Corus GM Group C

The Group C has some fresh new faces, none fresher than Caruana, who should already be a strong contender for the title. Negi did not have a great year last year, but what the heck when you are 15 and the world at your board ?

Van der Weil will be interesting to watch here. Ushenina, Krush and Zhaoqin bring in the ladies charm and agression at the board.

GM Group C

GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko UKR 2651
GM Fabiano Caruana ITA 2594
GM Friso Nijboer NED 2559
IM Arik Braun GER 2541
GM Parimarjan Negi IND 2514
GM Dimitri Reinderman NED 2510
GM Efstratios Grivas GRE 2509
GM John van der Wiel NED 2496
WGM Anna Ushenina UKR 2486
GM Pontus Carlsson SWE 2481
WGM Irina Krush USA 2475
GM Zhaoqin Peng NED 2419
IM Mark van der Werf NED 2389
Dennis Ruijgrok NED 2330

Corus GM Group B

The GM Group B is by no means less interesting. There are super Grand Masters, dangerous floaters, and teenagers looking to break through.
Bacrot, Cheparinov, Short are very strong and will go all out. Humpy is riding on her successful year 2007. She needs to be watched. In fact Humpy - Yifan is a potential future rivalry. Yifan must have done some serious work the last few months. She's gained heavily in the January ratings list, so lets see if she can put up a fight, even though the opposition is pretty strong for her. Nepomniachtchi and Stellwagen need to be watched carefully.

GM Group B

GM Etienne Bacrot FRA 2695
GM Gabriel Sargissian ARM 2673
GM Ivan Cheparinov BUL 2670
GM Sergey Movsesian SLK 2670
GM Pentala Harikrishna IND 2668
GM Michal Krasenkow POL 2668
GM Nigel Short ENG 2649
GM Daniel Stellwagen NED 2639
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2611
GM Koneru Humpy IND 2606
GM Erwin L’Ami NED 2577
GM Jan Smeets NED 2558
WGM Hou Yifan CHI 2502
IM Wouter Spoelman NED 2445

Corus Chess GM Group A

The focus will obviously be on the Kramnik - Anand rivarly and now that they are tied for the top spot in the world with exactly the same ELO points, this tournament will more or less serve as a tie-break.

Topalov has lost a lot of the headlines to the top two, so he'll probably grab this chance to try and get some. Carlsen, Mamedyarov, and the ever dangerous Judit Polgar are others to watch.

The Group A of the Corus Chess Tournaments reads like a Who's who in chess.
Here's the list updated with the January 2008 Ratings. Note that Ivanchuk for example, appears second but is ninth in the world because he slipped by the time the Corus tournament was announced and the Ratings list was updated. Same with Leko and Aronian too and so on. Kramnik moved up.

World Rank, Name, Country, Rating

GM Group A

1 GM Viswanathan Anand India 2799
9 GM Vassily Ivanchuk Ukraine 2751
1 GM Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2799
3 GM Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 2780
8 GM Peter Leko Hungary 2753
6 GM Shakryar Mamedyarov Azerbaijan 2760
12 GM Teimour Radjabov Azerbaijan 2735
10 GM Levon Aronian Armenia 2739
11 GM Boris Gelfand Israel 2737
16 GM Michael Adams England 2726
13 GM Magnus Carlsen Norway 2733
22 GM Judit Polgar Hungary 2707
27 GM Pavel Eljanov Ukraine 2692
35 GM Loek Van Wely The Netherlands 2681

Corus Chess 2008 at Wijk Aan Zee

The 2008 Corus Chess Tournament at Wijk and Zee - A Preview

The Category 20 chess tournament with average ELO 2741 will be held as usual at Wijk aan Zee from 11 to 27 January 2008.

The venue will be the De Moriaan Community Centre and the Bar de Zon.

The tournament will be held in different groups. All eyes will be on the premier GM A Group. But players in the GM Group B and GM Group C are no pushovers. In fact, any other city would be proud to host a tournament with players as strong as the ones in GM Group C. As an example, Magnus Carlsen first earned real publicity with his amazing show as a 13 year old kid at Wijk aan Zee.

