Last Edited:
Tuesday 17 July, 2007 4:26 PM
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July)
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Scottish Championships 7-15 July [16/07/07]
The 114th Scottish Championships are being held in Cumbernauld from 7-15
July. The championship itself is being held as a ten-player all-play-all,
with only three players rated above 2250.
Official Website (which has the games in text format). Final
Scores : 1st Andrew Muir 8/9 (his first Scottish title), 2-3 Alan
Grant, Colin McNab 7, 4 Douglas Bryson 6½, etc.
Middlesex vs Young England, 9-13 & 16-19 July [15/07/07]
A group of nine young English players is taking on a strong Middlesex
side in a nine-round Scheveningen format tournament (each of nine players
on each team players each member of the other team once). The tournament
is being sponsored by Edexcel, Popularis and the John Robinson Trust.
The Middlesex team includes GMs Bogdan Lalic and Aaron Summerscale and
IMs Cox and Crouch. Latest: Middlesex lead 25½-19½
after five of the nine rounds. This event is being held in celebration
of Middlesex County Chess Association's centenary. Tournament coverage
and games are available here.
I would like to tell you the venue of the match but it appears to be
a closely-guarded secret, unmentioned in any press releases and reports
that I have seen other than a general reference to the Strand.
Irish Open Championship, 30 Jun - 8 Jul [13/07/07]
This year's Irish Championship, sponsored by Island Oil & Gas and
held at the Royal Dublin Hotel, O'Connell Street, Dublin, from 30 June
to 8 July, was held as an open swiss of nine rounds for the first time.
Thus non-Irish players were able to compete with the locals for the money
prizes while only Irish-registered players were eligible to win the Irish
Championship title. Four foreign grandmasters competed: Eduardas Rozentalis
(LTU) and Mark Hebden, Stuart Conquest and Nick Pert (all ENG).
Nick Pert and Mark Hebden shared first with Nick
Pert, while Brian Kelly and Stephen Brady, who finished half a point behind
the two winners (along with GMs Conquest and Rozentalis) shared the Irish
title. Brian Kelly had led for much of the tournament and had he drawn
instead of losing his final game with Mark Hebden, he would have achieved
a GM norm. 1-2 M Hebden, N Pert 7/9, 2-6 B Kelly, S Brady, S Conquest,
E Rozentalis 6½, etc.
There were a number of surprise results in the
course of the tournament: Gearóidín Ui Laighléis
beat former Irish champion Eamon Keogh in round one, and two GMs bit the
dust in round two: John Redmond beat Rozentalis and Gerry O'Connell beat
Hebden. All 224 games are available for download (I have made some corrections
and added ratings) View/download
games Official
Site thanks to Mark Orr and Ian Doyle
Haslinger Scores Final GM Norm, South Wales International, 7-12 July
[15/07/07]
The 4th South Wales International took place at Caerleon College, near
Newport in Gwent, Wales, from 7-12 July. Four GMs - M Dzhumaev (UZB, 2500g),
V Dobrov (RUS, 2504g), M Pavlovic (SRB, 2541g), P Wells (ENG, 2517g) -
did battle with IM Stewart Haslinger, James Cobb, Charles Cobb, etc. Final
Scores: 1st M Dzhumaev (UZB) 8/9 (£1,000), 2nd S Haslinger
(ENG) 7½ (£600), 3rd P Wells (ENG) 7 (£300). Haslinger
beat GM Dobrov in the last round to gain his final GM norm. It is as yet
unconfirmed whether he has achieved the necessary rating qualification
(2500) yet, but if he has, he will get the title. Richard Jones and Ioan
Rees won the prize for the highest-placed Welsh players with 6 points.
Official website: http://www.southwaleschess.co.uk/SWI/home.html
- which has some of the games. Thanks to Mark Adams.
The
July issue of BCM is now available
from the shop, with articles on the World Championship Candidates
matches, Bosna Sarajevo, MTel Masters and much else besides.
