Happy New Year 2010 and Late Dec Winners

Happy New Year 2010!!

Here a list of late December winners, in Russian Superfinal Men, Peter Svidler narrowly missed the title to Alex Grischuk by half point. This maybe blamed to Svidler lost to Sjugirov in a Caro Kann miniature. Meanwhile the tournament see another miniature and an interesting one.

Vitiugov,N (2694) - Khismatullin,D (2643)
62nd ch-RUS Moscow RUS (9), 2009.12.29

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In Women category, Alisa Galliamova also narrowly clinched the title from Nadezhda Konsintseva by half point. Alisa had been dominated the tournament with only three draws on 9 rounds. Natalia Pogonina must withdrew early due to illness. Comprehensive report from TWIC.

In Groningen Open Group A, young Illya Nyzhnyk (13 old!) finished first with 7.5 point. Second are Jan Werle Dmitri Reinderman with 6.5. Illya gets his title and second GM norm. Shame he did not met the other teenage Anish Giri who finished with 6 points. Don't missed this young and dangerous player, Illya Nyzhnyk.

Old Jan Timman wins his latest match against Robin van Kampen, 2.5-1.5. Timman is at 2591 and van Kampen 2470. TWIC conclusion here.

In 19th Pamplona International, Georg Meier is ahead of other 9 players to bring home a title. Second are GM Julio Granda Zuniga, who with Viktor Laznicka and Kiril Georgiev must surrender the title to Meier eventhough all have a tie 6 points. TWIC presentation here.

In closer to Asia, GM Antonio Rogelio Jr. wins a friendly 3rd Knights and Kings gathering, ahead of Wesley So (4th), Rolando Nolte (3rd), and Ali Branzuela (2nd). See nice story from Chessheroes.

Meanwhile still a busy up coming week:
Hastings UK- http://www.hastingschess.org.uk/
Reggio Emilia Italy- see TWIC if you can't do Italian.
the Rilton Cup Sweden- http://www.rilton.se/
World Open Leon- http://www.openmundialdeleon.com/
World Team Champ Turkey- http://wtcc2009.tsf.org.tr/

Asian Team Championship Final

Asian Team Chess Championship 2009 held in Kolkata concluded this afternoon. Round 7 sees India A has another perfect score against lower rated Srilanka. Iran fight a rather hard team, India B but get a wins to secured their third position. Meanwhile Vietnam is in second position after they only need to play another lower rated Nepal. Indonesia team get a consolidation win over Yemen and stands in fourth position. Singapore must satifsy with 3.5-0.5 score against Bangladesh. The first board GM Wu Shaobin take a half point while all the rest Singaporeans failed to get another point. Terry Chua fight the last game with R vs R+P endgame against GM Murshed Niaz. The following are round 7 result for Men section:

Bo. 9 SRILANKA - 1 INDIA A 0 : 4
1.1 Hapuarachchi H L M 2019 - GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2664 0 - 1
1.2 Edirisinghe Dulan 2137 - GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2654 0 - 1
1.3 Kalugampitiya R S 2135 - GM Negi Parimarjan 2620 0 - 1
1.4 Wijesuriya G Luxman 2089 - GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 2518 0 - 1
Bo. 3 IRAN - 4 INDIA B 3 : 1
2.1 GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan 2603 - IM Adhiban B 2486 1 - 0
2.2 GM Moradiabadi Elshan 2560 - IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu 2480 ½ - ½
2.3 GM Mahjoob Morteza 2510 - IM Sengupta Deep 2488 1 - 0
2.4 IM Toufighi Homayoon 2454 - IM Himanshu Sharma 2469 ½ - ½
Bo. 2 VIETNAM - 10 NEPAL 4 : 0
3.1 GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2616 - Karmacharya P, Man 2015 1 - 0
3.2 GM Bui Vinh 2488 - Pandey Sajan 0 1 - 0
3.3 GM Dao Thien Hai 2524 - Shrestha Rajendra Prasad 1982 1 - 0
3.4 GM Nguyen Anh Dung 2447 - Shrestha Sujendra Prasad 2084 1 - 0
Bo. 6 BANGLADESH - 7 SINGAPORE 3½: ½
4.1 GM Rahman Ziaur 2545 - GM Wu Shaobin 2454 ½ - ½
4.2 GM Murshed Niaz 2409 - FM Chua Zheng Yuan Terry 2256 1 - 0
4.3 FM Moh. Abdul Malek 2290 - FM Lo Kin Mun Dominic 2174 1 - 0
4.4 Ahmed Mahtabuddin 2171 - Tan Weiliang 2168 1 - 0
Bo. 8 YEMEN - 5 INDONESIA ½ :3½
5.1 Abdullah Sonbul 0 - IM Purnama Tirta Chandra 2417 0 - 1
5.2 FM Fouad Mofleh 2199 - FM Novita Anjas 2340 0 - 1
5.3 FM Faraj Yahya 2280 - Kaisar Jenius Hakiki 2227 0 - 1
5.4 Al-Aqrabi Saleh 2201 - CM Farid Firman Syah 2249 ½ - ½

So the final standing represented very much to their seeding prediction but Indonesia manages to gets in fourth place while seed as no.5 and Srilanka in 8th position while expected to be in 9th. Final position:

1. (1) INDIA A................ 14 156,0 101,5
2. (2) VIETNAM............ 11 145,0 102,5
3. (3) IRAN..................... 11 103,0 94,5
4. (5) INDONESIA .........8 65,0 91,5
5. (4) INDIA B ................ 8 57,0 87,5
6. (6) BANGLADESH..... 8 56,0 84,0
7. (7) SINGAPORE......... 4 42,0 102,0
8. (9) SRILANKA ........... 3 12,0 96,5
9. (8) YEMEN................. 2 18,0 85,0
10. (10) NEPAL ...............1 12,5 87,0

Top Five Boys by point:
Name-Rating-Country-Points/Games-Percentage-Board
1. GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2616 VIE 6,0/7 85,7% 1
2. GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2664 INDIA A 5,5/6 91,7% 1
3. GM Negi Parimarjan 2620 INDIA A 5,5/6 91,7% 3
4. GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2654 IND A 5,0/6 83,3% 2
5. GM Bui Vinh 2488 VIE 5,0/6 83,3% 2

Women
Meanwhile Vietnam girls finished strongly in first place. Second place is India A who take a bye turn, since the number of girl teams is an odd 9 teams. Iran played a strong round to defeat nearest rival India B with 3-1.

