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Exciting Chess Events at London Chess Classic 2013 Live Today: Showbiz Celebrities, Chess Amateurs and Stars!

December 10, 2013, 9:59 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The Pro-Am Cup and Pro-Business Cup started is being held at the London Chess Classic 2013 today. This special chess event - before the start of the main GM event - includes amateurs and businessmen players paired with chess professionals in teams.

The Pro-Celebrity Challenge starts at 14:00 local time (15:00 CET) and includes showbiz stars. Games will be played with 10 minutes and 10 seconds on the clock and broadcast live. Lawrence Trent and Malcolm Pein will officiate. Each winning team receive £5000 for their favourite charity.



Confirmed celebrity line-up


Edgar Davids: Dutch footballing legend whose club career took him to Ajax, Juventus and Spurs, and included 74 international caps for Holland. His dreadlocked hair and protective goggles made Davids one of the most recognisable players of his generation.

Alex Zane: Alex is an English television personality and DJ best known for presenting Rube Tube on Channel 4. Alex was a guest at the 2010 London Chess Classic.

Shingai Shoniwa: Singer and bassist for the Noisettes, an English indie rock band from London who are best known for the single “Don’t Upset the Rhythm (Go Baby Go)”.

* Alex Zane has opted to give charity for Community Links
* Shingai Shoniwa has asked for her prize to go to the Philippines appeal
* Edgar Davids has his own foundation @Fountain

1st Pro-Am Cup
Four amateur players have bid to play with a chess legend in a rapid format game at the London Chess Classic on Tuesday 10 December. The winning bidders have been paired with top flight GM and will face another PRO-AM team across the board. The 1st London Chess Classic PRO-AM takes place at 10.30 in the auditorium at Olympia.

All proceeds go to support the charity Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC).

The players get to discuss tactics with the GM before hand but once underway there is no conferring. The GM and amateur make alternate moves. The games will broadcast live on the web and to the theatre audience so no pressure then !

The time limit will be 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move

The pairings are:
Vladimir Kramnik Pro – Am Ravi Mansharamani
Judit Polgar Pro – Am Robert Mitchell
Luke McShane Pro – Am TBA
Nigel Short Pro – Am Rajko Vujatovic

Pro-Business Cup
UK charity Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC) has this year launched a new micro-tournament as part of its flagship event, the London Chess Classic, which sees the world’s leading chess players descend on London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre in December for a week of top class matches.

This year’s event, the fifth annual edition of the prestigious Classic, will challenge top business minds to face off against the best chess players in the world in the Pro-Business-Chess-Cup.

The tournament will give business leaders the chance to team up with one of the world’s top chess Grandmasters and take on other Pro-Business pairings. Pro players include the UK’s youngest ever Grandmaster and current British Chess Champion David Howell; twice British Champion and speed chess specialist, Matthew Sadler; the youngest ever Italian or American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruano; and, British Grandmaster and Commonwealth Champion, Gawain Jones.

For more details check out the London Chess Classic official website.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog 
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
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Novelty Chess Events at London Chess Classic 2013; Main Event begins Today 1300 UK Time

December 11, 2013, 6:35 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The main event of the London Chess Classic 2013 begins today. Before that, John Saunders reports on the novelty chess events being held in London along with the Chess Classic:



SUPERSTARS LIMBER UP WITH SOME NOVELTY CHESS

The fourth day of the 2013 London Chess Classic, held at the Olympia Conference Centre in London saw the arrival of the superstars, to take part in some novelty events, with celebs, amateurs and representatives of the business world, and maybe to try to gain a psychological edge over their rivals.

There was also some crucial action in the FIDE Open, to decide the last two places in the Super Sixteen Rapid. Two top GMs, Andrei Istratescu of France and Emil Sutovsky of Israel, won their fourth straight games and earned instant promotion to the main event.

Action began early in the main auditorium with two Pro-Amateur matches. This was the first of three ‘chess doubles’ events of the day, where the GM makes the first move of the game for each side and thereafter the pairs alternate moves. A PGN file has been appended of all games played: all you have to remember is that the GMs made the odd-numbered moves and their partners the even ones. (I nearly made the mistake of writing that the ‘GMs made the odd moves’, thereby risking several expensive lawsuits.)




In the Pro-Am. In this event Luke McShane was paired with Sean Ingle, Sports editor for the Guardian newspaper, against Nigel Short and Raijko Vujatovic, strong chess player, writer, well-known Chessboxing referee and all-round nice guy. I don’t think Sean has played competitive OTB chess but he’s got pretty strong playing online. I’ve played him a few times and was very impressed by his chess ability, so it was no surprise to me when he and Luke got the better of Nigel and Raijko.
Incidentally, Sean is also an impressive football pundit. His uncannily accurate 2010 FIFA World Cup predictions can still be found on the web (http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2010/jun/10/world-cup-guardian-predictions), so if you want to know who is going to win in Brazil in 2014, you could do worse than ask him.

The other Pro-Am contest saw Boris Gelfand and Robert Mitchell take white against Vladimir Kramnik and Matthew Lunn. Matthew’s extra OTB strength probably made the difference here, as he and former world champion Kramnik triumphed after White’s promising early middlegame attack foundered.

The Pro-Business Cup was played on a semi-final and final basis, with Matthew Sadler and Daniel Lindner, who works in the wealth management division of Barclays, coming through to beat David Howell and Ali Mortazavi in the final. Ali is Chief Executive of Silence Therapeutics, and of course also a chess IM in his own right, which must have made him and his partner the favourites, but 37-year-old Daniel Lindner from Germany, though not a familiar name to us Brits, is also a more than handy chessplayer, with a peak rating in the high 2200s, which would probably have been even higher had he been able to devote more time to the game. 

In the semi-finals Matthew and Daniel had beaten the Italian pairing of Fabiano Caruana and Fabio Buanne, director of International Business Development for Orange, while David and Ali had beaten Gawain Jones and Jeremy Hodgson, Senior Systems Programmer with Interactive Data, but perhaps better in our world as brother of several times British Champion Julian Hodgson. Jeremy took a long sabbatical from the game but has recently been bitten by the chess bug again and is now regularly seen playing in chess competitions.




BRING ON THE CELEBSThe Pro-Celeb matches were played on the same doubles basis but in a much more informal way, in front of a huge audience of children, whipped up to a frenzy by compères Malcolm Pein and Lawrence Trent, after a warm-up act fronted by Chris Ward and Stephen Gordon.

This was very reminiscent (at least to my aged self) of BBC Television’s much-loved children’s programme ‘Crackerjack’, with the children being incited to shout out ‘yes to chess’ at various intervals. I think I can safely say it was the first time I had ever been in danger of being deafened at a chess tournament. It was good fun.

