess, a role model to thousands of Indian school children and
arguably one of the country's most successful sportsmen.
Vishwanathan Anand is India's biggest
chess star, and was the first in the country to secure the game's highest
honour, by becoming a grandmaster ... [full
story]
19th May 2012
Chess: Will India checkmate Russia?
As the world championships take place,
correspondent Vaidyanathan reports on the rising popularity of chess in
India |
Listen
18th May 2012
Game six: another draw
It was a sixth straight draw, though
possibly Gelfand's best position so far. Despite never achieving any
significant advantage, the chances were his, and this in itself was both
promising and worrisome. Promising as he got a small edge, but worrisome as Anand has neutralized Gelfand so easily with black so far.
Kasparov was guest of honour and at the
press conference, he answered questions ... [full
report with pictures]
The wait wasn’t long for enthusiasts
expecting the King Pawn Opening from World Champion, Anand.
Playing with white in the fifth game, he
opened with the king pawn for the first time in this game twelve match.
The surprise element as expected was
missing with the Israeli GM too having anticipated this move by Anand.
Gelfand counter surprised Anand by skipping his favourite Petroff Defence
and instead opted for the Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence.
Anand was once again not his usual self, and it was another slow and safe
approach by the Indian, who is fighting in the Classical World Championship
format for the third time, having defeated Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 and
Veselin Topalov in 2010 ...
[read
more]
16th May 2012
Game Four
The fourth game of the ongoing World Chess
Championship at the Treyatov Gallery in Moscow was a rather tame affair, in
stark contrast to the lively, exciting and entertaining one played in the
third round yesterday. The eventual outcome, however, was the same as in the
third game � a draw after 34 moves ...
[more]
14th May 2012
Anand tantalizingly close to first win
The players on the stage
A well fought, fantastic struggle ended
without much fanfare, the World Champion Viswanathan Anand perhaps playing
it safe in the dying stages of game three of the World Chess Championship to
draw the game against Boris Gelfand.
The position was complex and appeared
promising for the NIIT MindChampion Anand, but experts commenting on the
game could not come to any firm conclusion, and only analysis by chess
engines later should provide more insights into the game.
It was one of those very rare times that
Anand found himself in time trouble, and impending checkmate threath with
both Gelfand’s rooks patrolling his seventh rank, had him settling for a
draw with repetition of moves. The game lasted 37 moves and literally had
the followers on the edge of their seats ...
[full
report with games]
13th May 2012
World Championship 2012, Moscow
Ilyumzhinov starts the first game
The World Chess
Championship 2012 is being staged in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow,
between the current World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and the winner
of the Candidates tournament Boris Gelfand of Israel. The match is over
twelve games and lasts from May 11 to 30. The prize fund is US $2.55
million, the winner getting $1.53 million (60%), the loser $1,02 million
(40%).
IM Malcolm Pein reports
In game one of the 2010 WCC final, Anand played the Gruenfeld against Topalov and after 24 moves he
could resign. In 2012, Anand had to face the Gruenfeld in the first game and
after 24 moves, the challenger Boris Gelfand had secured a draw with black
and will be the slightly happier of the two ... [more]
10th May 2012
Cup finals for the Wirral and Chester Leagues 2012
by John Carleton
Chester CC's
venue: The Town Crier
The start of May saw the end of unfinished
business in the form of the K.O. finals in each of the Chester and District
and Wirral Chess Leagues. First up was the match against Wrexham over 6
boards on the 1st May.
The balance of grades on the top 3 boards
saw Wrexham slightly favoured but this was offset by Chester having 2
whites. Chester's slightly greater advantage in grades on the bottom 3
boards was likewise balanced by the colours. In short, the match was too
close to call. The tension was palpable throughout as Cup holders Wrexham
strove to prevent a Chester League and Cup double. It was first blood to
Wrexham when Charles Morris's central control proved decisive against Jeff
Smith ... [...
read more]
10th May 2012
The 4NCL Fifth Weekend by John Carleton
Hinckley
Island Hotel
The Atticus team assembled
in a mood of well-founded optimism [contrasting
with the usual baseless over-estimation of our
prospects] after the fine result in the first of
our demotion pool matches. The subsequent
inspirational motivational input carefully
crafted by the Club Management Board also
contributed to the squad reaching close to peak
condition.
