Levon Aronian bags Tata Steel Chess tournament, Carlsen second

Levon Aronian of Armenia did not give any chance to Carlsen to catch him up and in the end won the prestigious tournament at Wijk aan Zee of 2012. Aronian produced some gems in the tournament and Carlsen's usual efficiency was not sufficient. Caruana was the find of the tournament.

In Group B, P Harikrishna finished first and could be invited to next year's Group A. The chances appear more bright since Harikrishna is from India and the main sponsor is an Indian company.

GM Oliver Barbosa wins Delhi Open Chess (Parsvnath)

Oliver Barbosa of Philippines won the Parsvnath Delhi Open Chess tournament. He finished half a point ahead of two others who collected 9 points.

Wijk aan Zee 2nd round highlights and Interesting Live Chess Rating Observations

Levon Aronian is on 2/2 after the 2nd round of the Tata Steel (formerly Corus) Chess tournament of 2012. Aronian beat American Chess star, Nakamura. Caruana beat Karjakin. In other groups, Harikrishna beat Lahno and Tiviakov beat Timman. Young Sahaj Grover of India beat Paehtz of Germany.

After this round, we have some interesting observations to make on the Live Chess ratings.

• Magnus Carlsen is just 13 points shy of Kasparov's all time highest FIDE rating of 2851
• Aronian will surpass Anand as the 2nd highest ever FIDE rated player if he gains another ELO point but retains it until the end of the rating period.
• Caruana is nearly 2750 at the age of 19 and is ranked 12 in the World!
• Giri is 2735 and is No. 17 in the World!
• Harikrishna has gained impressive ELO after his 2/2 start, but it remains to be seen if he can mantain it. He has had to face frustration many times to reach 2700.

FIDE Chess Rating list - Muzychuk, Yifan, Nakamura (live) notable moves

Notable points on the new FIDE rating list:

Nakamura is No. 12 (but No. 6 and just a couple of points away from No. 5 on the Live Chess Rating list.

Three ELO 2800+ players.

Anna Muzychuk is now ELO 2580 and No. 4 in the Women's world ranking list.

Hou Yifan is 122 points (!!!) ahead of the No. 2 in the World Junior Girls ranking.

Editor
www.IMChess.com

Chess Art

Can you find a win out of this?

Do you feel something like this sometimes?

Editor

Bobby Fischer, the ultimate enigmatic Chess genius excelled at Table Tennis

Fischer played Table Tennis the way he played Chess: fiercely, ferociously, going for his opponent's jugular. He was a killer, a remorseless, conscienceless, ice-blooded castrator...' wrote Marty 'The Needle' Reisman in his autobiography The Money Player - The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler.

From kenilworthchessclub.org:

Both Chess and Table Tennis are played within the confines of a physical space that you can grasp completely within your field of vision.  There is nothing hidden in either game.  Yet, paradoxically, in order to play both successfully you need to grasp the image of the board or the table in your mind so that you actually have a feel for where the corners are.  In Chess we call this "board vision," and Table Tennis definitely has its "table vision."

Exotic Chess pieces

I always thought playing with non-standard chess pieces was awkward, although I wouldn't mind doing it on the beach and not in a tournament. What do you feel? What would be your comfort level?

Editor

Abhijeet Gupta set to crack top 100 Ranking list

GM Abhijeet Gupta of India

India's talented 22 year old Abhijeet Gupta is all set to break into the top 100 club of the world. On the November 2011 list, the 100th ranked player was rated 2651, so if all goes well, Abhijeet should make it. It will help him receive attractive invitations to higher level tournaments.

Abhijeet hails from Bhilwara, Rajasthan and is a World Junior Champ (2008). His other notable performances are 1st at Dubai Open Chess 2011, and runner up at the Orissa GM tournament.

2012 Parsvnath International Chess Tournament

Several Grandmasters are expected to participate in the 10th Parsvnath International Chess Tournament 2012 which starts from 14th to 23rd January 2012

Venue: Ludlow Castle Sports Complex, Civil Lines, New Delhi.

Total Prize Fund: INR 15,00,000/-
First prize: INR 3,00,000/-
There are 30 main cash prizes and many other reserved prizes. Accomodation is being provided and the playing conditions are expected to be good.

The first round starts on Jan 15 2012.

Nakamura, Kasparov split

Nakamura and Kasparov are stopping their work together at Chess. The brief training sessions did not go far and it was always going to be rough with two strong personalities with differing views. Rex Sinquefield was funding the program.

What probably sealed the nail on the coffin was when Nakamura reportedly said that Kasparov was mainly strong in opening preparation.

Yifan leads Humpy after four games

Yes, there is a lot of Chess excitement around the Tal Memorial Chess where Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk and many other stars are playing. But shouldn't we also pay some attention to the Women's World Championship. These girls are very young and also nearly 2600+ Open Grandmasters. Super stars in their own right!

Yifan leads 3.5-2.5, but it is early days yet. Humpy played two super openings but could not convert them to full points. Yifan just got one good chance and she was really a surgeon at the board.

Live Chess Ratings Commentary

The Live Chess Ratings list shows some exciting changes.

We now have three highly entertaining/enterprising/risk-taking fighters in the top 10 - Ivanchuk, Morozevich, and Nakamura. Of course, the other top players are no less entertaining, but they are pretty much stable in the top list.

World Championship contenders V Anand and B Gelfand are at No. 2 and 14 respectively. If you glance a little lower, you see that Tomashevsky has gained huge points and now is well placed to enter the top 10. The big losers recently are Kamsky and Ponomariov.

For India, we have a 2700+ player back in the group after a long time. K Sasikiran is playing the Corsica Masters and one hopes that he maintains the form that has brought him this invitation.

Editor

Magnus grinds down leader Ivanchuk

An old photo of Carlsen vs Ivanchuk

Magnus showed his class by grinding down current tourney leader, Ivanchuk in a French defence game. What was amazing was that Carlsen came up with a win in a double bishops ending!

In other games, Nakamura beat Vallejo Pons. Anand drew his game against Aronian.

Watch the game here:

Ivanchuk wins again, Anand beats Vallejo Pons

World Champ V Anand. Photo courtesy thechessdrum.net

Anand beat Vallejo Pons in the fourth round of the Sao Paulo masters Chess tournament. Ivanchuk continued his outstanding form beating 2800+ rated and World No. 3 Aronian. In the live chess ratings Ivanchuk only trails the very cream of world Chess, Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, and Kramnik.

Ivanchuk is by far the most active top Chess player in the world. Usually he slips back in the rankings and then climbs steeply. It remains to be seen if this occurs again! We hope not!


Watch Anand beat Vallejo Pons

Ivanchuk back in World's Top 5

Ivanchuk

Vassily Ivanchuk, the people's favorite for all his pleasing emotional expressions, is back in the World's top 5 on the Live Chess Ratings list. He is currently on 2777.

Both Anand and Carlsen have lost over 6 ELO by losing their previous round against lower rated players.

Watch Ivanchuk's earlier win over Vallejo Pons: