Corus 2010 Epilog - Gibraltar and Moscow Open

Group A - 1st Magnus Carlsen. His second Corus title, as he was winner in 2008 edition (shared with Aronian). His fourth title in last three months after his Nanjing, Tal Blitz and London title. So far Kramnik is the only one manage to defeated him. His live rating is now 2812,9 ,still number 1.


2nd Vladimir Kramnik and Alexey Shirov. Shirov is a pleasant surprise and Kramnik only catch in middle end of the tournament. Kramnik being then slowed down by Anand. Kramnik live rating is also up to 2789,9 and Shirov get 10 points more, at 2733,9.


3rd Viswanathan Anand and Hikaru Nakamura. Anand starts slow with nine draws but defeated Nakamura and then Kramnik. He is losing some point here and now with 2788,7. Meanwhile a word for Nakamura is "not bad at all" with him stayed no.5 behind all top guns and Shirov. He get most points and now at 2734,8 (+26,8 ).


Overall the group A gives much pleasure to chess fan with Short, Tiviakov, and others give a fighting chess. Shirov vs Dominguez is the last OMG of the tournament, see diagram below where Shirov agree to draw but analysis said he was actually winning. White to moves.

At this point, a draw was agreed, but in fact, Black's last move was a fatal blunder. White can now win immediately with 31.b4! Qc7 (31...Qb6 is the same; Black must keep control of d8, to prevent 32.Rd8+) 32.Qa8+ Bf8 33.Rf1 and Black cannot defend f8! (from chessbase)



Group B - 1st Anish Giri. No objection to Giri as he is also play a chess in the way the fans wanted to see. He was only lost to Anna Muzychuck and can counted as lost to Wesley So, after the later dully gives a shocking blunder of the tournament. A big welcome to group A and see how he can survive the upper class.

Group C - 1st Li Chao. The group C is kind of battleground with only 18 draws out of 91 games (13 round x 7 games). That is 20% only! Li Chao is the only dominated player in Corus with 10 point and closest rival at 8.5 point by Abhijet Gupta. Ray Robson who started great finished 7.5 point only. Still not a bad result.

Of all Group A , B and C there are 273 games. The Sicilian being played 80 times mean 29.3 %. The result is 22 White wins, 40 draw and 18 Black wins. Still a balance statistic.

see also
http://players.chessdom.com/magnus-carlsen/carlsen-wins-corus-chess

Meanwhile the next big menu are Gibraltar and Moscow Open with many strong GMs participating.

Corus 2010 Round 9

So far Corus 2010 tournament in Wijk Aan Zee is great and kicking ass. Until round 9, the candidate winner for each group is still unclear thus provide good entertainment for chess fan. In Group A, Shirov having 5/5 previously now at 6.5/9 out of 13 rounds. He is now must share the first place with Kramnik who climb out after beating Carlsen in round 9. Nakamura who also counted as close rival again lost the game to Karjakin, this making Carlsen and Karjakin at 5.5 and Nakamura himself 5. Nakamura share the 5 point with Ivanchuk and Dominguez.

Group B see the magician Anish Giri feld for the beauty charming Anna Muzychuck in 55 moves of Sicilian Rossolimo, but it was a bad day for Black Sicilian because it was White who got the maximum point. Giri still leading 6.5 but Ni Hua and L'Ami closely follow by half point. Wesley So is at fourth position and he is yet to play Giri and Ni Hua, which is to be the great games to see.

Group C again see the leader fall in Black side of Sicilian where Ray Robson suffered first defeat to Li Chao in 34 moves Sicilian Dragon. Now Li Chao is leading with 6.5 with Robson, Vocaturo and Robin Swinkels follow by half point also.

Some of my questions already has a hint of answer here ;
1. Who will ended Carlsen domination over the last two months ?
Kramnik is the man, defeating Carlsen and maybe also his mentor Kasparov, said to be his best game recently.

2. How will Anand handle this tournament despite his duel with Topalov very soon ?
So far Anand still 'undefeated', but playing a ultra safe tournament but also dissapointing in term of his status as favorite. Anand now at 4.5/9.