A bit tragic for Indonesia but strong finish for Singapore as the later defeated their neighbour by 2.5-1.5. In this match, WGM Irene K. Sukandar gets a winning endgame in active Knight versus Black's Bishop who operated by WFM Jeslin Tay. But in another board the young Baiq Vina Lestari lost in time in unresolved position against WFM Liu Yang. WFM Dewi Citra lost to WFM Victoria Chan and Chelsie Monica Sihite drew to Christabel Neo.

WFM Liu Yang - Baiq Vina Lestari 1-0
34..Bd4+ final position, Black lost on time
computer give White a plus sign

Final position for Women section :
1. (3) VIETNAM ..................13 129,5 95,5
2. (1) INDIA A .....................10 120,5 83,0
3. (4) IRAN .......................... 9 118,5 80,5
4. (2) INDIA B ..................... 9 89,0 94,0
5. (6) SINGAPORE .............. 8 74,5 83,0
6. (7) BANGLADESH .......... 6 42,0 74,5
7. (5) INDONESIA................ 4 58,0 85,5
8. (8) SRILANKA .................. 3 12,0 80,5
9. (9) NEPAL ......................... 1 0,0 86,0

Against their seed prediction Vietnam is the big winner here. Singapore also finished strong while Indonesia and India B must satisfy to be two ranks lower than their seed.

Top Five Girls by point:
Name-Rating-Country-Points/Games-Percentage-Board
1. WGM Nguyen Thi Thanh An 2334 VIE 5,5/6 91,7% 2
2. WIM Pham Le Thao Nguyen 2295 VIE 5,5/7 78,6% 1
3. WGM Pourkashiyan Atousa 2306 IRAN 5,0/6 83,3% 1
4. IM Harika Dronavalli 2467 INDIA A 4,5/5 90,0% 1
5. IM Tania Sachdev 2399 INDIA A 4,5/5 90,0% 2


Men’s
1st Board : Gold Le Quang Liem (Vietnam)
2nd board : Gold: K Sasikiran (India)
3rd board : Gold: Surya Sekhar Ganguly (India)
4th Board : Gold : Parimarjan Negi (India )
5th board : Gold Nguyen Anh Dung (Vietnam )
Women’s
1st board Gold : D Harika (India )
2nd board Gold : Pardar Shadi (Iran )
3rd board Gold: Nguyen Thi Thanh An (Vietnam )
4th Board Gold : Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vietnam )
5th Board Gold: Hoang Thi Nhu Y (Vietnam )

Full result from chess result. Indonesian report at Potret Catur and Singapore report here.

Asian Team Championship-Round 6

India A won the Tata Steel Asian Team Chess Championship 2009 Men's section. India A get 12 match points after finishing Singapore 3.5-0.5 in round 6, while nearest rivals like Vietnam and Iran still at 9 match points. In round 6 Indonesian's men join the misery company, suffering a 4-0 lost to Vietnam.

GM Megaranto face a well known GM Le Quang Liem, the game went in classical battle of Nimzo India Defence with bishop pair vs knight+bishop. Black slowly outplayed in this positional game.

Most exciting game is IM Tirta Chandra Purnama vs GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. Black played an intrique bishop sacrifice 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 e6 7.f3 Bb4 8.e4 Bxe4!? and force White's king to flee his comfortable square in the next moves. White again gains much promising attack in kingside but a weak 36.b5? spoiled everything.

Play online chess

GM Bui Vinh played an aggresive early Trompowsky's Bishop vs FM Anjas Novita and wins. While Farid Firmansyah get out of a promising Ruy Lopez opening but soon went into lost position and jumped into a mate pattern by GM Nguyen Anh Dung who played the Black side. This concluded a 4-0 victory by Vietnam but the result is very much reflected to their respective rating, as condolence words...

The Indonesian Women team also lost 3.5-0.5 with only WGM Irene manage to secured half point over WGM Le Thanh Tu whom several points above Irene. Live and replay games http://www.asianteamchess09.com/livegames.asp

Men's Standing after round 6:
1.INDIA A ............. 12 118,0 75,0
2.VIETNAM ......... 9 108,0 76,0
3.IRAN.................. 8,0 66,5
4.INDIA B .............8 43,0 58,5
5.INDONESIA...... 6 48,0 71,5
6. BANGLADESH 6 38,0 60,5
7. SINGAPORE.... 4 35,0 74,0
8. SRILANKA....... 3 10,0 62,0
9. YEMEN............ 2 14,0 60,5
10. NEPAL ...........1 10,5 56,5

Women's Standing after round 6:
1. VIETNAM...... 11 97,5 73,5
2. INDIA.............. 9 82,5 70,5
3. INDIA B ..........9 71,5 63,5
4. IRAN................ 7 75,5 53,0
5. SINGAPORE.... 6 51,5 60,0
6. INDONESIA.... 4 39,5 60,5
7. BANGLADESH . 4 27,0 57,5
8. SRILANKA ........ 3 6,0 61,0
9. NEPAL............... 1 0,0 55,0
Annotation:
Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)
Tie Break2: Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break
Tie Break3: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variabel with parameter)

Full result see here.