The celebs themselves, though confident enough as performers in their own right, were understandably nervous at being expected to move chess pieces on the board in front of legendary players and a vocal live audience. However, they benefited from some kindly treatment from their chess partners. A few minutes before they took the stage, I saw Vishy Anand giving his partner, Rude Tube presenter Alex Zane, some advice on various pitfalls to avoid (Vishy’s advice centred on the f7 square, so experienced chess players can probably figure out the content of Vishy’s advice).
Vishy and Alex faced Peter Svidler and Shingai Shoniwa, singer and bassist for the Noisettes, an English indie rock band from London who are best known for the single “Don't Upset the Rhythm (Go Baby Go)” (or so it says on the website. Your reporter has to confess that his knowledge of popular music is about as up-to-date as that of the average high court judge, and for whom ‘The X-Factor’ means the symbol we use to denote a capture in chess notation). Actually, ‘Don’t Upset the Rhythm’ sounds like excellent advice for doubles chess, where, as you make your move, you have to figure out whether your partner is in rhythm with your plans.

Shingai also had a personal adviser during the game in the shape of Candidate Master Josh Altman, who was permitted to whisper advice into her ear. During the game, Shingai said she was reminded of the Queen song, ‘Under Pressure’ but the warmth of the audience soon put her at her ease. Malcolm asked the predominantly under 12 audience whether they had heard of Queen and remarkably they had (or said they had).

The game looked good for Vishy and Alex but as time marched on and a long rook endgame loomed, world Champion Vishy reached out his hand to offer Shingai a diplomatic draw.



Music also featured in the other pro-celeb game, where world number three Hikaru Nakamura was paired with rapper Lethal Bizzle, facing England number one Mickey Adams and two young representatives of the CSC, Jamie and Lily. Hikaru and Lethal looked an intimidating pair at the board – judging from his physique, Lethal looks like he could be a useful boxer – and this seemed to translate into chessboard dominance as the pair whipped off their opponents’ queen and soon proceeded to give checkmate, but not before Lethal had risen to Lawrence Trent’s challenge to compose and perform a spontaneous rap during the game. Check it out on the video.

LET’S GET SERIOUS

That was all good fun but, suddenly with the celebs and hordes of infants departed, things got deadly serious again on the auditorium stage. The top five boards were relocated there for the evening, as two of the ten players there would qualify for promotion to the Super Sixteen Rapid on Wednesday.

Nine of the ten contenders were on 3/3 and it was always a racing certainty that the qualifiers would need 4/4 to have a hope of going through. The tie-split was the player’s published rating, in order to ensure that only the best quality players would go through to the Classic final.

Andrei Istratescu and Emil Sutovsky, with ratings of 2670 and 2657 respectively, and with the white pieces against players rated under 2500, started favourites and duly qualified. In fact, as it turned out, the tie-break rule did not have to be invoked as they were the only two players to reach 4/4.

THE SUPER SIXTEEN

So we now know the final two names of the Super sixteen. Here are the groups for the first part of the competition:

Group A: Luke McShane, Andrei Istratescu, Michael Adams, Vishy Anand

Group B: Vladimir Kramnik, Jonathan Rowson, Matthew Sadler, Peter Svidler

Group C: Boris Gelfand, Gawain Jones, Hikaru Nakamura, Judit Polgar

Group D: Nigel Short, Fabiano Caruana, Emil Sutovsky, David Howell  

COMING NEXT AT THE LONDON CLASSIC...

The Super 16 Rapidplay starts with an opening ceremony at 1300 UK time on Wednesday 11 December 2013. The elite action starts immediately afterwards at 1400, with three further sessions at 1530, 1800 and 1930. 

Consult the official website of the London Chess Classic 2013 for the timings of playing sessions (click on ‘Schedules’ on the left and select ‘Super Sixteen Rapid’).

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel 

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76th Tata Steel Chess 2014 Jan 10-26

December 11, 2013, 6:51 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The 76th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place from 10th through January 26th, 2014. This year for the first time the Grandmasters of the A-group will play one round in the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam and one round in the High Tech Campus Eindhoven. 



The main A-group is a 12-player round robin:
GM Aronian Levon ARM 2803
GM Nakamura Hikaru USA 2786
GM Caruana Fabiano ITA 2782
GM Gelfand Boris ISR 2777
GM Karjakin Sergey RUS 2756
GM Dominguez Leinier CUB 2754
GM Naiditsch Arkadij GER 2737
GM Giri Anish NED 2734
GM So Wesley PHL 2719
GM Harikrishna Pentala IND 2708
GM Rapport Richard HUN 2687
GM van Wely Loek NED 2678

Average rating: 2743
Category: 20
FIDE-ratings of December 2013The maximum number of participants in the nine-round event and the Weekend three-round events has been reached. New entries for this part of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will be put on a waiting list. Entries for the Weekday three-round events are still possible. For more details, check out the official website of the Tata Steel Chess.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog 
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel


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Ivan Ivanisevic Wins Rapid Chess Tournament in Sabac

December 11, 2013, 8:19 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

Rapid and blitz chess fever is becoming popular catching on around the chess planet particularly after FIDE started registering blitz and rapid chess ratings. One nice chess tournament was held recently in Serbia: Sabacki Chess Club organized the “Cedomir Petrovic Memorial” rapid tournament on 7th December in Sabac, Serbia.

The tournament format was 9-round Swiss with the time control 15 minutes per player. 133 players, including 11 Grandmasters, took participation. Top Serbian player GM Ivan Ivanisevic emerged clear winner with 7,5/9 points. (www.chessdom.com)


GM Ivan Ivanisevic

Top Final standings:
1. GM Ivanisevic Ivan 2638 – 7.5
2. FM Pezelj Novak 2409 – 7
3. GM Pikula Dejan 2500 – 7
4. GM Lajthajm Borko 2550 – 7
5. GM Popovic Dusan 2554 – 7
6. GM Savic Miodrag R 2524 – 6.5
7. GM Stojanovic Dalibor 2551 – 6.5
8. GM Antic Dejan 2456 – 6.5
9. IM Arsovic Goran 2414 – 6.5
10. FM Pantelic Sasa 2342 – 6.5
11. IM Arsovic Zoran 2422 – 6.5
12. FM Kosanovic Dragan 2341 – 6.5
13. FM Stojanovic Marko 2294 – 6.5
14. FM Kolognat Petar 2294 – 6.5
15. FM Vujic Mihailo 2323 – 6.5
16. FM Stojanovic Dobrisav 2369 – 6.5
17. FM Sredojevic Ivan 2404 – 6.5
18. GM Cabrilo Goran 2442 – 6
19. IM Ilic Dragan M 2371 – 6
20. GM Abramovic Bosko 2427 – 6
21. FM Misojcic Miroslav 2259 – 6
22. Topalov Aleksandar 2245 – 6
23. Pantovic Dragan M 2159 – 6
24. Ignjatovic Predrag 2286 – 6
25. Micic Vlado 0 – 6
26. Novakovic Slobodan 2149 – 6
27. Savic Petar A 2127 – 6

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog 
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel


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Memorial Edoardo Crespi Chess: GMs Krasimir Rusev, Petar G. Arnaudov, Igor Naumkin Joint Winners

December 11, 2013, 8:43 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The 34th Memorial Edoardo Crespi took place from 30th November to 8th December in the large tournament hall of Chess Club in Milan, via Sant’Uguzzone 8.