3. Kramnik, also having good result recently, winning Tal and not dissapointing at London. He seem ready to challenge Carlsen despite losing one game to him.
Kramnik is now strongly considered as candidate winner by sharing first place with Shirov and said to be playing best chess so far.

4. And of course, Hikaru Nakamura. Another point of attraction. He got a Gold Medal in pocket but moment of truth is now.
Nakamura give a good start and rank #5 after 9 rounds, and as predicted play very attractive chess game, suitable for live setup for me.

5. The rest are like Ivanchuck, what version of him after his heartbreaking remark at World Cup? And who is be the "outsider" ?
The clear 'outsider' is Shirov, he is now need to play Kramnik, Karjakin, Dominguez and Anand to survive this status. If he can draw all of them, he is at least at 8.5 out of 13, but then Kramnik will need to win at least one of his remaining opponents which are : Anand, Ivanchuk , Karjakin and Shirov himself.

All Group Standing see TWIC.

Official site : www.coruschess.com
Chessdom all games with commentary.

8th Parsvnath - Three Tie First

The 8th Parsvnath International in Delhi ended just a minute ago. The tournament is a massive 11 rounds with lots of GMs and IMs. Top seed is Vietnam young rise GM Le Quang Liem, who in the end shared second with 8.5 points. He got a bad start with several draws to lower rated players.

First half of the tournament saw Persian GM Ghaem Ehsan Maghami again dominated with perfect score up to round 6. Later he proceed several draws, included his last round 14 moves draw with GM Rahman Ziaur. Quite a shame since Rahman himself is at 8 point while Ghaem is 8.5, both can claim first prize if they keen to fight it on, alas their spirit is not as high as other pairing.

On final round, GM Luka Lenic who is also at 8.5 decided to put his best to GM Dmitry Kryakvin, but Kryakvin, who play white get a full point on this round. GM Le Quang Liem also finished the tournament with a victory against IM Richard Bitoon. Both got into time trouble and white suddenly gives up a rook for two passed pawns, but Le Quang Liem, playing black, was able to turn the table and won it.

Ghaem , Kryakvin and Pavel Kotsur emerged as player with highest point, Ghaem then get the best tie break. Pavel Kotsur finished his last opponent in a surreal sicilian style against Dzhumaev Marat in 26 moves.

Partial Final standing :
1 GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan IRI 2589 9
2 GM Kryakvin Dmitry RUS 2575 9
3 GM Kotsur Pavel KAZ 2568 9
4 GM Lenic Luka SLO 2595 8.5
5 GM Rahman Ziaur BAN 2548 8.5
6 IM Sengupta Deep IND 2480 8.5
7 GM Kravtsiv Martyn UKR 2545 8.5
8 GM Le Quang Liem VIE 2647 8.5
9 GM Zubarev Alexander UKR 2544 8.5
10 GM Iuldachev Saidali UZB 2519 8.5
11 GM Jumabayev Rinat KAZ 2536 8.5
12 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J IND 2492 8
13 GM Dzhumaev Marat UZB 2515 8
14 IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy IND 2420 8
15 IM Murali Krishnan B T IND 2385 8
16 IM Thejkumar M S IND 2435 8
17 GM Arun Prasad S IND 2567 8
18 IM Karthikeyan P IND 2408 8
19 IM Himanshu Sharma IND 2457 8
20 GM Laxman R R IND 2503 8
21 WIM Muminova Nafisa UZB 2347 8
22 GM Turov Maxim RUS 2584 7.5

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr29389.aspx?art=9&lan=1&fed=IRI&m=-1&wi=1000&snr=3

Official Website, and MonRoi page.

Two sicilian games :

Singapore Champion 2010 Daniel Chan

Quietly done this week was the 62nd edition of the National Championship. A nine rounds of tournament put two youngsters Daniel Chan Yi Ren and Terry Chua finished ahead of GM and IM of Singapore. Daniel win the rapid play off and claimed this year Singapore's National Champion. Full story see :

The conclusion of this year’s 62nd edition of the National Championship is the beginning of a new era for Singapore chess.Two young players, 15-year old FM Daniel Chan and 16-year old FM Terry Chua, finished ahead of veterans such asGM Wong Meng Kong, IM Goh Wei Ming and current Commonwealth Champion IM Enrique Paciencia.