Final Round 7 pairing:
MEN 1
SRILANKA (3) vs INDIA A (12)
2 IRAN (9) vs INDIA B (8)
3 VIETNAM (9) vs NEPAL (1)
4 BANGLADESH (6) vs SINGAPORE (4)
5 YEMEN (2) vs INDONESIA (6)

Women
1 NEPAL (1) vs VIETNAM (11)
2 IRAN (7) vs INDIA B (9)
3 INDONESIA (4) vs SINGAPORE (6)
4 SRILANKA (3) vs BANGLADESH (4)
5 INDIA A (9) Bye

Perebutan juara pertama di Kejuaraan Beregu Asia Kolkatta musti diakhiri setelah India A berhasil mencapai 12 match point. India A mengalahkan Singapore di babak 6, sementara Iran dan Vietnam masih bertahan di nilai 9. Vietnam yang menjadi lawan Indonesia di babak 6 gagal dibendung dan mempertahankan tradisi 4-0 di tiap babak. Partai pertama Megaranto berlangsung ketat dan positional tapi Megaranto yang bermain hitam dengan Nimzo indian defence pelan-pelan kehilangan kontrol dan kalah.

Partai paling seru ada di papan IM Tirta Chandra lawan pecatur muda Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. Si Nguyen bermain tajam korban Gajah di pembelaan mirip-mirip Slavia tapi juga mirip Gambit Menteri di terima ini. Sementara siaran langsung lainnya GM Bui Vinh juga main tajam melawan Anjas Novita. Sedangkan Firmansyah pelan-pelan juga gagal membendung lawan GMnya. Hasil ini kurang lebih tercermin dari rating lawan Indonesia yang semuanya jauh di atas pemain Indonesia. Hal yang sama juga tercermin di regu puteri yang juga kalah 3.5-0.5, hasil seri dipetik WGM Irene.

Partai terakhir adalah Indonesia vs Yemen, yang kemungkinan besar bisa jadi ajang balas dendam atas hasil kemarin, dan di bagian puteri Indonesia melawan tetangga terdekat Singapora. Yang jauh lebih penting dari mengejar ketertinggalan dari Vietnam adalah sekarang bagaimana agar tidak terkejar oleh Singapore.

Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru 2010.

Christmas 2009 Full of Chess

Merry Christmas to everyone, may peace and joy fill everyone heart. But some GMs and WGM just can't had enough peace because they need to find a good move in their chess game! This holiday season see a lots of event to be watched.

First to mentioned is the continuation of Asian Team Championship in Kolkata. The event is a battle between 10 teams from Asia. Up to round 5 top standing for men :
.....................TB1 TB2 TB3
1. INDIA A - 10 84,0 52,0
2. VIETNAM - 7 63,0 51,0
3. IRAN - 7 51,0 53,0
4. INDONESIA - 6 38,0 43,0
5. INDIA B - 6 34,0 45,5
6. BANGLADESH- 4 27,0 48,0
7. SINGAPORE- 4 24,0 43,0
8. SRILANKA- 3 8,0 38,0
9. YEMEN- 2 6,0 38,0
10.NEPAL- 1 4,5 41,0

For women :
.....................TB1 TB2 TB3
1. VIETNAM - 9 65,0 49,0
2. INDIA A - 7 53,5 49,5
3. INDIA B - 7 50,5 47,5
4. IRAN - 5 50,5 37,5
5. SINGAPORE - 5 34,5 48,5
6. INDONESIA - 4 30,0 35,0
7. BANGLADESH - 4 25,0 34,5
8. SRILANKA - 3 6,0 35,5
9. NEPAL - 1 0,0 32,5
Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)
Tie Break2: Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break
Tie Break3: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variabel with parameter)

Full result see here.

The tournament see a dramatic imbalance between high rated team and the low rated with 4-0 score in every round. The recipient of this perfect score is either Nepal or Srilanka. Round 5 Women see Indonesian team facing India B. WGM Irene draw with WGM Mary Ann Gomez in Sicilian games. After the exchange both side reach a rook and opposite bishop position. Both girls shake hand realizing no significant improvement for both side.

Next to Irene, all the Indonesian girls lost to India. WFM Dewi Citra played the longest game with WIM Padmini Rout. Both have a passed pawn standing in a square next to promotion square, but Black has a King to support his pawn while White doesn't. White resign in 62 moves.

Last position of WFM Dewi Citra vs WIM Padmini Rout 0-1
WGM Irene vs WGM Mary Ann Gomes 1/2-1/2

In Men area, Round 5 see Indonesia keep the 4-0 tradition to Nepal team. Vietnam also quickly in 3-0 score playing Bangladesh , GM Le Quang Liem wins over GM Rahman Ziaur. The last board and longest for round 5 is a battle between GM Bui Vinh and FM Abdul Malek. Both reach a 2P+ opposite Bishop position but the score read the Vietnamese wins it, so 4-0 for Vietnam vs Bangladesh. Live games here.

Other great tournament is a RUSSIAN SUPER FINAL, which after round 5 Grischuk is on top with 3.5 above Svidler and Vitiugov with 3.0 . The young Sjugirov is making headline with a 20+ move win over Svidler. In Women section Alisa Galliamova is in perfect 5/5 , second by N. Kosintveva with 4/5. See LIVE game here.

In Holland, the Groningen 2009 also had great LIVE chess to be watched, Jan Timman is playing Robin Van Kempen and also a strong group A open.

In Sweden there is Rilton with LIVE tranmission here.

And of course the Battle of Giant reaching conclusion here. Spassky and Korchnoi is back in match and their score is equal with both wins each other.

And that's our chess menu for this holiday season.