The main event was Master Group which was played over nine rounds of Swiss system.

Grandmasters Krasimir Rusev (BUL 2539), Petar G. Arnaudov (BUL 2448) and Igor Naumkin (RUS 2460) shared the first place with 6,5/9 points each.


GM Arnaudov, Claudio Noè (president of Milano chess club), GM Rusev, GM Naumkin

Half a point behind the winners were GM Joseph Sanchez (PHI 2529), IM Jasmin Bejtovic (BIH 2394), IM Nenad Aleksic (SRB 2351), FM Anastasios Pavlidis (GRE 2342).

The Festival also included Open A (elo 1750-2050), Open B (U1800), Open C for Beginners and Open Under 16. (Tournament website/Report via www.chessdom.com)

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel


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World-Class Chess Talent Just having Fun: Name Them

December 11, 2013, 9:33 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

Here's a chess photo with at least two world champions and two top-level chess Grandmasters from the super chess photo archives at www.chesspics.com. Can you identify them all? Name their countries as well.


From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog 
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel


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London Chess Classic 2013 begins with Super 16 in Rapid Format

December 12, 2013, 6:13 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

Here is the London Chess Classic 2013: Super 16 Rapid update (excerpts), by John Saunders, on Rounds 1 and 2 played on Wednesday. 
  

This year’s main event at the London Chess Classic, the Super Sixteen Rapid, began at 1400 at the Olympia Conference Centre, with the elite players playing at a rate of 25 minutes for all the moves, plus ten seconds added per move. They are divided up into four groups of four, with the top two qualifying for a final knock-out phase. The point system is, as usual at the Classic, 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.

After the opening ceremony, with brilliant Norwegian guitarist Alf Wilhelm Lundberg playing his own arrangement of ‘Chestnuts’ for all of us chess nuts, it was straight down to action. Rapid chess is,of course, a very different beast from classical (or longplay) chess. At this, the highest level, the opening and early middlegame can be played with as much accuracy as a classical game but sooner or later the limited thinking time puts the players under huge pressure and this can cause a huge swing in fortunes, much as in a blitz game. This proved to be the case at the Classic right from the start, as we shall see.

Replay all the games of both the rounds with Chess King.

ROUND 1

Anyone predicting a result based on computer assessments after 20 or 30 moves of the first batch of four games would probably have only got one of the four results right. Mickey Adams himself demurred when asked if he was better all the way but his win looked the least problematic of the first four games on the stage as he took on the FIDE Open qualifier Andrei Istratescu from France, who no doubt struggled to make the transition after four days of tough classical chess.

The 15th World Champion Vishy Anand, playing his first game since Chennai, was definitely in severe trouble against Luke McShane as the world’s strongest amateur played swooped to win rook for knight. But, in the inevitable time pressure, Luke made a poor move (31.Ke2 – see the accompanying PGN file), Vishy’s pawns suddenly became massively strong and Luke crumbled.
In the commentary room Vishy quipped “It was an embarrassing game,” but quickly added “I’d take an embarrassing win over a beautiful loss any time.” Well, I guess that is a lesson we amateurs could teach the professionals as we play embarrassing games rather more often they do. It was actually a very instructive game, showing the value of resilience under pressure and also that, at rapid chess, there is no such thing as a ‘won game’.

Vishy wasn’t the only world champion to turn his game around. Vladimir Kramnik did much the same against Peter Svidler. Vlad tried a tactic (19.Nxc7) which he later admitted was a mistake as it marginally lost material (two pieces for rook and pawn) but he managed to generate enough counterplay to force his opponent into time trouble and finally blunder.
Matthew Sadler managed to win two knights for a rook against Scottish number one Jonathan Rowson but he allowed his opponent’s queen and rook to maintain a powerful pin on the seventh rank. That shouldn’t have been good enough to win but Jonathan eventually had two connected passed pawns and it proved too hard to defend in the time available.

The rounds are played in two shifts of four games, so now Groups C and D took the stage. It proved very tough for Emil Sutovsky to make the transition from classical to rapid chess in one day (bear in mind that he had already played four tough games before the other guys started), and his attempt to do something unusual in the opening backfired against Fabiano Caruana, and the brilliant Italian super-GM made no mistake.

Gawain Jones’s first game was against the world number three rapidplay player, Hikaru Nakamura, rated 2812 at rapid chess. (In case you were wondering who the two players above Hikaru on the rapid list are... surprise, surprise, Magnus Carlsen, rated 2845 at this form of the game, and Russian superstar Alexander Grischuk, 2828.) So it was a particularly valiant effort for Gawain to draw against Hikaru. An interesting position cropped up on move 50: Jones - Nakamura, Round 1, after 49...Bc6

Here Gawain played 50.Qd4, to which Hikaru replied 50...e5!, opening the path for his queen to come to h3 and threaten mate on g2 or h1. Gawain replied 51.Qxe5 (there’s nothing better) and here Hikaru should have played the crushing intermezzo move 51...Re8!! before putting his queen on h3. Instead he went there immediately – 51...Qh3? – and Gawain was able to block the diagonal with 52.Rd5! If Hikaru takes the rook, he would actually lose so he had to retreat his queen. Thereafter Gawain had rather the better of it but it wasn’t enough to win.

Nigel Short’s homebrew opening seemed to throw David Howell off course slightly, but the crowd of English GMs in the VIP room, where Nigel’s illustrious contemporary Julian Hodgson holds sway, were a bit disappointed when he didn’t go all in with something other than 9.Qxe6 in the opening. Thereafter he played steadily to secure a draw.

Judit Polgar was made to pay for a slight inaccuracy (14...Nbd7) in the opening against Boris Gelfand, who won a pawn and exploited it calmly and efficiently as if it were a classical game.




ROUND 2

There’s little respite for the players in rapid chess and the first batch of players were back on stage again four hours after their first games. Vlad Kramnik won his second game of the day, using his trusty Réti to overcome Jonathan Rowson. That doesn’t quite tell the story of the game as Vlad rather overstretched his position in the opening. However, Jonathan’s little combination to simplify the position backfired. He played 24...Ncxa4, which he himself later described as “wildly optimistic” – he thought he should have played 24...Qe6. This slip allowed Vlad to get a grip on the position, which, typically, he never let go.