In a nail-biting finish with 5 contenders going into the final round, Daniel Chan and Terry Chua tied for first with 6.5 from 9 rounds.Daniel defeated Terry in the 4-game Rapid playoff to emerge the winner while Terry earned his first IM norm.This is the first time that a Singaporean has made an IM norm in a National Championship. SCF website.

FM Daniel Chan Yi Ren had been active in year 2009, his notable international tournament was in Young Stars of the World battle.

Chess result page for Singapore National Championship 2010 here.

The Federation also announced the 2010 squad, most probably the line up stay this way for the Olympiad in Siberia.

NATIONAL MEN’S SQUAD 2010:
1. GM ZHANG, ZHONG
2. GM WU, SHAOBIN
3. GM WONG, MENG KONG
4. IM PACIENCIA, ENRIQUE
5. IM GOH, WEIMING
6. FM CHAN, YI REN DANIEL
7. FM CHUA, ZHENG YUAN TERRY
8. FM CHAN, WEI XUAN TIMOTHY
9. FM FERNANDEZ, DANIEL HOWARD

NATIONAL WOMEN’S SQUAD 2010:
1. IM LI, RUOFAN
2. WIM KHEGAY, ANJELA
3. WFM TAY, LI JIN JESLIN
4. WFM LIU, YANG

Corus 2010, Shirov and Sicilian Wins

From the start of 2010 year, the Sicilian defence produced some of notable fighting games so far. The Bursa Team Champion see some of it (Gashimov - Grischuk) and the now in Corus 2010 we have a lot of them. The Opening serves well for both side, White also wins some for round 3, it is a Black (side) day.

Round 3 see tournament leader Shirov continue his success with a win over Sergey Tiviakov in 31 moves of Closed Sicilian. Tiviakov choose 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 and Black answered with 3..Nd4! attacking White Bishop and early taking over of White's initiative. Nakamura also put more misery to Short in
B58 Sicilian Boleslavsky, while Ivanchuck defeated Jan Smeets in Sicilian Najdorf.

Play online chess

Round 3 Standing :
1. Shirov 3
2-3. Carlsen, Nakamura 2½
4. Ivanchuk 2
5-8. Dominguez, Karjakin, Anand, Kramnik 1½
9-12. Tiviakov, Caruana, Leko, van Wely 1
13-14. Smeets, Short ½

In Group B, Wesley So still keep the best for another round after his draw to USA Akobian. But So already hold draw Naiditsch and L'Ami, two of toughest in this Group. He still need to prove himself with another hard encounter to Nisipeanu, another child prodigy Anish Giri and Chinese Ni Hua. Anish Giri and Ni Hua is now leading with 2.5 point.

In Group C, Ray Robson is catched up by Italian Vocaturo and favorite Li Chao (b). This group also see four games in Sicilian. Vocaturo vs van Kempen is a White side win but Kuiper-Gupta, Bok-Lie and Plukkel-Li Chao all is a Black side victories.

TWIC report

Corus 2010 and other battlefields

As soon as the buzz of World Team Championship over the Corus 2010 is next on the queu. A very strong tournament with great tradition. Aronian is winner in 2008 and Karjakin in 2009 of Group A. This year with the rise of Carlsen, will the balance still maintained ? A lot of interesting questions will be answered in short.

Group A :
1. Who will ended Carlsen domination over the last two months ? New version of Carlsen debut in Nanjing yet to be stopped, even he was playing almost all the current strong players in Tal and London recently (excluded the Blitz of course).

2. How will Anand handle this tournament despite his duel with Topalov very soon. Is this tournament serve as his warming up with false message to his nemesis or will he full heart to win this?

3. Kramnik, also having good result recently, winning Tal and not dissapointing at London. He seem ready to challenge Carlsen despite losing one game to him.

4. And of course, Hikaru Nakamura. Another point of attraction. He got a Gold Medal in pocket but moment of truth is now.

5. The rest are like Ivanchuck, what version of him after his heartbreaking remark at World Cup? And who is be the "outsider" ?

Group B :
Of course most people will like to see how far Wesley So can go.
Group B is also looks like a "junior" championship with many notable "juniors" to be meet each other. Anish Giri, Howell, Negi, So and other.

Group C :
Li Chao (B) is top seed but we also like to see how is his smoking progress after the debut at World Cup. Ray Robson, Vocaturo, van Kempen, make this like a tournament to find out who is the hottest "youth" .

Pairings :
Corus A, round 1
S. Karjakin - V. Anand
L. Dominguez - V. Kramnik
P. Leko - A. Shirov
F. Caruana - V. Ivanchuk
S. Tiviakov - M. Carlsen
J. Smeets - H. Nakamura
L. van Wely - N. Short

Corus B, round 1
Ni - E. l'Ami
E. Sutovsky - D. Reinderman
T. Nyback - L. Nisipeanu
A. Giri - P. Harikrishna
D. Howell - P. Negi
A. Muzychuk - V. Akobian
A. Naiditsch - W. So

Corus C, round 1
R. Robson - S. Swaminathan
R. Swinkels - A. Gupta
M. Muzychuk - N. Grandelius
S. Kuipers - K. Lie
Z. Peng - R. van Kampen
B. Bok - L. Chao
D. Vocaturo - S. Plukkel

official website and live game are provided at chessdom.com.

And that's our main menu, the side menu ? Still a lot of battlefields outside those elitee.

1st Balkan Open - Live here - GM Vuckovic Bojan is leading
Bellarus Championship - two Zhigalkos and Fedorov playing
Polish Championship - LIVE here - Wojtaszek, Radoslaw is leading
Ciudad de Sevilla - Hamdouchi almost win it.

and from Asia :

8th Parsvnath International India - Live here
massive number of GMs, Le Quang Liem is having bad start and now GM Ehsan Maghami plus 20+ players is leading with 3 points, after round 3. Chess result here.

and also Cuba Championship - Lazaro Bruzon on lead.

that's all to light up my weekend.

World Team Championship 2010-Russia Win

The Europe still number 1 in chess, followed by North America and Asia. That's the result of World Team Championship 2010 reflected. Russia sealed gold medal after duly defeated Israel 3-1 in last battle. USA strangely face a weaker Azerbaijan team , whom compete the last round without two of their top board players. USA drew 2-2 with them and also secured a Silver medal.

India who just won the Asian Team weeks ago put in a strong result here as well. The team consist all below 2700 player but managed to get a bronze medal by defeated South American representative Brazil 3.5-0.5 in last round. India is a last minute replacement for team China who declined their part maybe due to political reason.

Final standing :
1. Russia
2. USA
3. India
4. Azerbaijan
5. Armenia
6. Greece
7. Israel
8. Brazil
9. Egypt
10. Turkey

Individual medals :
Board 1 : GM Hikaru Nakamura
Board 2 : GM Alexander Onischuk
Board 3 : GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly
Board 4 : GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Board 5 : GM Vladimir Malakhov
Board 6 : GM Nikita Vitiugov

TWIC report.

Notable games :
GM Boris Gelfand - GM Hikaru Nakamura , by Ben Finegold
GM Vugar Gashimov - GM Alex Grischuck
GM Levon Aronian - GM Hikaru Nakamura

Kejuaraan Catur Beregu Dunia baru saja berakhir di Bursa Turki. Tim Rusia merebut medali emas. Di ronde terakhir Rusia mengalahkan Israel dan punya nilai MP 15. Amerika Serikat menahan remis tim kuat Azerbaijan dan dihadiahkan medali perak. Tim Azerbaijan yang sangat kuat tampil tanpa pemain papan atas Gashimov dan Radjabov yang agak aneh. Karena Azeri masih bisa bermain untuk memperoleh medali di partai terakhir.

Sementara itu wakil Asia, India yang mengantikan Cina kedapatan medali perunggu. India mengalahkan Brasil di partai terakhir. India tampil tanpa juara dunia Anand dan semuanya masih rating di bawah 2700.

Banyak partai seru di kejuaraan ini yang terkenal adalah kemenangan Nakamura atas juara Piala Dunia Gelfand di partai Hindia Raja yang hanya memerlukan 25 langkah saja. Nakamura menghadiahkan Menteri nya gratis dalam beberapa langkah. Lihat partainya di link di atas.

Partai Catur Sisilian Defence Haznedaroglu,Kivanc vs Hikaru Nakamura 0-1

Australian Championship 2010-Zhao Wins

Australian Chess Champions 2010 is reaching final. Both GM Zhao Zong Yuan and IM George Xie have been secured their first or second position way before final round. A standing before final round says both are at 9 points while closest pursuider (Gawain Jones, Vladimir Smirnov and Darryl Johansen) all at 6.5 point!

GM Zhao Zong Yuan is a Beijing-born and now an Australian citizen studying pharmacy, he is age 24 while George Xie Wendi is at 25 in 2010. And by winning his last round against FM Tomek Rej in a tactical 1.d4 and a quick win, Zhao Zong Yuan is the Australian Champion for 2010 edition.


[Event "Australian Championship"]
[Site "NSLCC, Cammeray, NSW"]
[Date "2010.01.13"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Zhao,Zong Yuan"]
[WhiteElo "2572"]
[Black "Rej, Tomek"]
[BlackElo "2364"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Nxc3 7.bxc3 e5 8.O-O Be7 9.d3 O-O 10.Rb1 Qc7 11.Be3 Rd8 12.Nd2 Be6 13.Qa4 Bd7 14.f4 Nd4 15.Qd1 Nf5 16.Rxb7 Qxb7 17.Bxb7 Nxe3 18.Qc1 Rab8 {18.. Nxf1 19.Bxa8 Nxd2 20.Bg2 exf4 might be still small edge lose for Black} 19.Rf3 exf4 20.gxf4 Nf5 21.Be4 Rb6 {21..Nd6 should better} 22.Nc4 Rg6+ 23.Kh1 Rb8 24.Ne5 Rgb6 25.Nxd7 Rb1 26.Rf1 1-0

IM George Xie is also secured a second GM norm and FM Vladimir Smirnov gets an IM norm, according to The Closet Grandmaster blog. But in final round IM George Xie Wendi finally lost to IM Soloman Stephen in a Sicilian Game.

Speaking about Sicilian this tournament contained a lot of them. Most trivial is everybody seems like to test the regular chess writer IM Gary Lane in this opening. Gary Lane encounter about 6 games where his Black side opponent reply 1..c5 for his 1.e4. IM Vladimir Feldman is the last one to test this to Lane, in a now popular Dragdorf variation.

[Event "Australian Championship"]
[Site "NSLCC, Cammeray, NSW"]
[Date "2010.01.13"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Lane,Gary"]
[WhiteElo "2377"]
[Black "Vladimir, Feldman"]
[BlackElo "2271"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 a6 3.f4 d6 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 g6 7.d3 Bg7 8.O-O O-O
9.h3 Nd7 10.f5 b5 11.a3 Rb8 12.g4 Nd4 13.Nxd4 cxd4 14.Ne2 Bb7 15.Bf4 Rc8
16.Qd2 Qb6 17.Rf2 a5 18.b4 a4 19.Raf1 Rc7 20.Bh6 Ne5 21.Bxg7 Kxg7 22.g5
Rfc8 23.f6+ Kf8 24.Qf4 e6 25.Qh4 Rxc2 26.Qxh7 Ke8 27.Nf4 Rxf2 28.Rxf2 Rc1+ {A blunder, Black went for attack in a not favourable position, ..Qc7 is
computer's remedy} 29.Kh2 Qc7 30.Nxe6 Qc8 31.Nf4 Qc7 32.Ne6 Qc8 33.Nxd4
Kd7 34.Ne2 Rc2 35.d4 Qe8 36.dxe5 Qxe5+ 37.Kg1 Qa1+ 38.Rf1 Qa2 39.Bf3 Bxe4
40.Bxe4 Rxe2 41.Bf3 Rc2 42.Re1 Kc7 43.Qg8 1-0

See games collections here.

Partial Final Standing :
1. GM Zhao Zong-Yuan 10
2. IM George Xie Wendi 9
3. GM Gawain Jones 7.5
4. GM Darryl K. Johansen 7
5. FM Vladimir Smirnov 6.5
6. IM Stephen Solomon 6.5
7. Max Illingworth 6.5
8. Junta Ikeda 6
9. IM Gary Lane 6
10.IM Alex Wohl 6
11.FM Douglas Hamilton 6
12. Yuan Yi 5.5
13. FM Tomek Rej 5.5
14. Ly Moulthun 5.5
15. FM Gene Nakauchi 5.5
16. IM James Morris 5.5
see complete result here.

A great tournament where many of these young player are keen to play unorthodox opening, like in Michael Morris vs Max Illingworth in 1.f4 g6 Bird's Opening, 0-1.

Australian Championship and World Team 2010

Still happening in Australia is their Championship started this week. The tournament over live games in my working hour, so good entertainment in my quite first working week. The games itself is very worth to watch with many flanks openings and sharp play by participants. Yesterday was IM Gary Lane third encounter with Sicilian defence as White, Gary Lane lost 1 to Zhao, win to Gene Nakauchi and drew with GM Gawain Jones in this opening. Also see IM Alex Wohl win with Benoni 1.d4 Nf3 2.c4 c5 3.d5 Ne4! over Gene Nakauchi in round 5. See games archieve in their official website and Ian Rogers comments here.

As for today, Junka Ikeda resurrect a Romantic period's King Gambit shown here. He played this against youngster Yuan Yi, here the game goes :

[Event "Australian Championship"]
[Site "NSLCC, Cammeray, NSW"]
[Date "2010.01.08"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Ikeda,Junta"]
[Black "Yuan,Yi"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 d5 4. exd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 c6 6. d4 Bd6 7. Qe2+ Kf88. Bd2 Bg4 9. Nf3 Qe7 10. Qxe7+ Kxe7 11. O-O Rd8 12. Rae1+ Kf8 13. Ng5 Bh514. Bxf4 Bxf4 15. Rxf4 h6 16. Nge4 Nxd5 17. Bxd5 cxd5 18. Nc5 Nc6 19. Ne6+Kg8 20. Nxd8 Rxd8 21. Rf5 Bg6 22. Rxd5 Rc8 23. Rd7 Bf5 24. Rxb7 Nxd4 25.Rxa7 Nxc2 26. Ree7 Be6 27. a4 Nb4 28. Rec7 Rd8 29. Rab7 Nc2 30. Rc5 Rd2 31.Re5 Nd4 32. Re3 h5 33. a5 h4 34. a6 h3 35. gxh3 f5 36. a7 f4 37. a8=Q+ Kh738. Qe8 fxe3 39. Qh5+ 1-0

See standing and result here. Live game here.

In World Team Championship 2010, round 2 saw an upset by Greece who defeated World no.1 Russia. GM Alex Morozevich played sharp opening where his g pawn quickly reached 7th rank in move 11, but a wrong rook move jeopardized everything. His lucky opponent was GM Papaioannou of 2625 rating strength.

Round 3 saw Azerbaijan lost to India and Armenia won 3.5-0.5 to Turkey. World no.7 Vugar Gashimov was unable to kept stabil during time crisis and must lost to no.60+ Krishnan Sasikiran. Other casualty is Guseinov felt to Ganguly while the rest Indians manage to lost 1 and drew 1. This see top 5 standing for round 3 :

1.Armenia 7.5
2.Russia 7
3.Israel 7
4.Azerbaijan 7
5.USA 7

More in TWIC report. For USA team games and blog see GM Ben Finegold pages.

World Chess Leon and Australia Open 2010

The less publicy World Chess Open Leon just finished. The tournament is a rapid 35 minute + increment event. Many strong GMs take part, after 9 rounds Poland's GM Mikhail Krasenkow (so many spelling version here) wins it. Report from official site as translated by Google :

The Russian-born Polish Michal Krasenkov won the second edition of the World Chess Open de Leon, ahead in the tiebreaker to turco Mikhail Gurevich, con 8 puntos de 9 partidas. Turkish Mikhail Gurevich, with 8 points from 9 games. Gurevich is one of the last champions of the Soviet Union, and trainer of Vishy Anand, while defending champion belonged to a select group of 2700.

