Yu Yangyi and Goryachkina 2013 World Junior Chess Champions

World Junior Chess Championship 2013 concluded by round thirteen. GM Yu Yangi and WGM Alexandra Goryachkina became the champion on Open section and Girl section. GM Alexander Ipatov took the second rank and Santosh Gujrathi Vidit took the third place in the open category. In the Girls category, the second place goes to 13-years old sensation from Kazakhstan Zhansaya Abdulmalik and third place is Alina Kashlinskaya.

The top seeds in Open reflected closely to the final ranking. Except GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and GM Nils Grandelius that catapulted out of the top ten, despited they seeded quite high in the tournament.

Top Ten Result for 2013 Junior Chess Championship, Kocaeli Turkey
1. (1) GM YU YANGYI 2662 CHN 11
2. (2) GM  IPATOV ALEXANDER 2601 TUR 10½
3. (8) GM VIDIT SANTOSH GUJRATHI 2565 IND 9½
4. (3) GM  CORI JORGE 2587 PER 9½
5. (9) GM SETHURAMAN S.P. 2553 IND 9
6. (45) IM VAKHIDOV JAHONGIR 2385 UZB 9
7. (10) GM  WEI YI 2551 CHN 9
8. (13) IM DUDA JAN-KRZYSZTOF 2534 POL 8½
9. (12) IM  INDJIC ALEKSANDAR 2549 SRB 8½
10. (70) WANG YIYE 2258 CHN 8½

24. (64) CM  MUHAMMAD LUTHFI ALI  2277 INA 7½
76. (28) IM FARID FIRMAN SYAH 2433 INA 6   - more results

While in Girl section, the seed is more spread into the final ranks. Zhansaya in 2nd place is one of great surprises of the event.

 Top Ten Result for 2013 Junior Chess Championship GIRLs, Kocaeli Turkey 
1. (3) WGM GORYACHKINA ALEKSANDRA 2418 RUS 10½
2. (13) WIM ABDUMALIK ZHANSAYA 2277 KAZ 9½
3. (1) WGM KASHLINSKAYA ALINA 2434 RUS 9
4. (14) WIM HEJAZIPOUR MITRA 2256 IRI 9
5. (5) WGM BULMAGA IRINA 2387 ROU 8½
6. (2) WGM CORI T. DEYSI 2433 PER 8½
7. (7) WGM SADUAKASSOVA DINARA 2326 KAZ 8½
8. (8) WGM PADMINI ROUT 2312 IND 8½
9. (16) WIM RODRIGUEZ RUEDA PAULA ANDREA 2225 COL 8½
10. (11) WIM  MEDINA WARDA AULIA 2301 INA 8

20. (12) WIM  SIHITE CHELSIE MONICA 2282 INA 7½

We also need to give more attention to the new talents and title holders by now, as the norm produced in Kocaeli. Newest GM is Duda Jan-Kryzsztof from Poland.

Kejuaraan dunia catur Junior 2013 di kota Kocaeli, Turki telah berakhir. Pemenang untuk Juara Junior 2013 ini adalah GM Yu Yangyi dari China. Grandmaster Yu Yangyi kelahiran kota Huangshi, umur 19 memang adalah seeded/unggulan pertama. Yu Yangyi sudah sangat sering bermain di turnamen manca negara dan kerap kali memenangkannya. Ini adalah gelar  terbaik Yu Yangi. Runner up adalah pecatur tuan rumah Alexander Ipatov.

Di bagian puteri, unggulan ketiga Alexandra Goryachkina jadi juaranya. Kekalahan satu-satunya Goryachkina ini adalah di tangan Medina Aulia. Alexandra melaju dengan nilai 9 dari 13 babak. Di susul pecatur belia usia 13 tahun dari Kazakhstan , Zhansaya Abdumalik, yang sama seperti Medina, akan memperoleh gelar WGM. Zhansaya dikabarkan adalah puteri kedua termuda yang meraih gelar WGM setelah Hou Yifan, hanya kalah tua 2 bulan-an.