Anand-Adams was cagey but accurate and a draw ensued. Luke McShane, probably disappointed at not snaring Vishy in the first game, came back strongly in round two against Andrei Istratescu. A tactic to exchange a couple of pawns (15.e5) looked innocent enough but Julian Hodgson was alive to its potential. He pointed out the general vulnerability of Black’s kingside pawn structure minus the h7 pawn. Luke was alive to this possibility, too. Andrei tried to create counterplay with 25...f3 but Luke’s attack crashed through. Even so it might have been averted had Andrei challenged the white queen with ...Qf6 at a couple of junctures.
On the grounds that everyone likes to see a good old-fashioned checkmate, here is the denouement:

McShane - Istratescu, Round 2, after 29.h5 Here Black’s last chance was 29...Qf6 but instead he played 29...Rf6? to which 30.Bg6! was the crushing reply. The only way to stop what actually followed would have been to play 30...Qf4, but that simply loses the bishop on d7. Instead Black fell on his sword with 30...Bc6, allowing the attractive 31.Qh6+!. Black resigned as 31...gxh6 32.Rh7 would be mate.

Svidler-Sadler was a very exciting draw, with the players attacking on opposite flanks. Matthew’s dangerous queenside attack goaded Peter into a piece sacrifice on g6, which wasn’t too far from being a win. Peter flung a second piece into the maelstrom but that proved only good enough to draw.

Despite the high tactical content, the players didn’t seem to miss anything when you compare their moves with silicon.
That just left the four games of the 7.30pm ‘night shift’. Nigel Short decided to entertain the crowd (and perhaps discomfit his Italian super-GM opponent) with 1.b4 (Note that Nigel started with 1.c4 in his first round game, so it might be worth having a little flutter at the bookie’s on him trying 1.a4 in his next game with White.). The 1.b4 opening is known variously as the Sokolsky, Polish or Orangutan opening but this one soon might have been dubbed a reversed St George’s Defence, as developed by IM Mike Basman and famously used by Tony Miles (as Black) to defeat a reigning world champion, Anatoly Karpov. Short followed up with a little light Basmania on the kingside, but there was to be no dragon-slaying today. Fabiano Caruana smoothly developed his pieces and established a solid positional plus. Nigel’s shaky pawn structure proved his undoing and he quickly slid downhill to defeat. In a later tweet he said, “yesterday’s warm-up is over. Now it is time for me to wake up.”

Judit Polgar has had an even stickier start, losing both her games. In round 2 she was up against a determined Hikaru Nakamura, desperate to get his first three-pointer in the bag. Judit gradually came adrift after the inaccurate 37.Re1.
Emil Sutovsky admitted at the press conference that he much prefers the longer form of the game. He did seem to have a chance to repeat positions but opted not to, playing perhaps a bit too boldly and then getting his rook snared.

The final game to finish was Gelfand-Jones, coming down to a tricky knight endgame. The pundits thought Gawain might just get away with his suspect position but Boris was implacable and found a way to win, even after it came down to N+P v N.
More fun tomorrow!

SCORES AFTER ROUND 2
Group A: Adams, Anand 4, McShane 3, Istratescu 0.
Group B: Kramnik 6, Rowson 3, Sadler, Svidler 1.
Group C: Gelfand 6, Nakamura 4, Jones 1, Polgar 0.
Group D: Caruana 6, Howell 4, Short 1, Sutovsky 0.

COMING NEXT AT THE LONDON CLASSIC...
Super Sixteen Rapid rounds 3 and 4 take place on Thursday 12 December 2013, starting at 1400 UK time. There are three further sessions at 1530, 1800 and 1930.

Check all the action at the London Chess Classic 2013 live at the official website. 

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel


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GM Evgeny Romanov wins ITT Jahv McGregor Chess Tournament on tie-break

December 12, 2013, 8:19 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The 4th ITT Jahv McGregor Open Tournament was held from 4th to 8th December at the Centro Comercial Americas Outlet Factory in Bogota, Colombia.

The massive 9-round Swiss event attracted 420 participants from 16 countries, including 15 Grandmasters and 27 International Masters.

Four players shared the first place with 7,5/9 points each: GM Evgeny Romanov (Russia), IM Carlos Antonio Hevia Alejano, GM Yusnel Bacallao Alonso (both Cuba) and GM Renier Gonzalez (USA). Evgeny Romanov takes the winner’s trophy on superior tie-break.
GM Evgeny Romanov (photo by www.xadrezbatatais.com)

The U10 youth tournament took place on 6-7th December with 48 participants. Daniel Fernando Vargas Villalobos won the section with perfect 6,0/6 score.

A blitz tournament with 133 players was held on 3rd December in the same venue. Blitz specialist GM Axel Bachmann from Paraguay took a clear first place with 8,5/9 points, leaving the Cuban GM Omar Almeida Quintana half a point behind. The total prize fund was 16,000 USD. (www.chessdom.com)

Final top standings:

1 GM Romanov Evgeny RUS 2654 – 7.5
2 IM Hevia Alejano Carlos Antonio CUB 2518 – 7.5
3 GM Bacallao Alonso Yusnel CUB 2519 – 7.5
4 GM Gonzalez Renier USA 2472 – 7.5
5 GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro CUB 2677 – 7
6 GM Ortiz Suarez Isan Reynaldo CUB 2608 – 7
7 GM Vocaturo Daniele ITA 2579 – 7
8 GM Gonzalez Vidal Yuri CUB 2534 – 7
9 GM Almeida Quintana Omar CUB 2489 – 7
10 GM Mekhitarian Krikor Sevag BRA 2566 – 7
11 IM Gallego Alcaraz Andres Felipe COL 2403 – 7
12 IM Gomez Ledo Roberto Carlos CUB 2424 – 7
13 FM Diaz Hernandez Heriberto CUB 2401 – 7
14 IM Perez Garcia Rodney Oscar CUB 2371 – 7
15 GM Alvarez Pedraza Aramis CUB 2480 – 7
16 IM Acosta Alejandro COL 2309 – 7
17 FM Oliva Castaneda Kevel CUB 2427 – 7

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel
 

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Branicevo Chess Festival Dec 13 - 29

December 12, 2013, 10:38 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

Branicevo Chess Federation, Chess Clubs "Mladi Radnik" and "Nestor" are organising the Winter Chess Festival - Pozarevac Open Championship on 13-15th and 27-29th December in Pozarevac, Serbia.
The Festival consists of Qualification, Open A, Open B, Open C and Blitz Rated Tournament. The Qualification will take place over five rounds of Swiss pairings on 13-15th December. The event is open for players rated under 2250 FIDE. All players who score 3/5 points or more will qualify for the Open A. The others can continue participation in Open B.

Open A (for qualified and players rated above 2250 FIDE), Open B and Open C (U1600) will be held on 27-29th December. Open A and B will be completed over 5 rounds while Open C will be 9-round Swiss. The Blitz Rated Tournament will be held in the evening on 28th December.