Asian Team Championship Round 2

Second round of Asian Team Chess Championship see another 4-0 results around. Singapore Men and Women went berserk to score perfect point against Nepal team. Indonesian Women team also join in with the same score against Srilanka. In Men section, India A defeated India B with 3.5-1.5, Iran drew Vietnam with GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami take point from GM Le Quang Liem, but second board GM Elshan Moradiabadi must surrender to another young talent GM Nguyen Ngoc Truang Son.

Indonesia succesful defeated quite strong team Bangladesh. Bangladesh's two GMs are GM Rahman Ziaur, who must admit point to GM Megaranto Susanto. The second GM Murshed Niaz split point with IM Tirta Purnama. FM Anjas Novita get to bring his opponent into winning endgame for Black (Anjas), and after 59.Kg1 ? Black finished the game with beautiful tactic :

59.. f3! 60.gxf3 Rb4!
61.Kf1 {61. Rg2+ Kxf3 62. Rf2+Ke3 63. Kg2 Rb2} Rb1+ 0-1
to see Black goes to Rb2 for sure

Last board Kaisar Jenius Hakiki also defeated his FM opponent who defend in Pirc setup.

Full round 2 result :
Men
India B - India A ½ : 3½
Vietnam - Iran 2:2
Bangladesh - Indonesia ½:3½
Nepal - Singapore 0:4
Yemen - Srilanka 2:2

Women
Iran - India A 1:3
India B - Vietnam 1:3
Nepal - Singapore 0:4
Indonesia - Srilanka 4:0

Full pairing here. Live : http://www.asianteamchess09.com/livegames.asp

Asian Team Chess Championship 2009

The Asian Team Chess Championship 2009 is begin. The event also called a Tata Steel Asian ...... is running from 20th to 29th December in Kolkata. About 9 countries form a team of men and women to compete in this two groups. India is sending two team. The A team is composed of lower rating to up to 2600 rated players. Highest seed is India A with Harikrishan, gangulu, Parimarjan all 2600 rated and only Deepan in 2518. Vietname also in strong contender with Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son above 2600+. Iran with one 2603 rated Ghaem Maghami Ehsan and that's it, all the rest are below 2600. And also they are spared because other strong Asian team like Chinese is probably busy preparing to play the World Team Champ in Turkey very soon. Also not sure why Phillipine did not join in.

Indonesia team composition are :
1. Megaranto Susanto GM 2522
2. Purnama Tirta Chandra IM 2417
3. Novita Anjas FM 2340
4. Kaisar Jenius Hakiki - 2227
5. Farid Firman Syah CM 2249

and

1. Sukandar Irine Kharisma WGM 2304
2. Lestari Baiq Vina - 2170
3. Dewi Aa Citra WFM 1938
4. Sihite Chelsie Monica WCM 1971
5. Medina Warda Aulia WCM 1959

For women , the "all stars" (Irene,Dewi,Chelsie and Medina) to be played their "debut" as a team, with Lestari joining the team. Their first round is a hard one against top seed India A and lost 2.5 - 1.5 with following result :

IM Harika Dronavalli - WGM Irene Kharisma Sukandar 1-0
WGM Karavade Eesha - Baiq Vina Lestari 0-1
WGM Soumya Swaminathan - WFM Dewi Aa Citra 0.5-0.5
WGM Nadig Kruttika - WCM Chelsie Monica Sihite 1-0

Baiq put a great game with White against her WGM opponent's Sicilian (Updated):

Play chess online

Meanwhile the Indonesia men joined a first round massacre with 4-0 win over Nepal team. Other clearance are Iran to Yemen 4-0 and Srilanka - India B 0-4. Full result here.

Singapore men team face a strong Vietnam with 0.5-3.5 in Vietnam favor. GM Wu Shaobin failed to stop young star Le Quang Liem and only Tan Weiliang manage to save a half point against GM Dao Thien Hai. The Singapore women have consider a good start against India B with 2-2. All the girls (WFM Jeslin Tay, WFM Liu Yang, WFM Victoria Chan and Christabel Neo) managed to clinched a half point from their over 200 rated opponents.

Live game in Monroi platform here. Official web here.

Korchnoi-Spassky Battle of Giant

Victor Korchnoi is back in action but this time he is not to play teenage or girls. His opponent today is also an old hand , the tenth world champion Boris Spassky. The match to be held yesterday to 27th Dec in 8 games.

First game won by Victor Korchnoi who played white side against a Nimzo Indian defence.

Play online chess

Full official story here :


In December of this year will be held in Elista chess match between the tenth world champion Boris Spassky (France) and "eternal challenger, Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland), to commemorate the 400 th anniversary of the Voluntary Entering of the Kalmyk people in the Rossiyskogo state.
Boris Spassky - the tenth world champion, won the chess crown in a dramatic duel with Tigran Petrosian, who gave it in turn to the great Bobby Fischer. B. Spassky - a brilliant chess player and a brilliant psychologist, has always referred to play on peaking, and often preferred to draw the game to win, even in the worst position. B. Spassky was not an innovator in the debut, although it may be noted one component of chess, in which the tenth world champion was not just strong, but noticeably superior to all his contemporaries. Playing in a complex multi-figure middlegame! A wonderful sense of coordination figures, the ability to choose the best moment to strike. When it is necessary to continue strengthening the position and when it is time to attack - these questions B. Spassky decided at the board almost flawlessly. At an intuitive level.

Viktor Korchnoi - the oldest of the currently playing grandmasters in the world. In his 78 years, Victor L. actively participates in various chess tournaments. With 60 years of XX century Korchnoi is a contender for the title of world champion, he is considered the strongest chess player, never won the crown of world champion in chess. V. Korchnoi, winner of more than sixty international competitions - a brilliant connoisseur of debuts and endgame positions. For sixty years, both have played a match between a total of 69 official games. V. Korchnoi won 22 of them, 15 on account B. Spassky, and 32 ended in a peaceful outcome. The last meeting took place masters 10 years ago in St. Petersburg, their native city, during the celebration of 275 anniversary of St. Petersburg University.

Then the landslide victory won 6:4 V. Korchnoi, winning 65% of the prize fund of 12 thousand dollars. The initiative of the President of FIDE, Head of the Republic of Kalmykia KN Ilyumzhinov to hold the match V. Korchnoi and Boris Spassky, on the 400-Anniversary of Voluntary Entering of the Kalmyk people in the Rossiyskogo state, with prize fund of U.S. $ 20 000 in Elista was supported by the Congress of FIDE. The match will take place in the meeting hall of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan from 17 to 27 December in 8 rounds. December 22, the day of rest, will blitz tournament with the participation of veterans of chess in Kalmykia and 10 invited veterans of chess from Moscow and St. Petersburg. In good tradition for the audience in the lobby of the party would comment on the international grandmasters Alexander Nikitin and I. Zaitsev.

http://chess-rk.ru/

London Chess Classic 2009 - Magnus Wins

Not much exciting news after the World Cup 2009 and London Chess Classic. For the later, Magnus Carlsen wins , again. Other participant like Kramnik also went well, he is only suffered one lost to Carlsen in first round. David Howell and Michael Adams in third place while Luke McShane is the strong dark horse ahead of Nakamura , Ni Hua and Short. The tournament applied three point system for the winning and one point for draw. Final position :

1 GM Carlsen, Magnus 2801 NOR 13
2 GM Kramnik, Vladimir 2772 RUS 12
3 GM Howell, David W L 2597 ENG 9 Win with black
4 GM Adams, Michael 2698 ENG 9 Win with white
5 GM McShane, Luke J 2615 ENG 7
6 GM Ni, Hua 2665 CHN 6 One game won
7 GM Nakamura, Hikaru 2715 USA 6
8 GM Short, Nigel D 2707 ENG 5

Tournament brilliancy prize goes to Luke McShane vs Nakamura, see the game here.

In more exciting lower festival, the FIDE Open also won by a Nordic player. GM Jon Ludvig Hammer get 8 point out of 9 round. Simon Williams, Mark Hebden and IM Jovanka Houska are 7 point. See result here.

Other excited part is all women section. The Womens' Invitational first title goes to WIM Arianne Caoili of Australia, previously a Phillipine master, with 8/9. England Susan Lalic is no.2 with 6/9. Full result here.

Overall the tournament goes very well in term of organizing and information provided. The website gives many photos and reports. Other event is like Victor Korchnoi simuls. Also great is a support from third party website like Chessvibes and Chessbomb which gives a live games. Official site here.

Some games to be shown here is a 27 movers win by GM Hammer over Neil McDonald in a Catalan game. A nice game where it is not easy to see what went wrong in Black side. So here is the latest addition to my 1.d4 games collection. The Shredding Chess Move collection :

World Cup 2009-Boris Gelfand Wins

The 2009 edition of World Cup concluded with a victory by Boris Gelfand over Ruslan Ponomariov. In final round, the two player exercised four classical games all ended in a draw. The match then gone to a tie break system. In opposite, this rapid and blitz time control gives much pleasure as both defeated each other.

All Classical are draws.

Rapid
1. Ruslan Ponomariov-Boris Gelfand ½-½
2. Boris Gelfand-Ruslan Ponomariov 0-1
3. Ruslan Ponomariov-Boris Gelfand ½-½
4. Boris Gelfand-Ruslan Ponomariov 1-0

Blitz
1. Boris Gelfand-Ruslan Ponomariov 1-0
2. Ruslan Ponomariov-Boris Gelfand 1-0
3. Boris Gelfand-Ruslan Ponomariov 1-0
4. Ruslan Ponomariov-Boris Gelfand 0-1

Boris Gelfand then win the last two blitz games and declared winner. He is the oldest participant at 41 and also top seed. He will get one spot in the next Candidate Match between 8 players. The Candidate Match line up are :

1. Loser of Topalov - Anand
2. Gata Kamsky (runner up of Topalov-Kamsky 2009)
3. Levon Aronian (winner of Grand Prix)
4. Magnus Carlsen (no.1 FIDE rating , TBC)
5. Vladimir Kramnik (no.2 FIDE rating, TBC)
6. Boris Gelfand (winner of World Cup 2009)
7. Runner up of Grand Prix
8. Organizer nominee

See Final round games and commentary from Chessvibes and Chessbase.

Pecatur Isreal Boris Gelfand akhirnya memenangkan Piala Dunia Catur 2009. Runner up adalah mantan juara Ruslan Ponomariov dari Ukraina. Boris mengalahkan Ruslan melalui 4 partai catur klasik, 4 partai catur cepat dan juga butuh 4 partai catur kilat karena kondisi imbang. Di dua partai terakhir Boris mengalahkan Ruslan jadi otomatis dialah pemenang tahun ini. Dengan demikian Boris masuk menjadi satu peserta Kejuaraan Kandidat tahun tahun mendatang. Daftar peserta kandidat telah di pos sebelumnnya dan ada juga di pos ulang di atas.

Enrique Paciencia Wins Commonwealth Open 2009

IM Enrique Paciencia is the strongest in Commonwealth Open 2009, he secured the title with spare of a round. In round 8 Enrique already at 7 point while IM Ashwin Jayaram, nearest and top seed, at 5,5 point. IM Ashwin get the second position after in final round, round 9, beat FM Kherdekar Sauravh while Enrique played a draw game with IM Lim Yee-Weng of Malaysia.


