Alekhine's Parrot

TheParrot Says…Welcome to the archive of the weekly leader of chess events around the world.  Chessville welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on this week’s news by writing to TheParrot@Chessville.com where selected letters will be featured.

This week the author of the new title Chess Bitch interviews with Chessville on the future of chess from a woman’s point of view, and the reception given to her new book.  Chessville’s readers may not know that the NY Times refused to even use the word “Bitch” from the book’s title even though they commissioned an article by the book’s author about the book.  The Sunday Express in England will also publish an article on women in chess featuring special mention of Jennifer Shahade.

Current Major International Tournaments:

The Super-Final of 58th Mens Championship of Russia took place 18-30 December in Moscow in the Mikhail Botvinnik Central Chess Club.  Sergey Rublevsky wins to become Champion of Russia!

Official site     Chessville coverage

Cyber-Brits!

First British Internet Schools Championship. British schools are being invited to register for the first Internet Championship.  Contact either:

     Andrew Martin. Email: Andrew@wizard100.demon.co.uk
     Peter Purland. Email: petepurland@btopenworld.com

Dear Chess Parents: “We are pleased to announce that one of our own instructors, Daniel Lucas, has accepted a new position to become the editor of the United States Chess Federation's nationally-distributed magazine "Chess Life". We are thrilled for him as he accepts this prestigious and challenging new opportunity.  Daniel has been playing chess since his dad taught him during the 1972 Fischer/Spassky match. He has been a board member of the Georgia Chess Association and editor of Georgia Chess magazine for seven years, winning the Best State Magazine award from the Fred Cramer Committee for Chess Journalism three of the last four years. He served as President of the Chess Journalists of America from 2003-2005. In the time that Daniel has been with Kid Chess, his student at Shakerag, Sumit Sohani, tied for second at the 2005 State Individual Championships and his Morningside team tied for 3rd at the 2005 State Team Championships.  Please join us in congratulating Daniel Lucas as he assumes this role of national leadership in the USCF."

The FIDE World Chess Cup took place 26th November - 18th December 2005 in Khanty Mansyisk, Russia.

Official site

And the winner is…

Levon Aronian

Final standings (top ten advance to 2006 FIDE World Championship):

Between the participants of the main tournament there are: World champion under 20 Elisabeth Paehtz 2408 (GER), Tatiana Kononenko 2423 (UKR), Natalia Pogonina 2401 (RUS), Olga Zimina 2397 (RUS), Tatiana Shadrina 2386 (RUS), the winner of the Memorial-2003 Irina Sudakova 2366 (RUS).

Susan Polgar is one of the most respected and successful Grandmasters in all of chess, and whose dedicated work in scholastics, especially with girls, will continue to energetically form the technical and ethical basis of participation for a future generation of chess players in the United States.

New to Chessville
in December 05

Marketing Chess
in the 21st Century

A special series of extended interviews with Mr. Paul Troung, shown on far left of photo with his extraordinarily successful Woman’s Silver Medal Olympiad team, and their advisor Gary Kasparov.  Paul is also the business manager for GM Susan Polgar.

Meanwhile, another woman very active on the US chess scene, the twice US Woman’s Champion in ’02 and ‘04, Jennifer Shadade, has agreed to be interviewed by Chessville about the ideas and the reception of her new book about women in chess, Chess Bitch.

Forthcoming

Wikipedia the on line encyclopedia has recently featured large numbers of new biographies about chess players perhaps stimulated by the activities of New York City chess personality Sam Sloan – and many of these entries are useful quick references. But substantial disagreement exists about who can create or change the entries, and what the content should contain. Reader beware! The parrot will follow the trend of creating and adapting biographical material in this particular form.

The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place 26th November - 18th December 2005 in Khanty Mansyisk, Russia.

Levon Aronian wins the FIDE World Cup after beating Ruslan Ponomariov in the finals, 3-1.

Judit Polgar is running a survey at her site assessing people’s
attitudes to the presentation Woman in Chess.
Register your vote and see the overall attitudes of voters at:
http://juditpolgar.maribelajar.com/modules/news/

Between the participants of the main tournament there are: World champion under 20 Elisabeth Paehtz 2408 (GER), Tatiana Kononenko 2423 (UKR), Natalia Pogonina 2401 (RUS), Olga Zimina 2397 (RUS), Tatiana Shadrina 2386 (RUS), the winner of the Memorial-2003 Irina Sudakova 2366 (RUS).