Selamat bagi pecatur Indo yang main di Kocaeli Turki: Farid Firmansyah, Muh Luthfi Ali, Chelsie Monica Sihite dan Medina Aulia Warda. Oleh-oleh dari Kocaeli adalah gelar WGM untuk Medina. Sedangkan untuk Luhfi Ali, dikabarkan ini adalah norm IM pertama-nya.

World Junior Chess Championship 2013 Turkey - Random photo gallery
Photos by: Zeynep Yetisgin and Bengu Atli

2013 Girl Champion - WGM Alexandra Goryachkina - just 15 years old in about two days (born 28-Sept-1998)

Indonesia's Chelsie Monica Sihite

#30 WFM Irina Petrova 2117 UKR 7

#21 WFM Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva 2120 UZB  7½

2013 Junior Chess World Champion - GM Yu Yangyi  余泱漪

Zhansaya Abdumalik , 13 years old WGM- elected by now and 2013 Girl Runner Up

#51 Zsofia Edes 2044 SVK 6

Former Chess World Champion Garry Kasparov in Turkey 2013

Medina Aulia Warda is Indonesian second WGM-elect

Good news just shared by Indonesian chess official, Kristianus Liem, confirming that WIM Medina Aulia Warda is now eligible for WGM title. Medina Aulia Warda together with other three Indonesian players are playing in World Junior Chess Championship 2013 in Turkey. Following her great performances, Medina scored her third WGM norm after defeating FM Lanita Stetsko, in another miniature game of French Defence. Medina is going to be Indonesian second WGM title player. The first Indonesian WGM is Irene Kharisma Sukandar. Both reach her WGM titled at age 16, but Medina few months younger, making her the youngest Indonesian WGM.

Medina Aulia Warda born in 1997, raise in Bekasi, suburb of Jakarta. She begin winning chess competition since primary school. Her international breakthrough was in 2009 ASEAN Youth when she won the Girl-12 category. She then proceed to won numerous local and international title. Finished fourth at 2012 Junior Chess Championship in Athens. Along her way, Medina already defeated titled players such as Anna Burtasova, GM Alexander Cherniaev, Deysi Cori and many others.

Congratulations, Medina!

Indonesian second WGM Medina Aulia Warda

Dari laporan pak Kristianus Liem di potretcatur.blogspot.com penggemar catur Indonesia diberikan berita gembira, yaitu diperoleh norma gelar WGM terakhir untuk pecatur Medina Aulia Warda. Dengan norma ini Medina akan menyandang title Grandmaster Wanita, dan menjadi WGM kedua setelah Irene K. Sukandar. Berita selengkapnya bisa disimak di blog tsb.

Dari pantauan penulis, Medina pertama kali mencuat namanya setelah menjuarai turnamen ASEAN 2009 di kategori usia 12 tahun. Kemudian terus meningkat prestasinya, seperti menjuarai turnamen di Singapore dan menjadi bagian penting squad Indonesia di Olympiade. Medina sudah sering mengalahkan pecatur bertitel dan rating lebih tinggi dari dia, misalnya WGM Anna Burtasova, GM Alexander Cherniaev, Deysi Cori dan lain-lain. Nampaknya Pembelaan Prancis adalah andalan Medina.

Semoga dengan prestasi ini bisa menstimulus dunia catur Indonesia dan mencetak pecatur bergelar lainnya dari generasi muda. Masih ada beberapa 'stok' pecatur muda, terutama wanita, yaitu Chelsie Monica Sihite, Dewi AA Citra, hingga ke Umi Fisabilillah dll. Selamat!

World Junior 2013 Round 9 - Chelsie Wins

World Junior Chess Championship 2013 is now passed round 9, the juniors keep things alive and interesting in Turkey. Playing each other from 12th to 27th September 2013, the top table now lead by incumbent title defender GM Alexander Ipatov. Yu Yangyi slipped to rank 2 after he cannot get full point over Sahaj Grover. While in the Women section, thing goes a little bit dramatic, seeded no.5 Irina Bulmaga from Romania just wrestled the leading spot by defeating seeded no.1 Alina Kashinskaya of Russia.