The GM Group A has almost all the top ranked players of the world. This tournament is the first of the Grand Slam events of chess.

In addition to the GM Group sections, there is a Honorary tournament running in parallel. Victor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, and Lajos Portisch play in this section. Amazingly even this is a category 13 tournament.

XIX International Open Villa de Roquetas

The XIX Internation Open Villa de Roquetas chess tournament will be organized from January 2-6.

Leading participants:
1 GM GRANDA ZUÑIGA Julio PER 2592
2 GM UBILAVA Elizbar ESP 2551
3 GM BARSOV Alexei UZB 2526
4 GM CIFUENTES PARADA Roberto ESP 2499
5 GM MEIJERS Viesturs LAT 2490
6 GM DJURIC Stefan SCG 2463
7 IM GAPONENKO Inna UKR 2440
8 IM COSSIN Sebastien FRA 2437
9 FM DOLEZAL Cristian ARG 2424
10 IM KOVACEVIC Slobodan SCG 2414

European Rapid Chess Championships 2007

Results of the European Rapid Championships at Warsaw, Poland:

1 Aleksej Aleksandrov
2 Tomasz Markowski
3 Fernando Peralta
4 Wojciech Moranda
5 Adam Tukhaev
6 Mateusz Bartel
7 Vladimir Malaniuk
8 Hristos Banikas
9 Dimitros Mastrovasilis
10 Wojciech Przybylski
11 Csaba Balogh
12 Artur Jakubiec
13 Aleksander Miśta
14 Namig Guliyev
15 Mikhail Gurevich
16 Aleksander Moiseenko

II Obert Internacional de les Illes Medes

The Obert International open Illes Medes is being held in Girona, Spain.
The 9 round event started on 28 th December and finishes on 4 th January.

Leading players are Bartel Mateusz, Victor Moskalenko, Rainer Buhmann, Lopez Martinez Josep Manuel, Narciso Dublan Marc, Aroshidze Levan, Czakon Jakub, Fluvia Jordi, Rasmussen Karsten, Rasmussen Allan Stig.

Final Standings:

1 GM Lopez Martinez Josep Manuel ESP 7,5
2 GM Aroshidze Levan GEO 7,0
3 IM Czakon Jakub A POL 7,0
4 GM Narciso Dublan Marc ESP 7,0
5 FM Rasmussen Allan Stig DEN 6,5
6 GM Moskalenko Viktor UKR 6,5
7 GM Bartel Mateusz POL 6,5
8 FM Rombaldoni Denis A ITA 6,5
9 FM Terrieux Kevin FRA 6,5
10 IM Groetz Harald AUT 2321 6,0

Leading boards drawn at Hastings chess congress

The lead pairings, Williams vs Tahirov and Sengupta vs Gormally were drawn. Top seed Malakhatko continued his trek back from the shock first round defeat at the Hastings Chess Congress 2007 - 2008.

There were some winners from the home team when Mark Hebden, Stuart Conquest, Nicholas Pert, Haslinger, Houska, and others won. Gormally was held to a draw by the young Deep Sengupta of India. The other two leading Indians, Satyapragyan and Roy Chowdhury, lost today to Neverov and Georgiev respectively.

Leaders after 3 rounds:

Chatalbashev, Falko, Haslinger, Gerogiev, Neverov, Flear, Hebden, Williams, Gormally, Tahirov, Sengupta, Conquest, Pert (2.5 Pts each)

Malakhatko, Gawain Jones, Mamedov & others (2 points each)

University of Texas wins Pan American Collegiate Chess 2007

University of Texas Dallas team won the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess championship also known as the "World series of College chess", at Miami.

UT Dallas team won 5 rounds and drew the final round to win the gruelling tournament. Salvijus Bercys was the hero for the winning team on the last day. The coach Rade Milovanovic was proud of the achievement, which is understandable as one of the features was that Salvijus managed a victory with hardly any time left on his clock.