Assembled is perhaps a loose
description as the team were spread over the
bank-holiday hit motorway network until quite
close to the start of the first match of the
weekend against Cambridge University 2. We could
draw parallels with last season where we needed
two wins from the three matches to be confident
of promotion as this year we felt two wins from
three matches would maintain our elevated status
in division 2 ... [continue
reading]
5th April 2012 Spirit of Chester : Semi-finals weekby John Carleton On the 27th March the Chester K.O. team, under the
guidance of the holidaying skipper Dave Bryan, faced Rhyl and Prestatyn over
6 boards in the semi-final of the Chester and District League K.O. at the
Town Crier. The following night with the skipper returned, he took the reins
and captained the team over 7 boards away against cup holders Penyffordd in
the semi-final [...
more]
TWIC
- Tournament Director IM Malcolm Pein has
tweeted that the London Chess Classic will
definitely take place again this year December
1st-10th 2012.
The 4th edition will again be an elite 9
player all-play-all.
2nd April 2012 The 4NCL Fourth Weekend by John Carleton
Barcelo Hinckley
Island
With the prospect of
relegation hanging over us, we headed, in a
nonetheless relaxed frame of mind, to meet
Warwickshire Select on the Saturday of the
fourth weekend at Hinckley Island. This match for
us was a visit to the last chance saloon, a long
shot but an opportunity to avoid playing the
last 4 rounds in the demotion pool of Division
2.
Once the teams were published it
was clear that the Warwickshire team were not in
the mood for taking any chances outranking us on
average by over 100 points per board. This may
have been in recognition of the fact that we
were fielding no fewer than three products of
the Warwickshire Academy in our own ranks,
including two members of the all conquering
County U18 Champions of 1964, but there again it
may not ... [continue
reading]
27th March 2012
Spirit of Atticus in Chester/ Spirit of Chester
by John Carleton
Chester CC's
venue: The Town Crier
My anticipation of a tough start to the second half of
the season proved amply justified as the pressure on Chester 1 began to mount
through January and February. Things started straightforwardly enough with
our game against Formby.
In the Wirral Chess League to date we had mainly met new
opponents in new surroundings but this match was very much a case of meeting
up with old friends and rivals ... [...
continue reading]
TWIC - London Chess Classic director IM
Malcolm Pein says that the staging of the Candidates tournament in London
October 24th - November 12th puts the viability of a prospective 4th London
Classic in December in doubt.
Do you want the good news or the bad news? The good news
is that some more top flight chess is coming to London. Agon, FIDE's new
commercial partner has announced that the Candidates Tournament will take
place in London from October 24 - November 12.
The bad news is that this
development raises serious questions about the 4th London Chess Classic,
which would have taken place in December. [read
more]
20th February
2012
Magnus Carlsen: The Mozart of Chess
Demolition, not defeat, is the goal
of 21-year-old Magnus Carlsen. No, he's not a boxer, not a
wrestler.
Rather, Magnus is the top chess
player in the world, and he takes it on like an athlete. First,
there's the tough physical workouts to prepare himself for the
tough mental workout of competition ...
At age 21, chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen is the number
one player in the world and says he loves to see his opponents squirm.
The Bunratty Masters took place 17th - 19th February
2012. Nigel Short, Michael Adams and Gawain Jones finished on 5/6. Keith
Arkell and Constantin Istratescu were half a point further back. Andrei
Istratescu (defaulted in Rd5), Malcolm Pein and Simon Ansell finished on
4/6.
On Sunday 19th February the very
influential CBS TV news magazine 60 Minutes will be
turning to chess, with a segment concentrating on
the exploits and personality of Magnus Carlsen. He
was filmed extensively during last year's London
Classic. At times the intrusion was extreme with
footage being shot well into the rounds
To get people in the mood they are streaming a "60
Minutes Rewind" of a report produced in 1972 on the upcoming match between
Boris Spassky and challenger Bobby Fischer.
Bob Simon's profile of 21-year-old prodigy Magnus Carlsen
is this Sunday at 19.00 ET/PT on CBS.
We arrived at the southernmost venue in the 4NCL panoply
determined, as promised, to show what we could do to ignite our season and
begin in earnest the big battle against relegation.
The snow cover gave the
grounds of Sunningdale Park a Christmas-card feel on the crisp sunny
Saturday morning that awaited us but provided an extra worry for the
captains and management of teams such as ours.
Thus concerns about travel conditions from the North
added to pressure on the captain already feeling the heat about his lack of
IT skills in general ... [...
more]
14th February 2012
Aeroflot 2012
The 11th Aeroflot Open is taking place in Moscow from
February 7 to 15 for the first time in the
Cosmos Hotel, which is one of
the largest in Moscow. Tourney mode: Open tourney 9 rounds Swiss System.