In the news of Indonesian players, dramatic situation happened on board fourth where Medina Aulia Warda playing Sabina Ibrahimova. The final position show Sabina in clear won situation, but instead she didn't managed to see the winning line and offer a draw to Medina. With a draw result, Medina must stay on rank 7 with 6/9 points. (see game viewer below this page)

For Chelsie Monica Sihite, she played an imaginative attacking game with Evans gambit. Seized the initiative and space superiority right from the beginning, the opponent indeed able to equalize at some points but just failed to see the tactical way to done it. Chelsie won a full point over Zhanna Karabayeva of Uzbekistan and now climbing at 5.5/9 points.  (see game viewer below this page)

Other Indonesian boys, M. Luthfi Ali won against Ukrainian Mykola Bortnyk, who rely on Alekhine defence. The game went to endgame but White simple sealed the point  at 47. h5 Ke7? 48. h6!. Luthfi Ali is rumoured as very strong internet player, especially active in Chesscube server. He also secured his first International Master norm. Farid Firmansyah fight a hard draw against  Tibor Kende Antal in the Slavia defence.

World Junior Chess Championship 2013 Round 9
1. (2) GM IPATOV ALEXANDER 2601 TUR 8
2. (1) GM YU YANGYI 2662 CHN 7½
3. (3) GM CORI JORGE 2587 PER 7
4. (13) IM DUDA JAN-KRZYSZTOF 2534 POL 6½
5. (19) GM GROVER SAHAJ 2479 IND 6½
6. (12) IM INDJIC ALEKSANDAR 2549 SRB 6½
7. (5) GM TER-SAHAKYAN SAMVEL 2575 ARM 6½
......
12. (64) CM MUHAMMAD LUTHFI ALI 2277 INA 6
65. (28) IM FARID FIRMAN SYAH 2433 INA 4½

World Junior Chess Championship 2013 Round 9 Women
1. (5) WGM BULMAGA IRINA 2387 ROU 7½
2. (3) WGM GORYACHKINA ALEKSANDRA 2418 RUS 7
3. (1) WGM KASHLINSKAYA ALINA 2434 RUS 6½
4. (2) WGM CORI T. DEYSI 2433 PER 6½
5. (6) WGM ARABIDZE MERI 2379 GEO 6½
6. (8) WGM PADMINI ROUT 2312 IND 6½
7. (11) WIM MEDINA WARDA AULIA 2301 INA 6 
.......
17. (12) WIM SIHITE CHELSIE MONICA 2282 INA 5½ 
Official website round 9 analysis

---- Monica Chelsie Sihite kalahkan lawan dengan Pembukaan Gambit Evans ---
red-white-chess.blogspot.com

Di pertarungan perebutan juara catur junior di Turki,  setelah melewati babak ke-9 grandmaster tuan rumah Alexander Ipatov akhirnya mengejar GM Yu Yangyi di pucuk klasemen. Sedangkan di bagian puteri grandmaster wanita dari Rumania Irina Bulmaga adalah yang sekarang bertengger di pimpinan klasemen setelah mengalahkan WGM Alina Kashlinskaya. Analisis partai papan atas bisa dilihat di halaman resmi turnamen Catur Junior Turki ini di  Official website round 9 analysis.