Standings after round 6:

1 Univ. of Texas D- B 5.5
2 Univ. of Texas D- A 5.5
3 Univ. of Mary. BC A 4.0
4 Miami Dade College A 4.0
5 Univ. Catolica del Peru 4.0
6 Duke University 4.0
7 Yale A 3.5
8 Univ. of Texas - Brownsville 3.5
9 Harvard University 3.5
10 Univ. of Tor. A 3.0

Nakamura and Pruess finish first at the 2007 North American Open

GM Hiraku Nakamura and IM David Pruess finished first with 6 points out of the possible seven at the North American Open chess tournament 2007.

Shabalov, Becerra and Kretchetov finished next with 5.5 points.

Final Standings:

1 Hikaru Nakamura and IM David Pruess 6
3- GM Alexander Shabalov, GM Julio Becerra and FM Alex Kretchetov- 5.5
6-10- GM Varuzhan Akobian, GM Jesse Kraai, Denys K.Shmelov, GM Gildardo J. Garcia and IM Vladimir Mezentsev- 5

2007 Groningen Chess

Five players were tied for the first place at the Groningen Chess Festival. Stelios Halkias won the title on tie-break.

The final standings after round 9 in the Harmonie Open A category at Groningen 2007:

1 GM Halkias, Stelios 6.5 GRE
2 GM Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios 6.5 GRE
3 GM Ernst, Sipke 6.5 NED
4 GM Adly, Ahmed 6.5 EGY
5 IM Lobzhanidze, Davit 6.5 GEO
6 GM Banikas, Hristos 6.0 GRE
7 GM Li, Shilong 6.0 CHN
8 IM Hoffmann, Michael 6.0 GER
9 GM Nijboer, Friso 5.5 NED
10 GM Rotstein, Arkadij 5.5 GER
11 IM Swinkels, Robin 5.5 NED
12 IM Pruijssers, Roeland 5.5 NED
13 FM Burg, Twan 5.5 NED
14 GM Reinderman, Dimitri 5.0 NED
15 IM Simutowe, Amon 5.0 ZAM
16 IM Spoelman, Wouter 5.0 NED
17 IM Hendriks, Willy 5.0 NED
18 IM Van Oosterom, Chiel 5.0 NED
19 FM De Jong, Migchiel 5.0 NED
20 FM Clemens, Adrian 5.0 NED

Ciudad de Pamplona open category

In the very strong open tournament that is running in parallel, IM Ivan Salgado Lopez was placed first on tie break. Lopez stole a march over several strong GMs such as San Segundo, GRANDA ZUÑIGA, Li Chao, Pogorelov, Krivoshey and others.

Ciudad de Pamplona chess round 7

Francisco Vallejo Pons won the Cuidad de Pamplona chess event. In a rather short tournament, he edged ahead of Wang Yue and Jobava Baadur by half a point to win the title.

Beliavsky and Movsesian were winners today over Rodshtein and Khamrakulov respectively. Vallejo Pons vs Wange Yue, the very strong pairing was drawn.

Results of Round 7:

GM BELIAVSKY, Alexander G 2646 1 - 0 GM RODSHTEIN, Maxim 2615
GM SARGISSIAN, Gabriel 2673 ½ - ½ GM JOBAVA, Baadur 2644
GM MOVSESIAN, Sergei 2670 1 - 0 GM KHAMRAKULOV, Ibragim S 2604
GM VALLEJO PONS, Francisco 2660 ½ - ½ GM WANG, Yue 2703

Final Standings after Round 7

Vallejo Pons - 4.5
Wang Yue, Jobava Baadur - 4
Beliavsky, Movsesian - 3.5
Rodshtein, Sargissian - 3
Khamrakulov - 2.5

Pentala Harikrishna beats Godena

Harikrishna beat in form Godena in the second round of the Reggio Emilia tournament.

All the other games were drawn.

Results of second round:

Gashimov vs Ni Hua 0.5 - 0.5
Korchnoi vs Almasi 0.5 - 0.5
Marin vs Navara 0.5 - 0.5
P Harikrishna vs Godena 1-0
Tiviakov vs Landa 0.5 - 0.5

Morozevich wins Russian superfinals

Alexander Morozevich won the Russian Superfinals 2007. He finished with a win over Inarkiev and a 2800 + performance.
The only other contestant for the title, Grischuk drew with Svidler. Thus Morozevich finished a full point ahead of Grischuk.

In the women's section, there was a four way tie for the first place between Tatiana Kosintseva, Ovod, Tairova and Korbut.

Round 11 main results (Will be updated soon):

Men

Morozevich beat Inarkiev
Grischuk drew Svidler
Tomashevsky drew Jakovenko
Timofeev drew Dreev
Sakaev beat Amonatov
Vitiugov beat Rychagov

Women

Korbut lost to Ovod
Stepovaia beat Tairova
Pogonina lost to Tatiana Kosintseva
Shadrina drew Nadezhda Kosintseva
Kovalevskaya drew Matveeva
Giriya beat Gunina

Final Standings

Men

Morozevich 8
Grischuk 7
Tomashevsky 6.5

Women

Tatiana Kosintseva 7
Ovod 7
Tairova 7
Korbut 7

Hastings Chess Round 2

The pace of upsets subsided somewhat in the second round of the Hastings Chess Congress Tournament. But the Indians continued their rampage. Deep Sengupta beat fifth seed Nidjat Mamedov, Saptarishi Roy Chowdhury drew Stuart Conquest, S Satyapragyan drew against Pert Nicholas.

In other notable games, Farhad Tahirov beat Jovanka Houska. Mark Hebden was held to a draw by Andrew Greet. JONES,Gawain beat Poobalasingam to rise up in the standings list.

Rilton Cup 2007 - 2008

The Rilton Cup has started. Top players are Wojtaszek, Kotronias, Berg, Lars Bo Hansen, Cicak, Tiger Hillarp Persson, Robert Fontaine, Nybäck Tomi, Agrest, Cramling, Pontus Carlsson, Åkesson Ralf and others.

Leading standings after Round 3:

GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw, GM Nybäck Tomi, GM Cramling Pia, GM Åkesson Ralf - 3 points

Cicak Slavko, GM Agrest Evgenij, GM Carlsson Pontus, IM Lindberg Bengt, GM Kotronias Vasilios, GM Berg Emanuel, GM Hillarp Persson Tiger, IM Berczes David, GM Bellon Juan ESP - 2.5 points

January 2008 FIDE chess rating list

The rating list for January 2008 has been published a bit early this time. As expected Anand and Kramnik are tied for the first place with 2799. Topalov moves to number three.

Big gainers are Svidler, Carlsen, Karjakin and Cheparinov. Svidler in fact jumped into the top five in style. He is about to lose some serious points from the Russian Superfinals event though. But that event will be rated only in the next list. Shirov too moves deeper into the top ten. Mamedyarov is already firmly entrenched in the top ten.

In the women's section, Koneru Humpy of India is gaining on Judit Polgar of Hungary. The difference between them is now only 95 points. No one has dared come nearer in recent times. Hou Yifan is also bound to challenge these two very soon. Zhu Chen is probably coming back to her full form. She is now fourth and is one of the fastest movers. She has gained in the last six rating lists consecutively ! Probably for the first time, the top ten active players in the ladies section are above 2500.

In the juniors section, Carlsen and Karjakin are battling it out for the top spot and will most likely retain it for several more rating lists. In the junior girls, 14 year old Hou Yifan tops the list for girls under 20 ! D Harika would have been second had she not dropped serious points in the last three months.

Among countries, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, USA, and China make up the top five. Armenia, France, Hungary, The Netherlands, and Azerbaijan follow. Azerbaijan's continuous ascent is mainly due to the exploits of Mamedyarov and Radjabov.

For more ratings information see the following: http://www.fide.com/ratings/toplist.phtml

Pan Am intercollegiate chess championship

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS-A is leading at the 2007 PAN AM INTERCOLLEGIATE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP. IM Daniel Fernandez and IM John Bartholomew lead in the individual standings. Davorin Kuljasevic, who recently made a GM norm in the tournament where Ray Robson made news headlines, also plays.

More details here: http://www.bocachess.com/2007PanAm.htm

North American Open 2007 Las Vegas, Nevada

Six rounds of the North American open have been completed. GM Alexander Shabalov is leading the strong field with 5.5 points. He has won all his games except one. GM Hiraku Nakamura and GM Varuzhan Akobian along with IM David Pruess.

FMs Alex Kretchetov and Jake Kleiman are ranked high in a strong field.

Nakamura was held to two draws by IM Joshua Friedel and GM Jesse Kraai.

No results of a few rounds of Irina Krush have been published.

The top 20 after round 6:

1 GM Alexander Shabalov 5½
2 GM Hikaru Nakamura 5
3 GM Varuzhan Akobian 5
4 IM David Pruess 5
5 GM Ildar Ibragimov 4½
6 GM Julio J Becerra 4½
7 FM Alex Kretchetov 4½
8 FM Jake Kleiman 4½
9 GM Nikola Mitkov 4
10 GM Jesse Kraai 4
11 GM Gildardo J Garcia 4
12 GM Dashze Sharavdorj 4
13 IM Vladimi Mezentsev 4
14 FM Slava Mikhailuk 4
15 Denys K Shmelov 4
16 FM Robby Adamson 4
17 Dennis Monokroussos 4
18 GM Anatoly Y Lein 4
19 FM Matthew Beelby 4
20 Rodelay Medina 4

Hastings Chess Congress

The Hastings Chess Congress tournament has started and will last until 6th of January, 2008.

There was a big upset in the first round. Top seed Vadim Malakhatko was beaten by Sebastian Bogner. The seeds 2-5 were also held to draws. This includes Gawain Jones who drew Simon Knott. Sanity was restored by seeds 5-9 who beat their opponents as expected.

50th Torneo di Capodanno Reggio Emilia

The strong Reggio Emilia tournament has started. There were two winners today:

Mihail Marin beat Sergei Tiviakov and Zoltan Almasi beat Pentala Harikrishna.

Gashimov vs Godena, Korchnoi vs Landa, Navara vs Ni Hua were drawn.

Pamplona chess Round 6

Six rounds of the Pamplona chess tournament have been completed. The leaders are:

1. Vallejo Pons, Francisco 4
2. Jobava, Baadur 3½
3. Wang Yue 3½
4. Khamrakulov, Ibragim 3½
5. Rodshtein, Maxim 3
6. Movsesian, Sergei 2½
7. Beliavsky, Alexander 2½
8. Sargissian, Gabriel 1½

Groningen Chess festival Harmonie Open A section

The 8th round of the A section of the Harmonie open has been completed.

The top ten in this tournament are:

1 Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios 6.0
2 Ernst, Sipke 6.0
3 Li, Shilong 6.0
4 Adly, Ahmed 6.0
5 Banikas, Hristos 5.5
6 Halkias, Stelios 5.5
7 Rotstein, Arkadij 5.5
8 Lobzhanidze, Davit 5.5
9 Hoffmann, Michael 5.5
10 Nijboer, Friso 5.0

Grischuk challenges Morozevich for the title

Now, its Grischuk's turn to make the Russian Superfinals interesting. With just one more round to go, he is within reach of Morozevich. Grischuk beat Rychagov in an exciting rook vs rook plus bishop endgame. Tomashevsky, the only other guy with realistic chances for the title lost today to Inarkiev. Sakaev beat Dreev with the black pieces in the only other decisive game.

Morozevich seemed to lack interest after his loss yesterday. Amonatov in fact had chances to convert the game into win but he let Morozevich slip away to an opposite color bishop endgame where Amonatov had an extra pawn.

In the women's section, decisive games were again the order of the day. Kovalevskaya, Tatiana Kosintseva, Ovod, and Gunina won their games against Tairova, Shadrina, Giriya, and Pogonina respectively.

Results of Round 10:

Men

Inarkiev, Ernesto - Tomashevsky, Evgeny 1-0
Dreev, Alexey - Sakaev, Konstantin 0-1
Jakovenko, Dmitry - Vitiugov, Nikita
Svidler, Peter - Timofeev, Artyom ½-½
Amonatov, Farrukh - Morozevich, Alexander ½-½
Rychagov, Andrey - Grischuk, Alexander 0-1

Women

Tairova, Elena - Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 0-1
Kosintseva, Tatiana - Shadrina, Tatiana 1-0
Ovod, Evgenija - Girya, Olga 1-0
Kosintseva, Nadezhda - Stepovaia, Tatiana ½-½
Matveeva, Svetlana - Korbut, Ekaterina ½-½
Gunina, Valentina - Pogonina, Natalija 1-0

Standings after Round 10

Men

1. Morozevich, Alexander 7
2. Grischuk, Alexander 6½
3. Tomashevsky, Evgeny 6
4. Inarkiev, Ernesto 5½
5. Dreev, Alexey 5
6. Jakovenko, Dmitry 5
7. Vitiugov, Nikita 4½
8. Sakaev, Konstantin 4½
9. Svidler, Peter 4½
10. Amonatov, Farrukh 4½
11. Rychagov, Andrey 4
12. Timofeev, Artyom 3

Women

1. Tairova, Elena 7
2. Korbut, Ekaterina 7
3. Kosintseva, Tatiana 6
4. Pogonina, Natalija 6
5. Ovod, Evgenija 6
6. Kosintseva, Nadezhda 5½
7. Matveeva, Svetlana 5
8. Shadrina, Tatiana 5
9. Stepovaia, Tatiana 4
10. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 3
11. Girya, Olga 3
12. Gunina, Valentina 2½

Dreev upsets Morozevich

Just when you thought Morozevich did the impossible by winning six games in a row, he made the other impossible possible. Now, Tomashevsky too has a chance of winning the title. Until yesterday, it seemed impossible that anyone will catch up.

The veteran Alexey Dreev, who seems to be on a second wind inspired form, beat Morozevich in 49 moves of a Sicilian. And that too with black. Well, color doesn't really matter when Moro is on the board. Tomashevsky beat Amonatov and he is just half a point adrift now.

Grischuk beat Timofeev to climb up to the third spot while Inarkiev beat Vitiugov.

In the women's section, Tatiana Kosintseva continued her slide by losing to Gunina. Her sister made up for the dismal day by beating Kovalevskaya with the black pieces.
Giriya beat Matveeva and Shadrina beat Stepovaia. The women's drawing quotient has been very low in this tournament.

Standings after Round 9:

Men

Morozevich - 6.5
Tomashevsky - 6
Grischuk - 5.5
Dreev - 5

Women

Tairova - 7
Korbut - 6.5
Pogonina - 6

Upcoming chess tournaments

Tournaments to be held in the near future:

Hastings Chess Congress - 28 December 2007 to 6 January 2008 (David Howell,Stuart Conquest, Glenn Flear, Danny Gormally, Valeriy Neverov, Mark Hebden, Nicholas Pert,Safarli Eltaj Nidjat, Mamedov, others ). Contact Stuart Reuben.

50th Torneo di Capodanno Reggio Emilia - December 29th 2007 - January 6th 2008 (Almasi Zoltan, Landa Konstantin, Harikrishna Pentala, Gashimov Vugar, Navara David, Tivjakov Sergej, Ni Hua, Korchnoi Viktor, Marin Mihail, Godena Michele)

6th Parsvnath International Open Chess Tournament
New Delhi, 12-20 January 2008
http://www.delhichess.com/

Ciudad De Pamplona Round 4

Vallejo Pons continues to lead after the fourth round of the Pamplona chess tournament 2007.

Standings after Round 4.

1. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2660 3
2. Beliavsky, Alexander G g SLO 2646 2½
3. Wang Yue g CHN 2703 2
4. Movsesian, Sergei g SVK 2670 2
5. Jobava, Baadur g GEO 2644 2
6. Rodshtein, Maxim m ISR 2615 2
7. Khamrakulov, Ibragim S g ESP 2604 1½
8. Sargissian, Gabriel g ARM 2673 1

Mighty Morozevich beats Svidler

The Moro magic continued into the 8th round of the Russian Superfinals of chess. Morozevich beat Svidler and with black and in 38 moves in a Sicilian Najdorf game. Morozevich's rating performance is a whopping 2900 now. The others seem to be tiring now with only one other game which saw a result when Timofeev beat Rychagov with the black pieces. Timofeev has salvaged a lot of points right at the end in what was otherwise a disastrous tournament for him.

In the women's section, the competition is cut-throat. No moro-like performance from anyone. But there were 5 decisive games out of 6. The big upset of the round in this section was Stepovaia beating Tatiana Kosintseva.

Results of the 8th round:

Men

Grischuk, Alexander - Sakaev, Konstantin ½-½
Dreev, Alexey - Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½
Amonatov, Farrukh - Vitiugov, Nikita ½-½
Svidler, Peter - Morozevich, Alexander 0-1
Rychagov, Andrey - Timofeev, Artyom 0-1
Inarkiev, Ernesto - Jakovenko, Dmitry ½-½

Women

Tairova, Elena - Girya, Olga 1-0
Kosintseva, Tatiana - Stepovaia, Tatiana 0-1
Matveeva, Svetlana - Pogonina, Natalija 0-1
Ovod, Evgenija - Gunina, Valentina 1-0
Kosintseva, Nadezhda - Korbut, Ekaterina ½-½
Shadrina, Tatiana - Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 1-0

Standings after 8 rounds:

Men

Morozevich 6.5
Tomashevsky 5
Grischuk 4.5

Women

Tairova 6.5
Korbut 6
Pogonina 5.5

Garry Kasparov interview on Chessvibes.com

Chessvibes.com has published a two part interview with Garry Kasparov, arguably the greatest chess player of all time.

In the first part, he talks about politics and his views on Vladimir Putin. In the second part, he discusses his chess career and how chess is a small issue compared to the situations he faces taking on Putin.

For more details, check www.chessvibes.com

Chess Ratings January 2008 preview

A preview of the January ratings and a few observations I made.

I'm not yet sure if the World Cup results will be included. If yes, then a lot of other changes are possible.

Kramnik and Anand will probably be tied for the World No.1 position.
Big loser on points, no marks here for the correct guess, yes, Ivanchuk losing more than 30 pts (has already started to make up for it, though)
Topalov moves to clear third with 2780. Mamedyarov gains smart points and he is likely to be fourth on the list.

Big movers up - Karjakin, Cheparinov, Svidler and Carlsen. Sasikiran moves up a bit.

Among the ladies, Koneru Humpy is inching up on Judit Polgar, even though she is not yet a match in class. She will be at 2612. Polgar loses a couple of points.
Hou Yifan gains impressively.

Roustam Kamsky resurfaces

Roustam (Rustam?) Kamsky, the father of the World Cup Champion 2007, Gata Kamsky has reappeared on the chess scene. In a letter appealing for "moral and financial support" from the US federation and the mayor of New York, Bloomberg, Kamsky has written a long letter justifying the actions that the Kamskys took right from the days of the Soviet Union to his defection, quitting chess and playing again. This appeal is apparently to garner support for Gata to prepare to win the World Chess Championship of chess.

In the letter, the senior Kamsky accuses Kasparov and Karpov of trying to sabotage his son's career.

The letter is available on the chess blog of Fernando Arrabal here :
http://chessarrabal.blogspot.com/

Round 4 Groningen Chess Festival

Banikas upset the in-form Li Shilong at the Groningen Chess festival in the fourth round.

Standings after Round 4:

1 GM Banikas, Hristos 3.5 GRE
2 GM Ernst, Sipke 3.5 NED
3 GM Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios 3.0 GRE
4 GM Nijboer, Friso 3.0 NED
5 GM Reinderman, Dimitri 3.0 NED
6 GM Li, Shilong 3.0 CHN
7 GM Adly, Ahmed 3.0 EGY
8 IM Lobzhanidze, Davit 3.0 GEO
9 IM Hoffmann, Michael 3.0 GER
10 IM Simutowe, Amon 3.0 ZAM

Morozevich beats Grischuk

Morozevich won again, this time against the very strong Grischuk. Svidler was shocked by Tomashevsky. Jakovenko beat Amonatov and Timofeev beat Sakaev with the black pieces. Morozevich now boasts a performance rating of 2867, which is pretty unusual after seven rounds. Grishuk resigned in just 27 moves when he was about to lose a piece for nothing.

Tailender Timofeev finally earned a full point beating another trailer, Sakaev in 39 moves of the Semi-Slav.

The women section was full of decisive results. Elena Tairova beat Pogonina and jumped into the lead (jointly with Korbut.) Tatiana Kosintseva was held to a draw by Ovod.



Results of Russian Chess Championship - Round 7

Morozevich, Alexander - Grischuk, Alexander 1-0
Tomashevsky, Evgeny - Svidler, Peter 1-0
Vitiugov, Nikita - Dreev, Alexey ½-½
Jakovenko, Dmitry - Amonatov, Farrukh 1-0
Inarkiev, Ernesto - Rychagov, Andrey ½-½
Sakaev, Konstantin - Timofeev, Artyom 0-1

Results of Russian Chess Championship Women - Round 7

Korbut, Ekaterina - Shadrina, Tatiana 1-0
Pogonina, Natalija - Tairova, Elena 0-1
Ovod, Evgenija - Kosintseva, Tatiana ½-½
Girya, Olga - Kosintseva, Nadezhda 0-1
Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina - Stepovaia, Tatiana 1-0
Gunina, Valentina - Matveeva, Svetlana 0-1

Standings after Round 7

Men

1. Morozevich - 5.5
2. Tomashevsky - 4.5
3. Grishchuk - 4
4. Svidler, Rychagov, Dreev, Vitiugov, Jakovenko , Amonatov 3.5
10. Inarkiev
11. Sakaev
12. Timofeev

Women

1. Tairova, Korbut 5.5
3. Kosintseva Tatiana 5
4. Pogonina, Matveeva 4.5
6. Ovod, Kosintseva Nadezhda 3.5
8. Shadrina 3
9. Stepovaia 2.5
10. Giriya, Kovalevskaya 2
12. Gunina 0.5

İş Bankası - Atatürk International Women Masters Chess Tournament

The Turkish Chess Federation, following the example of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, wants to give Women's chess a bold face. They attempt this by organizing the first Women's super tournament sponsored by İş Bankası. The total prize money is $ 16, 000.

The Turkish Chess Federation is also making an attempt at bringing up a Women dream team for the future and aim to win medals at future olympiads.

The tournament will be a round robin and starts on the 10th of March 2008 (arrival) and will finish on 20th March 2008 (departure). There will be eight invited players and the best two Turkish women player, according to the FIDE ElO List.

Notable absentees this year are
Judit Polgar - does not play in Women events.
Koneru Humpy - Second strongest female ever
Alexandra Kosteniuk - Pregnancy and children.

The event will still be a pretty strong one.

The following players are confirmed for the 2008 edition:

1 Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2531
2 Zhu Chen GM QAT 2531
3 Zhao Xue WGM CHN 2530
4 Hou Yifan WGM CHN 2502
5 Chiburdanidze, Maia GM GEO 2500
6 Ushenina, Anna IM UKR 2486
7 Harika, Dronavalli WGM IND 2480
8 Krush, Irina IM USA 2475
9 Atalık, Katerina IM TUR 2404
10 Betul Cemre Yildiz WIM TUR 2220

Reserve players

14 Javakhishvili, Lela IM GEO 2474
15