Bronze medal fell to Bulgarian Kiril Georgiev of simutáneas world record, fourth place for Boris Gulko, U.S. champion and the USSR and that Garry Kasparov has defeated several times, and one of the most original grandmasters of the world The Ukrainian Oleg Romanishin.

Outstanding performance of Gabriel del Rio, and Leon Pablo Santos, the first tranche calisificado ELO 2350, taking no less than € 1000 prize. "This Open is right for us fans of Leon" The best player Pablo Santos Leon was again Pablo Santos, with 6.5 points. Paul praised the good organization and concept of the tournament which projects the Sports Club president Leon Chess Grandmaster Alfonso Romero Holmes, invitades figures and possibility for Leon to fight against players from all over Spain and, of course, supersized Masters " Consolidated is a tournament and the type of tournament we want Leon fans, no doubt it is one of the best in the world, " he said.

Or see here. Top standing :
1 GM Michal Krasenkow 2656 8,0
2 GM Mikail Gurevich 2597 8,0
3 GM Kiril Georgiev 2672 7,5
4 GM Boris Gulko 2535 7,0
5 GM Oleg Romanishin 2510 7,0
6 GM Salvador Del Rio De Angelis 2524 7,0
7 GM Bojan Kurajica 2519 7,0
8 GM Roberto Parada Cifuentes 2525 7,0
9 IM David Larino Nieto 2471 6,5
10 IM Javier Moreno Ruiz 2459 6,5
11 GM Aleksa Strikovic 2531 6,5
12 GM Ivan Salgado Lopez 2584 6,5
13 GM Elizbar Ubilava 2526 6,5
14 GM Alejandro Hoffman 2426 6,5
15 IM Marcos Llaneza 2514 6,5
16 IM Mikel Huerga Leache 2463 6,5
17 GM Pablog San Segunda 2534 6,5
18 FM Pablo Santos 2326 6,5
19 GM Predrag Nikolic 2597 6,5
20 IM Kim Pilgaard 2435 6,5
21 GM Bogdan Lalic 2494 6,5
22 FM Aurelio Vila Dupla 2177 6,5

As usual miniature is the one we like to see, here a nice classic attacking to Black kingside in 1.d4 game.
[Event "II Open Mundial de León"]
[Site "León"]
[Date "2010.01.02"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Krasenkow, Michal"]
[WhiteElo "2656"]
[Black "Lariño, David"]
[BlackElo "2471"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 e6 3. c4 c5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. dxc5 d4 7. Na4 Bxc5 8.Nxc5 Qa5+ 9. Bd2 Qxc5 10. e3 Bg4 11. Rc1 Qd6 12. exd4 Nge7 13. Be2 O-O 14. O-ORad8 15. Re1 Nd5 16. h3 Bxf3 17. Bxf3 Nxd4 18. Be4 Qb6 19. Bg5 f6 20. Qh5 g621. Bxg6 hxg6 22. Qxg6+ Kh8 23. Qh5+ Kg8 24. Bh6 1-0

Meanwhile in Australia, they just started the 2010 edition of Championship. Three GMs are around, Zhao Zongyuan, Darryl K. Johansen and Gawain Jones, but no David Smerdon. Up to round 3 the standing is like this :
1. Zhao, Zong-Yuan, 3
2. Johansen, Darryl K, 3
3. Xie, George, 3
4. Yuan, Yi, 2.5
5. Jones, Gawain, 2
6. Ikeda, Junta, 2
7. Brown, Andrew, 2
8. Lane, Gary W, 2
9. Smirnov, Vladimir, 2
10. Nakauchi, Gene, 2
Official website, live games with Ian Roger annotations here. A quick browse into the game and here a Sicilian game wins by Black, that I always interested to see:

[Event "Australian Championship"]
[Site "NSLCC, Cammeray, NSW"]
[Date "2010.01.03"]
[Round "2.1"]
[White "Lane, Gary"]
[Black "Zhao, Zong Yuan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B47"]
[WhiteElo "2377"]
[BlackElo "2572"]
[Annotator "Rogers,Ian"]