The total prize fund is 1500 EUR. Grandmasters Borko Lajthajm, Miroslav Markovic, Bosko Abramovic, Goran Cabrilo, Dusan Rajkovic, Slobodan Martinovic and Andjelija Stojanovic have confirmed their participation.

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Australian Women's Chess Masters Jan 20-27

December 12, 2013, 10:46 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

IA Gary Bekker, FA Jamie Kenmure, and the Melbourne Chess Club are organizing the 2014 Australian Women's Masters on 20-27th January. The playing venue will be Melbourne Chess Club, 66 Leicester Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne.


The field for the 11-round Australian Women's Masters is finalized:

1. INA 2369 wgm Irine Kharisma Sukandar
2. MGL 2207 wfm Otgonjargal Sengeravdan
3. ENG 2150 wim Heather Richards
4. GER 2146 wfm Anita Stangl
5. EST 2044 wfm Margit Brokko
6. EST 2038 wfm Tuuli Vahtra
7. AUS 1975 wim Katherine Jarek
8. AUS 1948 wim Alexandra Jule
9. AUS 1910 Alana Chibnall
10. AUS 1825 wcm Vineetha Wijesuriya
11. AUS 1824 Aileen Fisher
12. AUS 1790 wfm Savithri Narenthran


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Copa Norberto La Porta Chess begins Dec 14 with GM Mareco Sandro Top Seed

December 12, 2013, 1:30 pm
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

Abierto Legislatura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires “Copa Norberto La Porta” will take place on 14-21st December at the Salon Dorado de la Legislatura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires – Peru 160 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A total of 190 players are already registered to participate in the 9-round open tournament.

The tournament is organized by the Federacion Metropolitana de Ajedrez, Federacion Argentina de Ajedrez and FIDE. Tournament director is WIM Elisa Maggiolo. Defending champion is GM Sandro Mareco.

Norberto Luis La Porta (1938–2007) was an Argentine politician and teacher. He was a leader of the Argentine Socialist Party. (www.chessdom.com)

Top-10 Participants:

1 GM Mareco Sandro ARG 2581
2 GM Bachmann Axel PAR 2545
3 GM Perez Ponsa Federico ARG 2518
4 IM Saldano Dayer Horacio ESP 2472
5 IM Iermito Sebastian ARG 2456
6 GM Sorin Ariel ARG 2455
7 IM Liascovich Lucas ARG 2439
8 IM Real De Azua Ernesto ARG 2430
9 IM Dolezal Cristian ARG 2415
10 IM Pichot Alan ARG 2408

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London Chess Classic 2013: Final 8 to be decided today after Rounds 5, 6

December 13, 2013, 7:20 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The London Chess Classic 2013 is an exciting 16-round rapid chess event with some of the world's best chess elite. Excerpts from a report by John Saunders on Rounds 3 and 4 played in London on Thursday:

Peter Svidler versus Vladimir Kramnik in Round 4 at the London Chess Classic 2013./Photo: John Saunders


The first session of Round 3 featured major match-ups between the leaders of Groups C and D, while the players at the foot of the table had to slug it out to rescue their chances of staying in contention beyond the end of the all-play-all phase on Friday.

Caruana ½-½ Howell: this was an epic encounter in which the British Champion stood and fought toe-to-toe with the world number seven and had several chances to win. Fabiano’s opening didn’t look too sharp and David gradually outplayed him, with his b-pawn becoming a monster. Watching in the VIP room, the pitch and volume of Julian Hodgson raised higher and higher as David’s chances improved (Julian is unashamedly partisan towards the English representatives, though obviously he has nothing against the overseas ones). The silicon – we’re using the excellent Hiarcs engine here – showed that various chances went begging, Julian veered somewhere between falsetto and castrato when David played the powerful 78...e3 but subsided back into the lower registers after David missed the devastating 81...Qc7. Thereafter the win became problematic. “White is lost but not completely lost,” opined the watching Vlad Kramnik. The game went on so long that the next batch of games had to be put back a quarter of an hour but Fabiano managed to hold the draw.

Nakamura ½-½ Gelfand: such was the excitement generated by the above game that it wasn’t possible to follow what happened here. It came down to an unusual endgame in which Boris’ sole remaining piece, a bishop, had to fend off a cluster of three pawns, two of which were doubled. The Hiarcs Tablebase gives it as a draw and so it proved.

Sutovsky 0-1 Short: Nigel Short was true to his promise to wake up for today's games after yesterday's warm-up. "Played with a very straight bat against Sutovsky. That's more like it!" was his comment on Twitter (@nigelshortchess - Nigel is a 'must-follow' on Twitter). Nigel got a grip on the black squares and Emil's attempts to wriggle free and secure some play only served to make his position worse. Eventually Emil took one risk too many and succumbed to a winning finish.



Jones 0-1 Polgar: I've already alluded to the rapidplay phenomenon whereby you can't always guess the result of a game based on who emerges best from the early middlegame. Rapid chess can be a game of two halves - or even three, four or five halves (maths never was my strong suit). Judit Polgar seemed to have the worst of things against Gawain Jones, but as history has taught us, hell hath no fury like a Polgar scorned. It was quite similar to Sutovsky-Short in that the Englishman had a mighty dark-squared bishop, but Judit took the chance to give up a rook for Gawain's marauding bishop. There was still nothing much in it until Gawain blundered irrevocably with 63.Rxd4, allowing Judit’s h-pawn to touch down.

Istratescu 0-1 Anand: more misery for the genial French GM, playing a genius Indian world champion. Andrei tried to attack the black king but Vishy flashed out the amazing 21...Nxe5, exploiting the weak situation of the white bishop on c2. It wasn’t quite the end of the story as Vishy had to give up the exchange but he gained two pawns by way of compensation. The game was finally by Andrei’s blunder 49.Rb1 which opened the door to a winning attack.

Adams ½-½ McShane: a well-contested game which favoured White first, and then Black, and then White again. One big chance for Mickey came and went on move 59 when the computer screams out for 59.Qb8!, shepherding home the passed c-pawn, but Mickey missed it. I can’t remember whether it was after this game or his fourth round game when Mickey Adams revealed the secret of rapid chess. I’ve given you my take on it, rather long-windedly, but Mickey was succinct. Lawrence Trent asked him the key question: “Do you have any particular strategy in rapid chess?” Mickey gave the wonderfully laconic reply: “I play a bit faster.”

Rowson 0-1 Svidler: Jonathan is one of a number of players in the line-up who are either a bit rusty from shortage of play or else keen not to be out-booked by the illustrious theoreticians present. He opted for some sort of King’s Indian Attack against Peter’s Sicilian and then gave up a pawn to be able to harass Peter on the dark squares. Peter gave up the exchange to get a big centre and an initiative. Then there was a mutual oversight, starting with 23...e3, where White could have played 25.Rxf6 when 25...Qxh4+ to win it back allows 26.Bh3! attacking the rook on c8. These things happen at rapid chess.

