29th March 2013

London Candidates R11 - Kramnik wins, Aronian loses

		Alexander Grischuk drew against tournament leader Magnus Carlsen with a coffeehouse move; Vladimir Kramnik beat Teimour Radjabov, who fell for a nice trick on move 28; Peter Svidler played a potentially tournament-deciding game by beating Carlsen's main rival Levon Aronian; Vassily Ivanchuck and Boris Gelfand ended an theoretical duel with a draw on move 17.   In Thursday's 11th round of the FIDE World Chess Candidates' Tournament Vladimir Kramnik moved to second place. Russia's number one beat Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), while Levon Aronian (Armenia) lost to Peter Svidler (Russia). Drawing his black game with Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway) kept his half point lead in London with three rounds to go. Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) played a very quick draw.   The encounter between Vassily Ivanchuk (above in the press conference with Anastasiya Karlovich) and Boris Gelfand was in fact the shortest game of the tournament so far.   Read more ...   Official site | All games in PGN |   Round 12, March 29 at 14:00 (09.00 EST)

Standings after Round 11

26th March 2013

The 4NCL Fourth Weekend 2012/13 by John Carleton

The message from the heavens was clear, as part of the celebrations following the recent ceremonies to confirm the bishop of Rome and the Archbishop of Canterbury [AKA Bishops of opposite colour], "The snow must go on".

The defiant 4NCL Arbiters led by Dave Welch responded trenchantly, "The show must go on". Of course nothing is simple and on Friday the emails, as did the snow, came in regular flurries. One of the more unusual aspects of life on Planet Chess is that the problems tend to grow [and grow] before any resolution is reached. Thus many issues were addressed which may not have appeared to the uninitiated to further the matter in hand ... [... Read more].

27th February 2013

The 4NCL Third Weekend 2012/13 by John Carleton

The 4NCL at Staverton Park continued the progress through the season with rounds 5 and 6 of divisions 1 and 2 and the corresponding rounds for division three North at Wychwood Park [near Crewe] and division 3 South at Daventry Court Hotel.

This extra information should be viewed in the context of public service provision and not as a result of another tough weekend in pool A of division 2 that saw the Spirit of Atticus team propelled into another second half of the season in the relegation pool of division 2.

Saturday saw us paired against an Anglian Avengers team who can rightly boast a team of experience blended with youthful talent. We, as ever, leaned heavily towards the experienced end of the market ... [... Read more].

15th Feb 2013

Chester 1 Mid-Season Report 2012-13 by John Carleton

At one of our famed planning and strategy meetings held pre-season the hope was expressed that Chester 1 would produce better chess in the forthcoming season although there was an anticipation that even with that eventuality it would be extremely unlikely that we could aspire to the success of season 2011-12.

With the completion of our match on 15th January we were half way through our league fixtures and had played a full part in the Club's progress into the semi-finals of each of the K.O. competitions. We are assured a busy second half of the season whatever happens and hope that the schedule includes the appearance of 6 teams in those cup competitions for Chester teams, 4 of which to include Chester 1 personnel [The winner of Hoylake v Chester will play against Pensby in the final of the Wirral K.O. ... [... Read more]

14th January 2013

The 4NCL Second Weekend 2012/13 by John Carleton

A regular reader [there is one] of our reports has expressed a mixture of amazement and admiration at the ability of the Spirit of Atticus team to be so joyful at involvement in the 4NCL that they assume an optimism that is almost unfathomable.

And so it was, firmly in last place of our mini-league, that we arrived for rounds 3 in this season's competition convinced that we were in better shape than at the same stage last season and relishing the prospect of a tough work-out against a potentially strong Oxford team. We had already received something of a lift when rumours that Oxford's resources were stretched and this would affect their line-up percolated through ... [... Read more].

6th January 2013

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.

Update: Andy's latest contribution in the offbeat series, is not in the BCM but in the magazine section of the Bourne End Chess Club website. Members can submit articles or comments for publication. It’s aimed at Bourne End Club members, but not exclusively!