Unfortunately, due to printing and distribution problems, subscribers
will not receive copies until Saturday 7 July at the earliest. BCM apologies
for the unusually late delivery, but rest assured it is just a one-off
and your copy is now winging its way to you.
Normal service will be resumed next month - actually it will be significantly
better than just 'normal', as the August issue of BCM will see
the start of a new column - Speelman on the Endgame - former world
championship candidate and top ten player GM Jonathan Speelman is
a world expert on the endgame and we are very excited to have him join
our list of regular columnists.
Pivdenny Bank Chess Cup [06/07/07]
The Pivdenny Bank Chess Cup (http://worldcup.pivdenny.com/ru/)
takes place in Odessa, Ukraine, from 4-6 July. Ten leading players (including
five 2700+ super-GMs) meet in an all-play-all rapidplay event, with three
games played per day (time control: 20 mins + 10 second increments. The
tournament was being dominated by the two 'Chuks... Grischuk had a perfect
day 1 (3/3, including a win over Ivanchuk), but Ivanchuk equalled his
achievement with a perfect 3/3 on day 2. Final Scores: 1 Ivanchuk
7/9, 2 Grischuk 6½, 3-4 Radjabov, Shirov 4½, 5 Gelfand 5,
6 Drozdovskij 4, 7 Bacrot 3½, 8 Korchnoi 3, 9-10 Smirin, Tukmakov
2½ View/download
games
The Internet
Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers of the Mainz
Chess Classic in Germany, are offering a unique chance to play in a free
online qualifier to win a round trip ticket, 600 Euro ($811) cash, hotel
room and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel from 15-20 August (5 nights
and 6 days!). The winner also receive an automatic seat into two of the
biggest and most prestigious series of rapid chess tournaments in the
world, playing alongside many of the game's top grandmasters: the 6th
FiNet Open, the world's biggest Chess960 (FischerRandom) tournaments,
and the 14th ORDIX Open, one of the biggest and strongest rapid tournaments
in the world. While there, you will also have the best seats in the house
for the main evening attraction of two intriguing 6-game matches: Anand
vs. Kasimdzhanov for the Grenkeleasing World Rapid Championship, and Levon
Aronian vs. Etienne Bacrot, for the FiNet Chess960 World Rapid Championship.
To win, you will need to play in a series of Chess960 ICC online qualifiers
from 7-12 July, with the final 32-player KO running 14-15 July - further
details here. This event is only open to ICC members and for those
who sign up NOW for a free trial membership of the ICC - details
here.
Another current feature at the Internet Chess
Club... for the next seven days you can hear the latest 'John Watson on
Books' interview on ICC's
ChessFM, in which his guest is ...me (John Saunders, editor of British
Chess Magazine). You will find that I have rather a lot to say for
myself on all sorts of things as well as books... don't miss it! It was
an absolute delight being able to chat with IM John Watson.
Hastings
Chess Club celebrated its 125th anniversary on 30 June 2007 with a reception
at the club in Cornwallis Terrace, Hastings. Hastings CC is rightly proud
of its long tradition of chess, as are the people of Hastings. Consequently
it was no surprise that local MP Michael Foster and town councillor Paul
Smith were in attendance, both being terrific supporters of chess in the
town. BCM's editor was there to bring you this full
report with videos and still photos of the occasion.
Dortmund, 23 June - 1 July [01/07/07]
The Dortmund Sparkassen tournament is a hugely strong (category event)
featuring eight elite players: Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand, Shak Mamedyarov,
Peter Leko, Boris Gelfand, Magnus Carlsen, Evgeny Alabekseev and Arkady
Naiditsch. Play starts at 2pm GMT. Follow the action online via the official
website, http://www.playchess.com/
(where Yasser Seirawan provides commentary: it costs about 1 euro a day)
and the Internet
Chess Club (where there is also live audio commentary).
View/download
games Final:
Final Positions: 1 Kramnik 5/7,
2-4 Alekseev, Anand, Leko 4, 5 Mamedyarov 3½, 6 Carlsen 3, 7 Gelfand
2½, 8 Naiditsch 2.
Round 7 - all games drawn. Round 6 - Kramnik 1-0 Naiditsch, Gelfand 0-1
Leko, other games drawn. Kramnik 4½/6, Alekseev, Anand, Leko 3½.
Round 5 - all games drawn. Round 4 - Anand 1-0 Naiditsch, Kramnik 1-0
Carlsen, other two games drawn. Round 3 - all games drawn. Round 2 - Alekseev
defeated overnight leader Mamedyarov, while Kramnik beat Gelfand in an
endgame. Anand ½-½ Leko, Naiditsch ½-½ Carlsen
were the other results. Round 1 - Mamedyarov 1-0 Naiditsch, Kramnik-Anand,
Gelfand-Alekseev and Carlsen-Leko were all draws.
Aerosvit-Foros, 17-30 June [30/06/07]
This impressive tournament in Crimea, Ukraine, features 12 GMs with an
average rating of 2693: Peter Svidler, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Dmitry Jakovenko,
Alexei Shirov, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Krishnan Sasikiran, Pavel Elyanov,
Sergey Karyakin, Sergey Rublevsky, Lenier Dominguez, Loek Van Wely and
Alexander Onischuk. Follow the action online via the official
website and the Internet
Chess Club
View/download
games. Final: 1 Ivanchuk 7½/11, 2 Karyakin
7, 3-6 Onischuk, Svidler, Van Wely, Shirov 6, etc.
FIDE World Championship Tournament, Mexico, 13-29 Sept [13/06/07]
This year, as in 2005, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) is holding a
tournament to decide the world championship. Hopefully this will be the
last time they employ this unsatisfactory format to decide the supreme
title. The tournament will be held in Mexico City from 13-29 September
2007, with tie-breaks (what a horrible thought) on 30 September. The tournament
format is double-cycle all-play-all (i.e. each player plays all the others
once with White and once with Black). The eight-player line-up: Vladimir
Kramnik (RUS, reigning world champion); Viswanathan Anand (IND, world
rated no.1); Alexander Morozevich (RUS); Levon Aronian (ARM); Peter Leko
(HUN); Peter Svidler (RUS); Boris Gelfand (ISR); Alexander Grischuk (RUS).
Prize fund: $1.3 million. Official website: http://www.chessmexico.com/.
FIDE World Championship Candidates, Elista, 27 May - 13 June
[13/06/07]
16
qualified players travelled to Elista, Kalmykia, to compete for four places
in the FIDE World Championship tournament in Mexico City later in the
year. The round one pairings were Aronian (ARM) vs Carlsen (NOR), Adams
(ENG) vs Shirov (ESP); Ponomariov (UKR) vs Rublevsky (RUS), Grischuk (RUS)
vs Malakhov (RUS); Leko (HUN) vs M Gurevich (TUR), J Polgar (HUN) vs Bareev
(RUS); Gelfand (ISR) vs Kasimjanov (UZB); Bacrot (FRA) vs Kamsky (USA).
Official website
- click here. Another good place to follow the action is http://www.chessclub.com/chessfm/,
where they offering free audio coverage for the first three rounds (from
12:00pm GMT daily).
View/download games For further
details of the Candidates matches - click
here
Lady Thelma Milner-Barry [05/06/07]
Lady Thelma Milner-Barry, widow of the renowned British chessplayer and
wartime cryptanalyst Sir Stuart Milner-Barry (1906-1995), sadly died on
2 June 2007 in her 80s. More...
FIDE vs Short [09/05/07]
Following the report that FIDE intends to summon Nigel Short before the
FIDE Ethics Commission regarding comments he is alleged to have made about
the activities of FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos and FIDE
VP Zurab Azmaiparashvili, the English
Chess Federation has responded with a strongly-worded reply and prospective
counter-charge against Makropoulos and Azmaiparashvili. ECF
letter to FIDE Malcolm
Pein's Telegraph report BCM
Blog
Britbase Bonanza [24/04/07]
It's a good day to replenish your chess database with games old and new.
Either click here for the main Britbase
page, or click on the following links. We've got the games from the recent
Welsh Championships, the Southend Easter Open and then, going back in
time, the 1st Lloyds Bank Masters tournament from 1977 and, even further,
the 7th Islington Open in 1971. My thanks to everyone involved in keying
the games and making them available Welsh
Championship 2007 Southend
Open 2007 Lloyds
Bank Masters 1977 Islington
1971
Susan Polgar on UK TV [16/04/07]
UK readers: look out for former women's world champion Susan Polgar on
British TV on Tuesday night. She appears on the science news programme
'Horizon' on BBC2 at 9pm (Tuesday 17 April). The programme investigates
ways of measuring intelligence and puts seven high fliers in their fields
to various tests of intelligence. It will be interesting to see how she
fares in competition with a musical prodigy, a quantum physicist, an artist,
a dramatist, an RAF fighter pilot and a Wall Street trader Susan
Polgar blog BBC
Horizon website
Easter Congresses [15/04/07]
Round-up of the Easter Congress action - more...
Anand Charity Online Simul [13/04/07]
The Indian chess superstar gave an online simul on ICC on Saturday 21
April more...
31st Blackpool Congress, 16-18 March [11/04/07]
The Blackpool Congress took place over the weekend of 16-18 March and
was won by the Norwegian player Harald Borchgrevink with 4½/5 ...
more ...
Coulsdon Easter Internationals, 31 Mar - 4 Apr [08/04/07]
Two ten-player all-play-alls were held at the Coulsdon Chess Fellowship
in the five days preceding Easter. ... more...
Liverpool 2007: 800th Anniversary Match [13/03/07]
The city of Liverpool is going to celebrate its 800th year of existence
with a highly prestigious summit chess match over six rounds from 4-9
September 2007... more ...
Varsity Match, Oxford vs Cambridge, 10 March [11/03/07]
The 125th annual Varsity Match, the world's oldest regular chess fixture,
sponsored by Vantis and Henry Mutkin, took place at the RAC Club, Pall
Mall, London, on 10 March. Oxford University, led by super-GM Luke McShane
and Ukrainian WIM Olena Boytsun were widely expected to beat Cambridge,
who has only one player with a 2200+ rating, but it was the Light Blues
who pulled off a surprise win ... more
...
BCM Blog Has Moved [13/02/07]
Note that the BCM Editor's blog has moved to http://bcmchess.blogspot.com/
- it has just been updated with a slightly naughty story entitled 'No
Draws in Pasadena'.
Britbase is 10 years old... [10/02/07]
Britbase,
the British chess games archive, has reached its tenth birthday. Not particularly
old, certainly when you compare it with our 126-year-old magazine - but
positively ancient in internet terms. It was the first website of its
kind and has since been followed by many other national archives in other
countries (there are links from Britbase). I set it up in the hope that
as many game scores as possible of significant British chess events could
be collected together in the one place and be made freely available to
web users. That is still the philosophy, and I've just uploaded more than
2,000 games from recent events sent by British congress organisers (whom
I duly thank). Note that I have made corrections, standardised names and
added extra data (such as ratings) to the games. As well as downloads,
Britbase now features game viewers so that the games can be played through
in situ. Latest: Games from Gibraltar 2007, Hastings
2004/5 to 2006/7, Coulsdon 2006, Newport 2007 and Bristol 2006.
British Tournament Calendar
Comprehensive details of all forthcoming British tournaments -
the most up-to-date listing available on the web
Organisers: please send details of forthcoming
events
plus news, results and games via email
or fax +44 (0)20 7486 3355
Best and most comprehensive source of British tournament
games available for free download in zipped PGN format, many not available
anywhere else.
www.bcmchess.co.uk/britbase
© 2006 British Chess Magazine. All rights reserved.
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