Sadler ½-½ Kramnik: Matthew decided to risk a theoretical encounter with the great Russian and an accurately-played game brought him a fairly steady draw.

ROUND 4

Polgar ½-½ Gelfand: Judit had a much better day two than day one, though she is still unlikely to qualify as Gelfand and Nakamura are now four points clear of her. This was a steadily played game, with Boris perhaps now happy to coast his way to qualification for the final stages.

Nakamura 1-0 Jones: Gawain’s third loss means he can no longer qualify for the quarter-final stage and will be playing for fun on Friday. He has certainly had his money’s worth with four games lasting 70, 77, 67 and 84 moves respectively. Hikaru started with 1.b3 and Gawain looked better out of the opening. But gradually Hikaru started to show why is so good at quick chess, steadily forcing his opponent onto the back foot. Gawain tried to stay active but it proved a hopeless task.

Howell 0-1 Short: this was a well contested game, with the mistake coming on move 35 when David allowed his central pawns to become blockaded, instead of launching a promising attack with 35.e5!? He did play it a while later but by then Nigel was racing his a-pawn down the board. David tried to attack the black king but Nigel defended easily and launched an overwhelming counter down the e-file. So, a good day for Nigel, and he must his chances of qualifying for the quarter-final.

Sutovsky 0-1 Caruana: our lesson here comes from Matthew 13:12: “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” As a result of winning this game, Fabiano is almost certainly through to the quarter-final, while Emil now has four zeroes to counterbalance the four points he scored in the FIDE Open. Chess is a cruel game, and rapid chess cruel but a bit faster (as Mickey Adams might have said). Emil seemed out of sorts in an insipid opening and was simply pushed off the board by a rampant Fabiano.

Anand 1-0 McShane: Vishy is really enjoying life now he no longer has to sit opposite a certain Norwegian player. This was like the teenage Vishy, going all-in with a speculative piece sacrifice. It’s always good to have the initiative at rapid chess, and Luke was faced with a major defensive problem. Your computer will suggest a range of reasonable solutions, but Luke didn’t have time to sort them out and he soon came unstuck. Vishy is now almost certain of qualification, while Luke is four points adrift of Mickey and unlikely to go forward.

Adams 1-0 Istratescu: lots of material came off early but Andrei relaxed too soon and played the injudicious 27...f5, allowing Mickey to snaffle a pawn. It wasn’t long before Andrei’s position worsened further and he was gone. Like Emil, he has followed four aces in the FIDE Open with four duck eggs in the Super Sixteen Rapid. Mickey, meanwhile, looks good to accompany Vishy into the next phase.

Svidler 1-0 Kramnik: Peter took his revenge for his first round misfortune against Vlad, who found himself obliged to mix it after a slightly streaky opening. Peter emerged with two bishops against a rook and this time he made no mistakes in converting his advantage. The two of them now share the lead in their group, two points clear of Matthew Sadler.

Sadler 1-0 Rowson: this was another revenge match in group B. After maintaining a steady edge for a long while, Matthew suddenly launched a kingside attack with a piece sacrifice, rather like Vishy had done against Luke. Unlike Luke, Jonathan didn't go wrong immediately but managed to put up a more than decent defence, to the point where he was objectively winning on the board but in the ensuing time trouble mayhem he fell victim to Matthew's much smaller commando force.

STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 4 (OF 6)
Group A: Anand 10, Adams 8, McShane 4, Istratescu 0.
Group B: Svidler, Kramnik 7, Sadler 5, Rowson 3.
Group C: Gelfand, Nakamura 8, Polgar 4, Jones 1.
Group D: Caruana 10, Short 7, Howell 5, Sutovsky 0.

COMING NEXT AT THE LONDON CLASSIC...
Super Sixteen Rapid rounds 5 and 6 take place on Friday 13 December 2013, starting at 1400 UK time. There are three further sessions at 1530, 1800 and 1930. Official website of the London Chess Classic 2013.

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Zurich Chess Festival Dec 26-30

December 13, 2013, 7:49 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The 37th Zurich Weihnachtsopen is taking place from 26th to 30th December at the Crowne Plaza Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland. The Master Tournament (for players rated over 2000) and General Tournament (U2050) will each be played over 7 rounds of Swiss system.

Top rated players already registered for the chess tournament include: Wojtaszek Radoslaw POL 2711, Alekseev Evgeny RUS 2698, Grachev Boris RUS 2669,Gharamian Tigran FRA 2656, Bartel Mateusz POL 2649, Balogh Csaba HUN 2648, Popov Ivan RUS 2644, Kovalenko Igor LAT 2643, Bauer Christian FRA 2630, Van Kampen Robin NED 2601, Mareco Sandro ARG 2581,Pelletier Yannick SUI 2576, Fier Alexandr BRA 2572, Sengupta Deep IND 2570, Bogner Sebastian SUI 2558, Cvitan Ognjen CRO 2558, Miezis Normunds LAT 2554, Sethuraman S.P. IND 2553 and Viktor Korchnoi SUI 2499.

Last year's winner was GM Levente Vajda

Prizes in Master Tournament: CHF 5000, 4000, 3000, 2000, 1500, 1000, etc. (20 prizes)
Special prizes CHF 200 each: for best woman, best senior over 60, best U20 and best U16. Top U2200 player will earn CHF 500.

Prizes in General Tournament: CHF 1000, 800, 600, 500, 400, 300, etc. (20 prizes)
Special prizes CHF 200: for best woman, best senior over 60, best U20, U16, best U1800 Elo and best U1600 Elo.

Total prize money of both tournaments is exceeding CHF 30,000.

Hilton Basel Chess Festival is scheduled for 1-5th January, 2014, in Basel, Switzerland. (www.chessdom.com)

Tournament website

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Iran National Chess Champion 2013 is GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami

December 13, 2013, 8:00 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The Final National Championship of Iran was held from 27th November to 5th december in Tabriz. 36 players competed in the 11-round Swiss event.

Top seed GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami finished clear first with 8 points to claim his 11th title of national chess champion. FM Mousavi Seyed Khalil, GM Golizadeh Asghar, Noroozi Omid and GM Toufighi Homayoon shared the second place with 7.5 points each.

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GM Ferenc Berkes , IM Anita Gara are Hungary Men, Women's Chess Champions 2013

December 13, 2013, 8:21 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,
According to a FIDE chess news update, the Finals of the Hungarian Chess Championship for men and women were held on 3-11th December in Gyula and Hevitz, respectively. Both events were 10-players round robins. Grandmaster Ferenc Berkes and IM Anita Gara emerged national champions after winning their respective sections with 7,5 points each. You can access the official website at this link.

Final standings (men):1. GM Berkes Ferenc 2677 - 7.5
2. GM Horvath Csaba 2537 - 6.5
3. GM Pap Gyula 2522 - 6
4-5. GM Gonda Laszlo 2552 and GM Banusz Tamas 2598 - 5.5
6. GM Czebe Attila 2451 - 4.5
7. IM Nagy Gabor 2404 - 3.5
8. GM Medvegy Zoltan 2537 - 2.5
9. GM Horvath Adam 2531 - 2
10. IM Toth Ervin 2477 - 1.5

Final standings (women):1. IM Gara Anita HUN 2308 - 7.5
2. WGM Papp Petra HUN 2305 - 6
3. WGM Rudolf Anna HUN 2302 - 5.5
4-5. WIM Varga Klara HUN 2211 and Havanecz Bianka HUN 2157 - 5
6. WIM Goczo Melinda CRO 2223 - 4
7-10. Varga Melinda HUN 2184, WIM Dudas Eszter ROU 2276, Erdos Boglarka ROU 2200 and WFM Juhasz Barbara AUT 2152 - 3

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Chess Trivia Photo: Name this former Women's World Chess Champion from China

December 13, 2013, 8:36 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

Name this former Women's World Chess Champion from China. Can you also tell how many World Chess Champions has China given the world?


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NEW CHESS KING 4 (with HOUDINI 4, HOUDINI 4 Pro) RELEASED: Train with Double the Chess Power of Your Computer!

December 13, 2013, 8:30 pm
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,


The ultimate chess training software on the planet is here: The NEW CHESS KING 4 with Houdini 4 and Houdini 4 Pro!


POWER PACK YOUR CHESS TRAINING IN 2014

* New software version Chess King 4 and Chess King 4 Pro just released
* It includes the brand new Houdini 4 and Houdini 4 Pro engines.
* Houdini author Robert Houdart says: "Houdini 4 is a major upgrade with many evaluation and search improvements in all phases of the game, which corresponds to about 50 Elo stronger than its predecessor."
* "The improved strength means that Chess King 4 (with Houdini 4) nearly doubles the chess performance of your PC for game analysis and match play."
* "The tactical mode of Houdini 4 will find more solutions and provide faster solution times in tactical test suites than any other engine. (In the Pro version it’s even stronger.)"

Buy what you need: There are now 4 versions of Chess King, at price ranges from $29.95 to $99.95. 



All Chess King versions are complete programs which will allow you to play and analyze your games, solve puzzles, study openings and games, etc. All include versions of the engine Houdini and a GigaKing database of at least 5 million games, and a huge opening tree.

Chess King is still as easy to use and more powerful than ever. The “normal” version is graded “deep” and can handle up to 6 processors, and you could build the ultimate chess system with the “Pro” version which supports up to 32 processors and 256 GB of hash. 
READ MORE ABOUT THE POWER OF CHESS KING 4 and CHESS KING 4 PRO, DETAILS ON UPGRADES for CHESS KING OWNERS, INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOWNLOADS and NEW PURCHASES, PLUS an ENDORSEMENT by a WORLD CHAMPION!

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Rolando Nolte wins Penang Heritage City Chess Open 2013 in Malaysia

December 14, 2013, 7:51 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

According to chess news reports from Manila, International Master (IM) Rolando Nolte has won the 5th Penang Heritage City International Chess Open 2013 at the Red Rock Hotel in Penang, Malaysia on Friday night. Nolte defeated Malaysian Yeoh Li Tian in the final round to score 7.5 points over nine rounds to win 5,000 Malaysian Ringgit. 
IM Andrey Kvon of Uzbekistan, IM candidate Roel Abelgas of the Philippines and FM Riste Menkinoski of Macedonia finished with 7.0 points to share the second-fourth places. GM Alexander Fominyh of Russia, along with Yeoh Li Tian, FM Nelson "Elo" Mariano III, Ivan Gil Biag, Fong Yit San, FM Deni Sonjaya, Marcus Chan, IM Luis Chiong IV, scored 6.5 points.

Meanwhile, the world's current youngest FIDE Master, seven-year-old Alekhine Nouri topped the Under 8-category with 5.5 points. Gelar Sagar of Indonesia won the Challengers' section and NM Carlo Magno Rosaupan of the Philippine Army was second.

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London Chess Classic 2013: Favourites through to Quarter Finals

December 14, 2013, 8:39 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The latest chess news updates from the London Chess Classic 2013 are here from a report by John Saunders:

SUPER SIXTEEN RAPID: THE END OF THE BEGINNING...

So the preliminary stage is over, with the result that all eight starting favourites are through to the quarter-finals (pairings are Kramnik-Anand, Adams-Svidler, Caruana-Gelfand, Short-Nakamura). The tournament has had a number of surprise individual results but in the end the double-cycle all-play-all format has ensured that the consistent performers have come through.

ROUND 5

McShane 0-1 Adams: The result of this game means that all qualification issues in group A are settled - Mickey and Vishy proceed to the quarter-finals, with a decisive result between them in the final round (or a coin toss) deciding which of them finishes first and second. The game exited Lopez theory on move 14, when Luke innovated with 14.Bg5. A couple of moves later it was chased back to d2, so one wonders about its efficacy. Mickey soon threw off the shackles of 'Spanish torture' and was giving his youthful rival what looked like a nasty Chinese burn down the b-file. There followed some fairly standard cut and thrust until Luke rather unexpectedly overstepped the time limit (despite the ten-second increment). Clearly he should have read yesterday's report, which contained the secret of rapidplay chess, as told by Mickey Adams - "play a bit faster".

Anand ½-½ Istratescu: This result accomplished something of comfort for both players. For Vishy, it gave him the point he needed to be sure of playing on Saturday. For Andrei it gave him a point - his first. Not an exciting game and I'll save you a few minutes of your life by advising you not to play through it.



Kramnik ½-½ Sadler: Matthew's draw means that he still has a small chance of qualifying, though he has to rely on help from someone else. Vladimir seemed to be struggling a little around move 35 but it was probably just an illusion as there was no concrete way for Black to make progress. 

Svidler 1-0 Rowson: Peter always seemed on top here but Jonathan put up a good fight. I was a bit surprised he didn't repeat positions with 44...Kg8. It came down to rook and three versus rook and two. The decisive error was 57...Rxh4, played when Jonathan still had three minutes left on his clock and giving Peter a tempo to switch his rook behind the b-pawn. 

Gelfand ½-½ Nakamura: This result came as a slight surprise as Boris has an imposing score against Hikaru, but it was good enough to secure the Israeli super-GM's qualification through to the next round.

Polgar 0-1 Jones: Gawain was already eliminated so was just playing for the honour, but Judit started the game needing a win if she was to have any chance of continuing in the tournament. Consequently she played no-holds barred chess, which of course suits her style. There were a number of occasions in this game when she might ordinarily have settled for a draw, e.g. on move 20 when 20.Rh8+! forces a draw via a double rook sacrifice, but her attempts to win eventually compromised her game. A well-played game by Gawain.