Round 7 leading standings:
1 N.Pogonina (RUS) - 5.5
2 E.Paehtz (GER) - 5.0
3 I.Sudakova (RUS) - 4.5
4-5 T.Shadrina (Rus), O.Zimina (RUS) - 4.0
Official site: http://chess.port33.ru

The Super-final of 58th men’s Championship of Russia takes place 18-30 December in Moscow in the Mikhail Botvinnik Central Chess Club.  In the robin-round tournament take part 12 GMs: Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler, Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grischuk, Alexey Dreev, Evgeny Bareev, Alexander Khalifman, Sergey Volkov, Sergei Rublevsky, Dmitry Yakovenko, Evgeny Naier and Alexander Motylev.  The first three GMs have personal invitations, the next two take part according to results of the previous super-final, the rest were qualified from the top-league of the Russian Championship.

Free plug for a chess center in the San Diego area:

Cafe Cabaret in Normal Heights is having weekly Chess Tournaments every Monday and Tuesday Nights Starting December 12th.  Monday Tournaments are for beginning to intermediate players while Tuesday nights are for advanced players.  Tournament starts at 6:30 p.m. sharp. Only 20 spots per tournament will be available.  Weekly winner will receive a $20 in coffee/espresso drink voucher.  If Interested please reply or stop by the café to register:

Cafe Cabaret, 3739 Adams Ave, San Diego, CA 92116
619-284-1819      www.cafecabaret.net

And another for Chess in LA last Sunday Exposition Park Chess Club Tel: 1 323 732 0169 [http://chess.expoparkla.com/], hosted a free, un-rated, three-round chess tournament at the Exposition Park Library.  Winners were: 1st Quad: Dan Fine 3-0; 2nd Quad: Mustafa Dawoodbhoy 3-0

USCF’s membership numbers in serious decline as reported at http://detroitchess.com/USCFmem2.htm:

Dec of  '01 = 90,500
Dec of  '02 = 93,600
Dec of  '03 = 90,000
Dec of  '04 = 84,000
Dec of  '05 = 82,500

Details are interesting with big swings* in Adult and Scholastic columns:  *Reg. Adult membership Jan '01 was 27,000 and is currently 20,800;  *Youth membership Jan '01 was 12, 289 and is currently 10, 537;  *Scholastic Jan '01 was 33, 814 and is currently 18255

The USCF board have not engaged in public dialogue since the elections, not even on official business.  No more details on the ChessCafe deal which remains secret, and no comments or engagements on decline in memberships.  Even official business takes nine days to acknowledge, as opposed to answer – at least, this is the Parrot’s experience.  What are 30 people up to?

Speculation is now on the ‘crash’ number below which USCF becomes untenable as an organization.  The December '05 number of 82,500 is almost 5,000 members above this year’s all time low in memberships.

The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place 26th November - 18th December 2005 in Khanty Mansyisk, Russia.

US interest since last week is sustained by Gata Kamsky as lone survivor, and who has already scored one win in Rd 5 over his formidable young opponent from Petersburg, Konstantin Sakaev.

The Fide site leaves something to be desired, especially their reports in English, which sported the following headers to articles, which were of the same quality: "Alexei Shirov: I am not the most talented already & Ugra is a land of the future!" & "Viorel Bologan: We have to save the best we have! & Loek van Wely: “Sometimes I prefer to calmness”     Official site

Strangest picture this week?

Fide has published this picture of Ugra at its World Championship reporting site, without any apparent chess context.

Judit Polgar is running a survey at her site assessing people’s attitudes to the presentation Woman in Chess.  Meanwhile Jen Shahade’s title Chess Bitch has IM Silman defending the title against all comers at great length.