Third position is Candidate Master Max Illingworth. Playing an Australian flag, he is the person who responsible putting Ashwin in second position by beating Ashwin in round 6.

See previous post about Commonwealth and Singapore Chess Festival here. Top table for Commonwealth Open 2009:


1. IM Paciencia Enrique SIN 2424 7,5
2. IM Ashwin Jayaram IND 2448 6,5
3. CM Illingworth Max AUS 2211 6,0
4. FM Chan Wei Xuan Timothy SIN 2384 6,0
5. IM Gokhale Chandrashekhar IND 2259 5,5
6. FM Fernandez Daniel Howard SIN 2230 5,5
7. IM Lim Yee-Weng MAS 2336 5,0
8. Dole Anant RSA 2068 5,0
9. IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy IND 2444 5,0
10. FM Sauravh Khherdekar IND 2274 4,5
11. IM Mas Hafizulhelmi MAS 2419 4,5
12. Lee Kim Han Edward MAS 2114 4,5
13. Phadke Sohan IND 2214 4,5
14. Tan Weiliang SIN 2168 4,5
15. FM Lo Kin Mun Dominic SIN 2174 4,5

Detail chess result here. PGN to be found here.


Devappa Yashash and WCM Maria Ivana Furtado is winner in U16/20 and U12 section, both playing Indian flag. Chess result link here and here.


In a more low rating section, the Singapore Challenger, top finisher is Phillipines Docena Jedara (1987) with 8 point. Second position is a tie between Paulo Bersamina (PHI,1897) and CM Rezon Yanuar (INA,2077) with 7 point, Paulo win the tie break. Other Indonesia fellow like Jody Setyadi (1725) and Yuliana Sentosa (no rating) finished 6,5 and 5,5 point. Indonesia sent eleven player, but WCM Kadek looks not playing in the tournament. Chess result link here.

Singapore Chess Festival 2009 - Commonwealth Open

Quitely happening this week is the local Singapore International Chess Festival 2009. The event held in 4 sections, the Commonwealth Open, Singapore Challenger, Commonwealth U12 and Commonwealth U20/U16. Tournament runs from 9 to 14 December 2009.

The Commonwealth Open is a no play play* one a with IM Ashwin Jayaratnam seed as number 1. Following is IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy IND (2444) as seed 2 and Singapore most active master (at least for this year) IM Paciencia Enrique SIN (2424) as seed 3. Malaysia IM Mas Hafizulhelmi 2419 is the next one. It is hard to have a notable international chess event in Singapore and more difficult to see Singapore base master playing, such as GM Zhang Zhong, Wu Shaobin, IM Kevin Goh, or many of the ASEAN Chess Academy trainers who name like Ashot Nadanian belong to it. (* Singlish in use).

This leave to many of junior FMs like Timothy Chan Wei Xuan and Terry Chua all in action. Chess result link is here. And official blog is here. Not sure if this is the same Commonwealth tournament where Nigel Short participating it.

Meanwhile in Challenger section, the highest rated player here is Datu Alcon John at 2220 and this is for U2200 player. Indonesia sent 11 players to participating. Potret Catur give entry in Bahasa Indonesia here :

Sebelas pecatur Indonesia pagi ini berangkat untuk mengikuti Singapore Chess Festival yang akan berlangsung hingga 15 Desember 2009. Mereka adalah Luthfi Nurul Huda, Monica Putri Wigustira, Aay Aisyah Anisa, Muhammad Firmansyah Pratama, Yesaya Joel Augusto, Azarya Jodi Setyaki, Yuliana Santosa, Rezon Yanuar, Kadek IIn Dwijayanti, Mukmin Panggabean, Tromphin Sitorus dan Muhammad Syamsul Bachri. see http://potretcatur.blogspot.com

Chess result link here.

In U20 IM Lalith Babu from India is top seed at 2460 rating.

Total prize fund is US$ 14,500. Commonwealth Open winner will receive US$ 2,500. In comparision the Challenger winner will get US$ 300. Venue is in Bishan area. Official website http://www.singaporechess.org.sg/new/.

World Cup 2009 Final-London Day 1

Finally a final for World Cup 2009. Boris Gelfand play best round ever, dismissing Karjakin chances to see the final 2-0. While Malakhov still made it to tie break and win one rapid game, before sent home by Ponomariov after Pono won all remain rapid games. Final semifinal result here.

This leave to a final pairing, Boris Gelfand - Ruslan Ponomariov, Boris is seeded 1 and Pono no. 7 in this tournament. They met many times with Ponomariov in favourable score. Their last game was in Tal Memorial and ended 1/2-1/2. For Boris this will be the second best shot to challenge the World Champion after he also played in 2007 Candidate match. While Ponomariov is looking for the second knock out style title. In 2002 after Pono win, some chess politic manuever caused his bid to match the reign Champion never really had changes. Looking forward for this face off!

Meanwhile, London Chess Classic just started. The event has been highly anticipated at least in CHESS Magazine where they published ads maybe half year prior. Total of eight GM, span from Carlsen to David Howell going to played each other. With Hikaru Nakamura maybe the second most interesting player the chess community wants to see. Round 1 see Carlsen surprised Kramnik in English opening and take strong 1-0. Luke McShane also won (strange) game with Short in 160+ moves. The rest is a draw :

Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Vladimir Kramnik
Luke McShane 1-0 Nigel Short
David Howell ½-½ Michael Adams
Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Ni Hua

The side event is a Festival Open, with Ludvig Hammer, Simmon Williams, Stuart Conquest playing. See here.

Also a Women Invitational event with some strong , still yet much popular, women playing. See here.

Finalis Piala Dunia Catur 2009 di Siberia akhirnya ketahuan kemarin. Boris Gelfand, GM veteran dari Israel, mengkandaskan pecatur 19 tahun Sergey Karjakin, 2-0. Partai pertama dengan buah hitam Gelfand memukul putih yang bermain 1.e4 tapi 2.Bc4 untuk menghindari Petroff nya Gelfand. Putih bermain resiko dan akhirnya hitam berhasil memetik kemenangan. Sementara di game ke dua, Gelfand memilih langkah yang lebih aman di pertahanan Gambit Menteri di tolak , tetapi hitam yang musti menang kembali bermain resiko mengakibatkan putih dapat menyerang hitam dengan indah. Lihat partai di sini.

Partai semifinal lain, mantan juara Ruslan Ponomariov mengirim pulang pecatur dadakan tapi kuat, Vladimir Malakhov. Malakhov yang masih berstatus semi profesional ini cukup sensasional setelah menghentikan langkah Wesley So di babak 4. Setelah itu, Malakhov menghentikan Svidler dan untuk menantang Ponomariov yang menghentikan Vugar Gashimov. Malakhov bermain solid, dengan pertahanan Slavia yang sukses dimainkan sepanjang turnamen. Kedua pecatur musti melewati babak tie break dengan bermain 4 kali catur cepat. Di catur pertama Malakhov menang tetapi 3 partai sisa dimenangkan Ponomariov.

Partai Final Gelfand dan Ponomariov akan menentukan juara Piala Dunia edisi tahun ini sekaligus sang pemenang akan otomatis bertanding di turnamen kandidat tahun mendatang. Kira-kira 8 pecatur akan main di turnamen kandidat untuk menantang juara dunia atau pemenang duel Anand-Topalov tahun depan. Peserta yang pasti di turnamen kandidat adalah,

1. Levon Aronian (dari Grand Prix),
2. peringkat dua Grand Prix, kemungkinan Teimor Radjabov
3. pecundang dari Anand vs Topalov
4. Juara Piala Dunia, Gelfand vs Ponomariov
5. Peringkat 1 FIDE, kemungkinan Carlsen dan Kramnik
6. Peringkat 2 FIDE,
7. Nominasi dari tuan rumah, kemungkinan Mamedyarov / Gashimov
8. Gata Kamsky, pecundang partai Kamsky vs Topalov 2009.

World Cup 2000-Semi Final

Result for Quarter final here.

Mamedyarov keep his no tie break record clean as he was eliminated 1.5-0.5 by Karjakin. In their game 2, Mame with white considered only one tiny chance to equalized, but the game went to an opposite bishop endgame with rook then dully drawn.

Svidler resign the first game to Malakhov after the later underpromoted a pawn into Knight to give a nice check. White then forced into mate and quickly resign. After this Svidler try a KID as black but Malakhov maintained good equality and Svidler quickly declared a draw.

The two tie breaker, first is Ponomariov who fast enough to give Gashimov time trouble in all games. In rapid 1, Gashimov quite winning but blundered a lot in time trouble, rapid two he burned a lot of time and lost badly (=blundered a rook). Rapid 3 after an uncommon opening Gashimov again powerless to win the game and admit a draw.

Jakovenko also clueless to Gelfand, the White. Both play a draw in rapid 1, but Gelfand turn the table in rapid 2 and 3.

So the semi final pairing are :

Boris Gelfand - Sergey Karjakin
Gelfand born in 1968 his GM title was earned in 1989 while at that time Karjakin still one year to go before come out of this world. Meanwhile Karjakin is a "fast" one by 2002 already called a GM, he is also fast in other thing like get married in age 19 (2009, wikipedia), not sure how old Gelfand on this. Conclusion, age different not much give a pattern. Although in other sport this age different is like Maradona vs Ronaldinho , or Liem Swei King vs Taufik Hidayat (ok, they are Badminton player).

They are regular customer to each other, the previous meeting is compiled here:

1. Karjakin vs Gelfand ½-½ 26 2004 Pamplona Tournament C42 Petrov Defense
2. Gelfand vs Karjakin ½-½ 22 2006 Corus Wijk aan Zee E05 Catalan, Open, Classical line
3. Gelfand vs Karjakin ½-½ 26 2008 FIDE Grand Prix E34 Nimzo-Indian, Classical, Noa Variation
4. Gelfand vs Karjakin 0-1 46 2008 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) A07 King's Indian Attack
5. Karjakin vs Gelfand ½-½ 46 2008 Amber Tournament (Rapid) C24 Bishop's Opening
6. Karjakin vs Gelfand ½-½ 89 2008 Tal Memorial Blitz E10 Queen's Pawn Game
7. Gelfand vs Karjakin ½-½ 53 2008 Tal Memorial Blitz A28 English
8. Karjakin vs Gelfand 1-0 37 2009 World Blitz Championship C10 French
9. Gelfand vs Karjakin 1-0 47 2009 World Blitz Championship A37 English, Symmetrical
10. Karjakin vs Gelfand ½-½ 36 2009 FIDE Jermuk Grand Prix C43 Petrov, Modern Attack
11. Gelfand vs Karjakin 1-0 45 2009 4th FIDE Grand Prix D15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav

Gelfand is playing safe strategy with no hesitation to have a draw when playing in not familiar position. Meanwhile Karjakin is one extra day for preparation and Gelfand already in marathon for few days.

Ruslan Ponomariov - Vladimir Malakhov
Lesser story to be told here. Malakhov is hardly a popular chess player before. He played in Candidate Match Mexico 2007, played in World Cup 2005 against Carlsen. U14 Champion in 1993. After his pairing with Wesley So he was blessed as one of popular chess player now. He is working daily as a scientist. Played a Slav defence.