Yang seru di babak sembilan adalah rombongan pecatur Indonesia mencetak hasil positif lagi. Hasil babak ke-9 Kejuaraan Catur Dunia Junior di Kocaeli Turki 2013:

Medina Aulia Warda vs Sabina Ibrahimova 0.5-0.5
Chelsie Monica Sihite vs Zhanna Karabayeva 1-0
M. Luthfi Ali vs Mykola Bortnyk 1-0
Farid Firmansyah vs Tibor Kende Antal 0.5-0.5


Medina ditekan lawannya yang memegang buah hitam di pembelaan Sisilia Naga Dipercepat dengan Ikatan Maroczy (Accelerated Dragon, Maroczy Bind). Hingga posisi terakhir sebenarnya Medina kalah, tapi lawannya Sabina tidak melihat lanjutan langkah kemenangan dan keliatannya dengan galau-nisasi menawarkan remis, yang tentu disambut gembira oleh Medina.  red-white-chess.blogspot.com

Sedangkan bintang ronde-9 adalah Chelsie Monica, yang secara agresif mengurung langkah lawan dengan pembukaan Gambit Evans. Di serangan gambit Evans ini, Monica yang pegang buah putih mengkorbanisasi sebuah pion tapi sebagai kompensasi mendapat inisiatif dan keunggulan space yang luas. Hitam tidak berkembang dan harus menerima kondisi pasif sepanjang permainan dan kalah.

M. Luthfi Ali ditantang lawan dengan pembelaan Alekhine dan memang harus bermain panjang untuk menggolkan angka penuh (lihat gambar di atas). Dari info Luthfi mengantongi norma International Master melalui kemenangan di ronde ini. Sedangkan Farid Firmansyah tidak bisa berbuat banyak dengan putih dan harus remis melawan Tibor Kende Antal yang mengandalkan pembelaan Slavia .

Chelsie Monica Sihite vs Zhanna Karabayeva 1-0
C52- Evans Gambit Accepted 5...Ba5, Kocaeli World Junior 2013 Turkey




Medina Aulia Warda vs Sabina Ibrahimova 0.5-0.5
B38 Sicilian Accelerated Dragon Maroczy Bind, Kocaeli World Junior 2013 Turkey



tag: catur, konspirasi keadilan, kudeta hati, kontrovesi hati, konspirasi kemakmuran, labil ekonomi

Hou Yifan Won 2013 Women's World Champion

The Women's World Championship of chess finally concluded tonight with Hou Yifan as the winner. The match between Women World champion GM Anna Ushenina vs challenger GM Hou Yifan is happening in Taizhou, China, runs from September 10 - 28, 2013. Taizhou is Hou "Houdini" Yifan's hometown and this proven to be a sweet choice for Hou as she won the match. The match itself was very much one sided. If take it the elo rating different, Hou Yifan is 2609 in rating while Anna 'only' 2500, one should take the final score 5.5-1.5 as a 'normal' result. Still the chess fans will interested to see what happened in Anna's camp, if there were 'x-factor' alibi to her bad result. UPDATED, well, sources in Europe-Echec reported about Alexander Khalifman issue with the food (too spicy and no western food option on the venue), being awaked at 1:10 am by the hotel staff (who warn of a possible lack of water and breakfast issue.

Anna Ushenina's points only came from draws, all with Black side playing Sicilian defence, she lost 4 games, two with white and two with black in the final round. Looking at the game, Anna was mostly outplayed in the middlegame and other factor was time trouble. It's not like the games went bad from the beginning, this make the excuses rather not 'sounds' on the board..... buuuut, let's wait for this story to developed more.


The results are:

2013 Women's World Championship Anna Ushenina vs Hou Yifan
1. A Ushenina vs Yifan Hou 0-1 E32 Nimzo-Indian, Classical
2. Yifan Hou vs A Ushenina ½-½  B33 Sicilian
3. A Ushenina vs Yifan Hou 0-1 E32 Nimzo-Indian, Classical
4. Yifan Hou vs A Ushenina ½-½  B81 Sicilian, Scheveningen, Keres Attack
5. Yifan Hou vs A Ushenina ½-½ B81 Sicilian, Scheveningen, Keres Attack
6. A Ushenina vs Yifan Hou 0-1  E17 Queen's Indian
7. Yifan Hou vs A Ushenina 1-0  B90 Sicilian, Najdorf