And now to the World Championship:

Right!  Moving right along to players who earn titles by actually playing chess, well… maybe men’s chess is over?  The women are still playing:

The 3rd International Women’s Chess Tournament "Elizabet Bykova Memorial" is under way 7-17 December in Vladimir (Russia).  In the event 38 chess players from 6 countries participate, among them 10 international grandmasters and 4 international masters.  The prize for the 1st place is $1000.  Between the participants of the main tournament there are: World champion under 20 Elisabeth Paehtz 2408 (GER), Tatiana Kononenko 2423 (UKR), Natalia Pogonina 2401 (RUS), Olga Zimina 2397 (RUS), Tatiana Shadrina 2386 (RUS), the winner of the Memorial-2003 Irina Sudakova 2366 (RUS).  Round 2 leading standings:  1-5 Elisabeth Paehtz, Maria Kursova, Natalia Pogonina, Irina Sudakova, A.Sharevich - 1.5  Official site

– and will investigate further. No. Chessville doesn’t sell this set, but if we get more inquiries we might all learn to carve… J

The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place 26th November - 18th December 2005 in Khanty Mansyisk, Russia.  Frankly, the Parrot wasn’t sure where that was even after the chance contact with Joel Lautier en route there his email from Moscow.  Therefore, the Parrot has provided a handy map of the region, by Googling it and 55 sites later found a map – but where is the map situated?

Anyway, Joel did well in his first games, deating Ivanov, Alexander (USA) - Lautier, Joel (FRA) by 0-1,1/2.  Gata Kamsky is also participating, and looks like he got through the first round; Bocharov, Dmitry (RUS) - Kamsky, Gata (USA) 1/2,1/2,1-0,1-0.  And another US player who did very well against the former world champion: Khalifman, Alexander (RUS) - Shulman, Yuri (USA) 1-0,0-1,1-0,0-1,1-0,0-1,1/2, but Alex couldn’t quite defeat his opponent Bruzon, Lazaro (CUB) - Onischuk, Alexander (USA) 1/2,1/2,1-0,1/2.  A big result for Cheparinov, Ivan (BUL) - Ivanchuk, Vassily (UKR) 1-0,1/2, and Pono also gets through 2nd round against Motylev, Alexander (RUS) - Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR) 1/2,1/2,1/2,0-1. 

The 5th Amplico AIG Life International Chess Tournament - European Rapid Chess Championship to be held from December 17 till December 18, 2005, in Warsaw.  The organisers: The Warsaw Foundation for Chess Development and the Polish Chess Federation.  The information was given by Jan Macieja - Board of Founders, President Warsaw Foundation for Chess Development.

The Parrot’s Cage...

... has received three responses with partial information.
  Check them out here.

The mysterious Polish set displayed in the Cage a few weeks ago remains a mystery to most readers.  Maybe we need to offer a prize?  If its so rare, it must be worth a fortune!

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, [AZE, left] has a performance rating of 2873 and a score of 10.5 points to win the event, whereas the Chinese player Xiaobing Gu [below, on the left] led the women with 5.5 from 6 and with a performance rating of 2672!

She finished with 9.5 points and was nipped at the post by Germany’s Elisabeth Paehtz who scored 10 to win.

Official site

II Festival International de Ajedrez took place 19th-23rd November 2005 in Villa de Bilbao.  Man-Machine event.  Players: Ruslan Ponomariov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Alexander Khalifman. Junior, Fritz and Hydra.  Time rate was 2 hours for the first 40 moves and an extra hour to finish the game.  Machines won with 8:4.  Official site  Final standings:

1 HYDRA 3.0
2 JUNIOR 3.0
3 FRITZ 2.0
4 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam g UZB 2670 1.5
5 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2704 1.5
6 Khalifman, Alexander g RUS 2653 1.0

Celebrity Parrot

The Parrot’s Cage...

... continues to stump chess fans!  The mysterious Polish set displayed in the Cage two weeks ago remains a mystery to readers.  Maybe we need to offer a prize?  If its so rare, it must be worth a fortune!

The Parrot has a cagey feeling that there will be no reunification match taking place L again.

Current Major International Tournaments:

The World Junior Championships take place in Istanbul 9th-22nd November 2005.

Round Six leading standings:

Recent LA Quad results:

1st Quad: John Graham 3-0
2nd Quad: Michael Bynum 3-0
3rd Quad: Ananta Rupa 3-0

Meetings are on Sundays, from 1:00 to 4:30 PM; Exposition Park Regional Library; 3665 S. Vermont Avenue; Los Angeles, California 90007; Tel: 1 323 732 0169

Postcards from the Edge of the World Board:

This week the Parrot wrote some interview questions for Michael Adams on the worth of his early development in the Cornish Chess league – where the Parrot also played – Mickey’s answers will be published in the Chess Chronicle.