Ponomariov is a former winner of this knock out tournament, so he has the experience. Played fast in rapid as shown in his match to Gashimov. His record of meeting Malakhov has only once, Ponomariov vs V Malakhov ½-½ 2009 LIII Campeonato D15 Slav. At least, Pono will be aware of his opponent familiar opening and not fall to Malakhov's preparation, which is quite lethal, plus Malakhov got one day extra to do it.

World Cup 2009-Quarter Final

For round 3 result here and report here.

Quarter final pairings comments :

Only four pairings left and I think I will soon finished commenting the pairing. Everything after this will just a repeating fact and trivia.

Boris Gelfand 2758 – Dmitry Jakovenko 2736
Boris eliminated Maxime by 1 blitz game while Jakovenko stopped Grischuk by 2 blitz games. Grischuk commented that Jako knews more his secret than him. Now with Gelfand they both played many times before in all time control, the chessgames database give Jakovenko a plus score.

Opening wise in this tournament, Gelfand play 1.d4 , 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 and replied 1.e4 with e5 exclusively, stat including rapid and blitz. So far no opponent give him a 1.d4 yet. Jakovenko alternating 1.e4 and 1.d4 in this tournament, replied 1.e4 with e5 and 1.d4 with Nf6,.. e6 reaching Gruenfeld and KID like.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2719 – Sergey Karjakin 2723
So far Mame is the only player enjoyed the most free days since he never went into tie break yet. Karjakin also has one free day as he finished Vitiugov without tie break. They are trading many games before in all time control, equal score from database. This is the first opponent to Mamedyarov who had a better rating.

Mame got varied opening so far while Karjakin employed mostly 1.e4.

Vugar Gashimov 2758 – Ruslan Ponomariov 2739
With two Azeri in separate bracket, the all Azeri final is possible, giving this a boost to both Gashimov and Mame spirit. Gashimov experienced two hard fight from Li Chao and Caruana and his luck again to be tested by former Champion Ponomariov. In Ponomariov side, he finished Bacrot by 1 rapid games. Gashimov has one winning classical game with Pono in 2008 but in recent Tal Blitz both are equal. The rating still suggested Gashimov the favorite side.

Gashimov exclusive using 1.e4 so far , Ponomariov replied to this is mainly a Ruy Lopez , stat is from this tournament only.

Peter Svidler 2754 – Vladimir Malakhov 2706
The outsider, Malakhov is ‘only’ 6 point to be considered as the 2700 group. Malakhov aware of his young opponent, applies a correct strategy to bring the round 4 into tie break and play with Wesley So’s confident. His tie break also the strongest 3-0 to bring home Wesley So fantastic journey so far. Peter Svidler will need to take care of Malakhov’s underdog advantage so far. Peter finished Shirov without tie break and still the strong favorite here. They also played many times with Peter on upper score.

Svidler has a balance 1.e4 and 1.d4 opening in this tournament while Malakhov experience all types of opening so far. Malakhov repertoire to 1.e4 is a Ruy Lopez while prefer Slav defence for 1.d4.

The youngest player now fall to Karjakin.

Country : Russia 3 , Azerbaijan 2, Ukraine 2, Israel 1, with Karjakin on blur nationality between Ukraine and Russia. All speaks Russian well.

Women ACP Rapid and Veterans

Here some intermezzo news in between round 4 of World Cup. The women enjoy their tournament with the start of First ACP Women World Rapid in Rixos Hotel, Konya, Turkey from November 30th to December 4th 2009. 12 players, some qualifiers and some invitees will compete. After 4th round the standing is :

Rank, Name, Rating, FED, Point
1 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2517 RUS 4
2 IM Cmilyte Viktorija 2480 LTU 4
3 GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2522 RUS 3
4 GM Socko Monika 2457 POL 3
5 GM Cramling Pia 2525 SWE 2½
6 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2482 GEO 2
7 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2518 RUS 1½
8 IM Klinova Masha 2305 ISR 1½
9 WGM Zhukova Natalia 2465 UKR 1
10 WIM Ozturk Kubra 2177 TUR 1
11 WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre 2213 TUR ½
12 Menzi Nezihe Ezgi 1847 TUR 0


No China player, while Koneru is playing in other rendezvous (see below) but one Israeli here. Maybe the misunderstanding had been resolved on what occured at Youth Closing ceremony. Alexandra herself blogging on this here. Official website here.




Meanwhile in Czech being a veteran also can land you a nice chess invitation :


Chess legends aka. Old Hands :
Viktor Korchnoi
Jan Timman
Robert Hübner
Vlastimil Hort


will compete with young grandmistresses aka. Snowdrops :
Humpy Koneru
Anna Muzychuk
Katerina Lahno
Jana Jackova


in the two-round scheveningen match „Lasses and Old Timer” - Czech Coal Chess Match 2009, which will take place in Marianske Lazne at Cristal Palace Hotel from 28th November till 5th December 2009. The speed of a game will be 90 minutes for 40 moves with additional 30 minutes till the end of the game and 30 seconds will be added for each completed move. The tournament is held by a civic association Prague Chess Society


Complete result is here.

Result up to round 4 as per player :

Timman - Koneru 1/2
Muzychuk - Timman 1/2
Timman - Lahno 1/2
Jacková - Timman 0-1
Hort - Muzychuk 1/2
Koneru - Hort 1-0
Hort - Jacková 1/2
Lahno - Hort 1/2
Hübner - Lahno 1/2
Jacková - Hübner 0-1
Hübner - Koneru 1/2
Muzychuk - Hübner 1-0
Korchnoi - Jacková 0-1
Lahno - Korchnoi 1/2
Korchnoi - Muzychuk 0-1
Koneru - Korchnoi 1-0


In round 4, the veteran Jan Timman put a nice Dragon against Jacková with Black having extra pawn for a battle of R+R vs R+B+pawn :

(show chess board)(hide chess board)