Hou Yifan returns to her status as World Champion right after Anna resign on move 40, round 7. Noted that Hou Yifan was very good at match playing. Her last match scores was as follow:

Ruan Lufei vs Hou Yifan 3-5 - 2010 Women's World Championship , final round after a KO format
Hou Yifan vs Koneru Humpy 5.5-2.5 - 2011 Women's World Championship, Koneru was challenger

In 2012 Hou Yifan unsuccessful defend her title in a KO format, she lost to Monica Socko as early as in round two. Exactly on this event that Anna Ushenina won the title defeating Antoaneta Stefanova in the final. Hou Yifan will need to play in KO format of 2014 World Championship, even though she was a reign champion. Surely something not similar to the 'men''s version of champion privilege. 

I have uploaded an interview with Hou Yifan from 2011.

Meanwhile..... the official website contained lots of superb captured photos by Anastasiya Karlovich. Surely she is a good photographer and all the photos was well executed, I wonder what is her DSLR brand and what lens she used.

Here the side story of the match, a survey to Chess World Champion outfit during these 7 rounds of play. It's seems like the players only bring limited set of clothes for the match and not fancy of the idea to change it every round!

The Fashion Battle:
Hou Yifan
Navy Blue with Chinese traditional pattern (Round 1 and 7)
White (round 2,3 and 5)
Pink (round 4)
Black (round 6)

Anna Ushenina
Pink ... (round 1, 4,5 and 6!)
Black and Grey,  Monochrome theme (round 2,3 and 7)

Anna Ushenina vs Hou Yifan  - round 1 to 7 from top to bottom 

.... all photos by Anastasiya Karlovich taken from official website

Di pertarungan memperebutkan gelar juara dunia catur wanita, Hou Yifan menjungkalkan juara bertahan Anna Ushenina. Hou Yifan adalah pecatur China yang merupakan pecatur terkuat wanita ke tiga di dunia saat ini (Judit Polgar dan Koneru Humpy ada di atas Hou Yifan). Hou Yifan juga sebelumnya sudah mengecap gelar Juara dunia wanita dari tahun 2010 - 2012. Anna Ushenina mengambil gelar ini setelah menang di kejuaraan dunia wanita tahun 2012. 


Di duel catur antara Anna Ushenina dan penantang Hou Yifan, jalannya pertandingan cukup berat sebelah. Hou Yifan mengalahkan Anna dengan angka telak 5.5-1.5. Hou Yifan pun berhak atas gelar juara catur wanita kembali. Di tahun 2014, Hou Yifan wajib mempertahankan gelarnya dengan mengikuti kejuaraan dunia , di mana antara lain WGM Irene K. Sukandar akan terjun juga. Selamat untuk Hou Yifan!

World Junior Chess Championship 2013 Round 6 - Medina Aulia

World Junior Chess Championship 2013 is on the way in Turkey. The juniors will fight each other from 12th to 27th September 2013, exactly on the city of Kocaeli. On the good news from Indonesian players, WIM Medina Aulia Warda is leading after round 6 with stunning 5.5/6 result.

WIM Medina Aulia Warda was one of top finisher in World Junior in 2012 , but now she gives another good shoot in Kocaeli for this 2013 edition of Junior chess title. Her result included a key victories over two of the strongest players in the field. Against Alexandra Goryachkina she won in 35 moves on the white side of Sicilian, round 5. Then in round 6 she defeated Alina Kashlinskaya in just 24 moves, where Alina just mixed up a strange E04 Catalan Open line. With this result, the standing of World Junior Chess Championship, Girls as follow:

World Junior Chess Championship 2013, Girls Section, after round 6:
1. (11) WIM  MEDINA WARDA AULIA 2301 INA 5½
2. (5) WGM BULMAGA IRINA 2387 ROU 5
3. (4) WGM WANG JUE 2392 CHN 4½
4. (9) WIM ZHAI MO 2309 CHN 4½
5. (7) WGM SADUAKASSOVA DINARA  2326 KAZ 4½
6. (1) WGM KASHLINSKAYA ALINA 2434 RUS 4½
7. (2) WGM CORI T. DEYSI  2433 PER 4½
...... follow by
48. (12) WIM SIHITE CHELSIE MONICA 2282 INA 2½

while on Open section:
World Junior Chess Championship 2013, Open, after round 6:
1. (1) GM YU YANGYI 2662 CHN 5½
2. (2) GM IPATOV ALEXANDER 2601 TUR 5
3. (11) IM ELISEEV URII 2550 RUS 5
4. (19) GM GROVER SAHAJ 2479 IND 5
5. (15) IM DEBASHIS DAS 2489 IND 5

Kejuaraan catur dunia versi junior yang berlangsung di Turki dan diikuti empat pecatur nasional sekarang memasuki babak ke-6. Hingga ronde ini kabar terbaik diberikan oleh WIM Medina Aulia Warda yang sekarang sementara menempati ranking satu. Pencapaian WIM Medina ini berkat dua kemenangan kunci atas lawan-lawan yang merupakan seeded/unggulan atas, yaitu di ronde 5 melawan Alexandra Goryachkina, Medina menang melalui pertarungan di partai Sisilia di mana Medina di pihak buah putih dan menang dalam 35 langkah. Lawan di ronde enam adalah WGM Alina Kashlinskaya, di mana Medina justru menang mudah hanya 24 langkah, di mana sang WGM dari Rusia ini membuat pembukaan yang kurang matang di pembukaan tipe Catalan. Dengan segera Medina mampu memanfaatkan pergerakan Ratu putih (Medina pegang buah hitam di ronde 6) yang prematur dan berhasil meraih unggulan taktik yang berakhir kemenangan tukaran satu benteng vs satu kuda. Bahkan terus berlanjut ke keunggulan lainnya karena si lawan Alina, terus melakukan langkah lemah.

MIW Medina Aulia Warda (Indonesia) - 5.5 points after six round

Sementara itu tiga pecatur lainnya masih terus memupuk harapan untuk masuk daftar peraih medali, terutama M. Luthfi Ali, point 4/6, yang masih berpeluang besar di bagian Open. Namun langkah pecatur putri lainnya Chelsie Sihite Monica tampak berat karena baru mengumpulkan point 2.5/6. Langkah Farid Firmansyah juga tersendat-sendat dan baru berpoint 3 dari 6 babak.

Turnamen World Junior Chess Championship atau Kejuaraan Catur Dunia Junior ini dilangsungkan di kota Kocaili Turki. Turnamen ini diwarnai aksi prihatin terhadap kondisi krisis di Suriah, di mana semula dijadwalkan di kota Hatay. Namun kota ini terlalu dekat dengan zona krisis dan setelah melalui pertimbangan dan surat prihatin dari beberapa Federasi, FIDE memindahkan venue dari Hatay ke Kocaeli. Lihat juga kemenangan M. Luthfi Ali di ronde 1 melawan GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan dari Armenia.

Lihat partai catur Pembelaan Sisilia Medina Aulia Warda vs Alexandra Goryachkina 1-0, Kocaeli Turki 2013 Round 5



Lihat partai catur Pembukaan Catalan Open Alina Kashlinskaya vs Medina Aulia Warda 0-1, Kocaeli Turki 2013 Round 6
see GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko annotation here.

Partai Catur Pembelaan Sisilia Najdorf - Movsesian vs Kasparov 2000

Dear pembaca dan penggemar catur budiman, berikut saya share satu lagi partai catur dari Pembelaan Sisilia. Ini adalah sebuah partai catur yang sangat instruktif untuk diikuti dan bisa menjadi partai percontohan bagi yang senang pembelaan Sisilia, terutama varian Najdorf. Di Sisilia Najdorf (ECO B90), tema korban tukaran / "Exchange Sacrifice" yang melibatkan korban benteng hitam vs kuda putih di petak c3 menjadi pusat perhatian dalam partai ini. Yang bermain adalah grandmaster kuat dari Armenia GM Sergey Movsesian melawan GM Garry Kasparov. Latar belakang game ini bisa dibaca di komentar catur di bawah. Partai ini dimainkan di tahun 2000 turnamen di Sarajevo.

Updated: Partai ini juga diklasifikasikan sebagai partai pembukaan Sisilia Najdorf-Scheveningen, untuk melihat pembahasannya dari sudut pandang Scheveningen bisa mengikuti bukunya Lorin D'Costa berjudul The Sicilian Scheveningen: Move by Move

Buku (berbahasa Inggris) yang membahas partai ini bisa ditemukan di:

Garry Kasparov's Greatest Chess Games Part II - Igor Stohl
On The Attack!! The art of Attacking Chess According to Modern Master - Jan Timman
Rethinking the Chess Pieces - Andrew Soltis

This is a game commentary of Movsesian vs Kasparov, 2000. The commentary was in Bahasa Indonesia and concluded from the literature above.

Partai Catur Pembukaan Sisilian Najdorf
Sergey Movsesian vs Garry Kasparov 0-1, 2000 Sarajevo
B90 - Sicilian Najdorf / Scheveningen


Game viewer ini dari Chess.com dan sudah dites bisa berjalan di platform Android dan Blackberry, semoga tidak ada masalah. Selamat menikmati, dan semoga bermanfaat bagi pembaca blog saya.

Lihat juga Partai-partai catur dengan komentar bahasa Indonesia lainnya di link ini:
http://red-white-chess.blogspot.com/2013/08/kumpulan-partai-catur-dengan-anotasi.html

Sinquefield Cup 2013 was Magnus Carlsen-ed

Hailed as one of the strongest chess tournament ever held in the US soil, Sinquefield Cup was consisted of Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky on the playing field. Only parallel by Kasparov-Anand and Kasparov - Deep Blue of the '90s, was how strong the tournament was, said GM Maurice Ashley. The four of them made up a staggering of 2797 average rating. The Sinquefield Cup is held from September 9th to September 15th at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. Where Saint Louis is fast emerging as US most advance chess area.

Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky in a great photography shoot out by the organizer - this edited wallpaper is in 1280 x 800 resolution, click to download

In the week of Sinquefield Cup, my attention was divided between the games and the 'master class' held by GM Yasser Seirawan. That's it, the event boosted a lot just because Yaz was doing live commentaries together with lovely Jennifer Shahade. With only two games in play, Yasser got enough time to done very detail live analysis with his creative variation lines. If that's not enough with Yaz and Jen, there was also GM Maurice Ashley, who playing the character of "I'm from Brooklyn" chess patzer. I strongly hope and insist the live commentary to be uploaded to Youtube for future viewing please. I also informed by Chessbase reports that there were also two more teams doing commentaries, GM Ben Finegold + GM Ronen Har-Zvi and GM Varuzhan Akobian + GM Ian Rogers on others room! Wow, this place need to do more chess tournaments!

Replay Sinquefield Cup 2013 Commentary on this Youtube channel.

On the games itself, initially I hope Gata Kamsky can be dark horse. But then he rather play  a relax tournament with sharp choice of strategy and openings (Dutch defence vs Aronian) and finished last without a win. Magnus Carlsen snapped the trophy in quite intense way, where the final round saw Hikaru Nakamura keep pushing himself to catch Magnus with only a half point different. Magnus Carlsen dismissed Aronian's draw offer and won the last round, where Hikaru only draw to Kamsky.