Time control: 100 minutes/40 moves + 50 minutes/20 moves + 15 minutes + 30
seconds/move starting with the first move. Game start: all rounds 12:00
(15:00 local Moscow time).
Could it be true? A Candidates
tournament in London
TWIC - IM
Malcolm Pein reports further on the exciting news that the FIDE want to hold
the Candidates tournament in London.
FIDE officials are privately confirming reports in the
Russian press to the effect that the Candidates Matches will be held in
London from October 23-November 13th. If I had a plastic chess set for every
time this kind of story appeared, I could teach the world to play, but there
is something in the rumours. FIDE has a potential new partner in American
entrepreneur Andrew Paulson and he has expressed an interest in staging the
event in London. I understand he is considering a bid for all major FIDE
events. [full
story]
8th February 2012
Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2012
- Round 10
bulletin by John Saunders
Winner Nigel Short with Tradewise CEO James
Humphreys
The 10th Tradewise Gibraltar Festival ended yesterday at
the Caleta Hotel with England’s Nigel Short winning the tournament for a
record third time after tying for first with tournament sensation Hou Yifan
of China and then winning a pulsating rapidplay play-off by 1½-½. Short and
Hou Yifan had finished on 8/10, with Michael Adams (England), Shakhriyar
Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Viktor Bologan (Moldova), Emil Sutovsky (Israel)
tying for third place on 7½ points.
For winning, Nigel Short netted
the £20,000 first prize and also the £5,000 special
prize (set up in honour of the Queen's diamond
jubilee) for the best placed Commonwealth
competitor.
17-year-old Hou Yifan takes home £12,000 for finishing
second plus the £10,000 women’s prize and the £600 Junior prize. The four
players in the next score group shared £26,500 equally.
WL Div 1: Tuesday 24th January 2012by John Carleton
Well sometimes a draw feels
as good as a win! We started quite brightly
[here in Andy Smith style I should say my master
plan was 2/3 on the top boards and half a point
from the two bottom boards to reel in the draw].
Ray on 4 had a small advantage, mine was going
pretty well. Joe on 5 was having some problems
and shed a pawn. Our Richie was under a bit of
pressure as was their Richie facing Dave playing
at a thoughtful tempo ...
[... report
continues here]
16th January 2012
The 4NCL Second Weekendby John Carleton
Hinckley
Island Hotel
The weekend of 14th-15th
January saw the return to Hinckley Island, a
venue with warm memories for us for it was here
that we clinched promotion to Division 2.
Despite our setbacks of the first weekend we headed into
play in buoyant mood and the revival of those pleasant memories when we saw
Bradford, who pipped us on tie break [points scored] receive the Division 3
Championship trophy at the start of play of round 3 of the current campaign
did no harm to our mood. [More]
4th
Jan 2012
Spirit of Atticus in Chester/ Spirit of Chesterby John Carleton
Over the Summer 2011 we decided that we should be playing
more chess and looked at some alternatives. Should we form a new club?
Should we join an existing club that would take the five or six of us
available? Once we decided against the first option [plenty of time for that
when we start to get old] and a serious attempt at joining a Merseyside club
fell by the wayside, I decided to take up an offer to play for Chester Chess
Club in the Chester and District Chess League. [Read
more]
1st Jan 2012
Carlsen 30 points clear
TWIC -
The January 2012 FIDE Rating list has been
released. Magnus Carlsen has opened up a 30
point lead over his closest rivals after picking
up points in the Tal Memorial and London. Levon
Aronian moves up to 2nd after gaining points in
the European Teams and Tal Mem but losing in
London.
Kramnik more than made up losses at the Tal with his win
in London to go 3rd. World Champion Anand drops 12 points to 4th after
lacklustre perfomances in both of these events likely to be his last before
his World Title match in May
... more.
4th
Jan 2011
Hastings Congress 2011-12
Favourite Wang Yue led throughout and won with 7½/9 half
a point clear of Andrei Istratescu, Babu Lalith, M.R.Sundar M.Shyam,
The Hastings Masters is a traditional nine round
accelerated Swiss tournament which took place 28th December 2011 - January
5th 2012. . Other events included a Christmas Tournament, a Weekend Congress
and New Year events. The Weekend Open was scrapped because of budget cuts.