Short 1-0 Sutovsky: A great result for Nigel to secure "another day's work" as he quipped to me in the VIP room about his qualification for the knock-out phase. Nigel's experiences to date on the stage at Olympia have not been very positive and he effectively changed the script. He felt more comfortable with what I referred to as his 'Victorian repertoire', in this case a Giuoco Piano which turned into a weird sort of Evan’s Gambit in slow motion. "Yes, going for f7 is what it's about." Emil took the free ‘Evans pawn’ on b4 with his knight but this only lent wings to Nigel’s attack and Emil had to give the pawn back. On move 24 Emil made an oversight, allowing Nigel to go a pawn ahead. He soon wrapped up the game to secure his place in the next stage with a round to spare.

Howell 0-1 Caruana: David described the end of his hopes as 'abrupt' and it certainly was that as he blundered a rook after being a pawn up and having the better of things for much of the game. It ended his qualification hopes but put Fabiano through to the quarter-finals. Had he taken his chances, David might well have scored two wins against the world number seven, but moral victories don’t count on the scoreboard.





ROUND 6

Adams ½-½ Anand: Both players were already assured of their place in the quarter-finals so the only thing to be decided from this game was who was to be the winner of the group. However, it was a full-blooded encounter, with Vishy attacking fiercely on the kingside and Mickey trying a most unexpected piece for two pawns sacrifice to try and defuse it. It was an ingenious defence and it eventually encouraged Vishy to sacrifice a piece back to secure a draw. With the game ending in a draw, the two tied for first place in the group and the placings were decided by lottery after the game, while the players were in the commentary room. Vishy chose an envelope and discovered the number one. This meant he was paired with the second finisher in group B (who turned to be his world championship rival Vlad Kramnik, although we didn’t know it at that precise moment).

Istratescu 1-0 McShane: with nothing much to play for, Luke tried an English Defence, but the Frenchman on the other side of the board launched a tremendous assault down the f-file. A disappointing end for Luke, but an excellently played game by Andrei, who at least managed to finish on a high note.

Sadler ½-½ Svidler: Had he won this game, Matthew would have gone to a tie-break with Vlad Kramnik, so there was everything to play for. It followed known Grünfeld theory to move 14, with Matthew innovating with 15.Nf3 (where 15.h4 has been played before). Peter decided to return Matthew’s sacrificed pawn. Lots of material then came off the board but there was a double oversight all too familiar at this time control) when Peter allowed a 30.Bxg6 cheapo but Matthew failed to spot it. Julian Hodgson’s voice in the VIP Room was by now at such a high frequency that he could probably only be heard by a passing dog, but he descended back to a more normal frequency as Matthew’s chance came and went. Thus ended what was actually a very good tournament for the infrequently-playing Sadler. Peter went through as group winner of what had long been designated ‘the group of death’ so well done to him.



Rowson ½-½ Kramnik: Vlad might have needed to win this game had Matthew won against Peter but as things turned out his score in it proved irrelevant. He played cagily, aiming for a slow positional crush should he need to press for a win. Perhaps he had learnt his lesson from the last round of the 2013 Candidates’, where it turned out a draw would have been good enough to qualify him for a world championship match. Eventually, when he realised no more was necessary, he acquiesced to a draw. Jonathan played well to keep him at bay. Here is some text from Jonathan’s post-tournament tweets another ‘must-follow’ account – @jonathan_rowson): “It was a joy to have been part of the chess family again [at the London Classic], where even my blunders and oversights felt like old friends. Ever so slightly wistful: three right moves [at the] right time [would have equalled] seven more points. But it doesn’t work like that and, in any case, that's a lot!”

Nakamura ½-½ Polgar: Hikaru and Judit entertained us with a ‘Tromp’, with Hikaru eschewing the usual 10.Qh5+ move. Hikaru emerged from the opening a pawn up but Judit’s active defence kept her in the game. In fact, she turned it around and soon she was a pawn up herself, and they were into an endgame. “Endgames are just so much fun!,” quipped @GMHikaru later. With Boris Gelfand losing, the draw was enough to give Hikaru first place in the group, and a pairing with Nigel Short in the quarter-finals.

Jones 1-0 Gelfand: Gawain claimed the mighty scalp of Boris Gelfand in superb style. 17.Rb3 seems to be untested and before long Gawain sacrificed a piece on the kingside and switched the rook across to that side of the board. As so often at rapidplay, it proved very much more difficult to defend against a direct attack on the king than to prosecute it. As Julian Hodgson said on commentary, “the initiative is even more important at rapidplay than it is in normal chess.” The best Boris could do was force off the queens but that left him with a number of vulnerabilities in the rook and pawn endgame that he couldn’t quite manage to defend.

Sutovsky 1-0 Howell: At last, some joy for Emil after much suffering in the previous five rounds, but more misery for David. The opening was a Berlin, but David compromised his position with 19...Nd4 and 20...b5 and was soon unceremoniously pushed off the board.

Caruana 1-0 Short: Both players had already booked their passage to the quarter-finals, but Nigel could still secure first place if he won and then picked the envelope with the number one in it. Probably elated after his qualification success, he didn’t quite maintain his form into the evening session. Fabiano soon had two big pawns dominating the queenside and (cue, a cliché) the rest was a matter of technique. Fabiano plays Boris Gelfand in the quarter-final, while Nigel faces Hikaru Nakamura.

FINAL PRELIMINARY GROUP STANDINGSGroup A: Anand, Adams 12, Istratescu, McShane 4.
Group B: Svidler 11, Kramnik 9, Sadler 7, Rowson 4.
Group C: Nakamura 10, Gelfand 9, Jones 7, Polgar 5.
Group D: Caruana 16, Short 10, Howell 5, Sutovsky 3.

COMING NEXT AT THE LONDON CLASSIC...
The Super Sixteen Rapid quarter-finals take place on Saturday 14 December 2013, starting at 1400 UK time. There are three further sessions at 1530, 1730 and 1900. Check the official website for live broadcast of the London Chess Classic 2013. 

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
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Sport Accord World Mind Games Chess 2013: Wang Yue, Valentina Gunina win Chess Rapid (men and women's) Event

December 14, 2013, 8:56 am
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Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

Congratulations to Wang Yue of China and Valentina Gunina of Russia for winning the Rapid Chess events (in the men and women's categories) at the SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing. The champions were crowned after two days of exciting rapid chess. In the women's section, reigning women's world chess champion Hou Yifan was second and Ju Wenjun was third. In the men's section, Peter Leko was second and Alexander Grischuk was third. 


Meanwhile, special school visits have also been arranged at the event to encourage students and give children an educative cultural experience. The SportAccord school visits included a group of young students visiting the World Mind Games venue, while SportAccord President, Mr. Marius L. Vizer and World Bridge Federation President, Mr. Giovanni Arrigo Rona attended the Number 5 Beijing High School. 



From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel


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