Sinquefield Cup 2013 Final standing:

	Player	FIDE rating	01	02	03	04	01	02	03	04	Points
1	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)	2862	X	½	½	1	X	½	1	1	4.5
2	Hikaru Nakamura (United States)	2772	½	X	1	1	½	X	0	½	3.5
3	Levon Aronian (Armenia)	2813	½	0	X	½	0	1	X	½	2.5
4	Gata Kamsky (United States)	2741	0	0	½	X	0	½	½	X	1.5

Magnus Carlsen vs Levon Aronian, Sinquefield Cup 2013, Round 6:

Master Strategy Class by Yaz Seirawan and Jen Shahade

with GM Maurice Ashley of Brooklyn

GM Varuzhan Akobian and GM Ian Roger

and GM Ben Finegold + Ronen Har-Zvi in the chess headquarter, St Louis Chess Club

and Ray-Ban .... played at higher level of chess

Rapid Chess ACP Cup 2013 won by Grischuk

A very strong  rapid chess event in ACP Cup is under way and concluded. The events that runs with KO format won by Alexander Grischuk. See the report on preliminary rounds and semi finals here, and in the final, Grischuk defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi 3-2 to grab the title. The tournament is on show from the 13th of September to the 15th of September in Riga, Latvia. 16 very strong players come together and try to defeat each other in rapid time control.

Alexander Grischuk claimed the title after defeated Ian in the final. They needed 5 games to concluded their meeting as the first two rapid was draws but then Grischuk scored two wins and Ian just won one in the tie break. Final score is 3-2 for Grischuk and congratulations for him to claimed the 5th ACP Cup.

See the final pairing tree diagram for ACP Cup 2013:

ACP Cup 2013, an elite rapid chess event won by GM Alexander Grischuk

Rapid play produce interesting opening ideas and tactical middle game, here exciting games from ACP Cup 2013 Day 3:

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Ruslan Ponomariov 1-0, ACP Cup 2013 Semi Final

Nepomniachtchi vs Ponomariov final position

Alexander Grischuk - Ian Nepomniachtchi 1-0, ACP Cup 2013 Final

Ian missed a back rank mate tactic in 20..Qd7, allowing Grischuk to just finished the match with beautiful combinations 21. Rae1!!

Grischuk vs Nepomniachtchi ACP Cup final 2013, position after 20..Qd7 (left) and final position (right)

Alexander Grischuk won 5th ACP Cup 2013, Riga

Rapid chess event in Knock Out format, ACP Cup 2013, Riga

Photos by Lennart Ootes from official website

Rapid Chess ACP Cup 2013 in Semi Final

As posted on previous blog report, exciting Rapid KO event of ACP Cup is under way. The tournament is on show from the 13th of September to the 15th of September in Riga, Latvia. 16 very strong players come together and try to defeat each other in rapid time control.

In the battle for semi final spots, Svidler, Grischuk, Ponomariov and Nepomniachtchi  all destroyed their opponents to advance. See the pairing diagram below for full result:

ACP Cup 2013, semi final pairing diagram chart rapid. An event with 16 strong GMs  

Rapid play produced interesting miniature games as well as opening ideas, here two of exciting games from day 2 - ACP Cup 2013.

Teimour Radjabov - Peter Svidler 0-1, ACP Cup 2013

Teimour use a mixed of 1.e4 version of Catalan versus Peter's Sicilian-c5 defence. All white forces quickly gathered to attack on the kingside. But the move 21.Rbe1?! is to blame,allowing Peter to launch a sweet tactic that cost White a bishop after queen exchange. Peter won this nice rapid game.

21.Rbe1? then followed by 21..Bxd3! (left) ....... and final position (right)

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - Ruslan Ponomariov 0-1, ACP Cup 2013
Dutch Defence

Even though having black and already secured one point, Ruslan played a brave Dutch Defence against Mamedyarov, who was World Rapid Champion. In the middle game where pieces are flying around, Mamedyarov finally broke in tactic when played 30.Nd4, manuevering his last piece to battle zone but pinned his own queen. Ruslan won several moves later in great tactical shoot.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - Ruslan Ponomariov 0-1, ACP Cup 2013

Follow each game LIVE here! Check the official website report of ACP Cup as well.

Rapid chess event in Knock Out format, ACP Cup 2013, Riga
Photos by Lennart Ootes from official website