Some years ago the Parrot was contacted by a descendent of Paul Morphy who thought that standard chess histories were very wrong. This week the Parrot has heard from a descendent of the great Indian player Sultan Khan. Time to get out the interview pad!

In a response from a past W Ch candidate on ‘seeing the position’, is it like a video camera in fast forward? Andras Adorjan replied that he “sees no board and no pieces” and uses a non-visual metaphor of a pianist playing without a score as explanation for what goes on with him in sensing how the game will develop.

Chinese Men’s team collapse in last round after holding a two point lead, and are trounced by Russian team who take first place by winning 3.5 – 0.5!

Caption #1 is of Russia’s board one Peter Svidler accepting his winner’s medal.  #2 The USA versus Israel line up.  And #3 a pensive Boris Gulko before his game.  #4 Last round encounter between Bu and Svidler, the only draw between China and Russia.

Information courtesy  Tzachi Slav.  Official site

Your Invitation reads

Information courtesy: Jan Macieja, Board of Founders, President, Warsaw Foundation for Chess Development, Polish Chess Federation.  e-mail: pzszach@atomnet.pl

Promoting Chess in the USA – here is a report on the most critical group of all – the transitory section of the playing community between “Scholastics and Adult”...

In the 2nd and 3rd team competitions, the Cornell 2nd team held University of Illinois 2nd team to a draw, but the Illinois 3rd team won against the 3rd team from Cornell, and the UW 2nd team narrowly beat out Utahs 2nd team.

Here are results for the first round:

U of Washington vs. U of Utah 2.5 - 2.5
Iowa State U vs. U of Southern California 3.5 - 1.5
Cornell U vs. U of Illinois 2.5 - 2.5
State U of New York Geneseo vs. U of Southern California 3rd
     team 3 - 2
U  of Southern California 2nd team vs. U of California, Los Angeles
     1.5 - 3.5
U of Utah 2nd team vs. U of Washington 2nd team 2.5 - 3.5
U of Illinois 2nd Team vs. Cornell U 2nd Team 2 - 2 with one game
     still to play
Cornell U 3rd Team vs. U of Illinois 3rd Team  1- 4

Information courtesy: Gregory Alexander.

Coming Attractions: After Gary Kasparov, the chess name with the most world-wide recognition is Susan Polgar, and the Parrot is pleased to announce the forthcoming column, Susan Polgar's Scholastic Chess, right here at Chessville.  The column will be sponsored by Ultimate Chess Collecting.

Watch this screen...

USCF continues to be silent on their silence.

Yes, that’s right, China Women!  The Parrot thinks we should get used to the idea!  Meanwhile USA had a rest day on Thursday, but then scored 4 very quick draws in Friday’s round 4 games against Armenia – the longest game seemed to be 21 moves.  Armenia are strong competition and the result is good for USA, but why would Armenian players accept 4 short draws?  Cries in the public newsgroups were to substitute the Dutch team for the American one because of ‘short-draw syndrome’ zzzzzzzzz     Official site
Information courtesy Tzachi Slav.

International Chess Festival

Among the participants: GMs Mamedjarov, Gashimov, Gusejnov, Neverov, Magamedov, Uldashev etc.  Tournaments also include Two GM/IM norm events plus an IM norm event plus a senior event.  The site is Russian language only. Contact information:
 

Республиканский шахматный Центр

Директор: Эмин Гашимов
Тел: ( 994 12 ) 437-13-47

Общий отдел: ( 994 12 ) 437-13-48
Факс: ( 994 12 ) 494-05-73

Ул. Гуси Гаджиева 42а, Баку, Азербайджан
e-mail: info@chessclub.az

Prize fund - $14.000.
Official site: www.chessclub.az

No more news this week on USCF’s deal with Chesscafe.  What is particularly unclear is how a continuation of the contract would be secured, since the current contract is not secured, and especially since the rejected bid from chess4less did offer security as well as a guarantee of $100,000 more per year.

USCF President Bill Goichberg replied that the Parrot’s report last week may or may not be accurate!  Meanwhile USCF current membership numbers go unreported except only about half of USCF players have shown any rating activity within the last 12 months!  On the other hand rival rating entity CXR report new affiliates:  Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy (North Carolina); Ebunandini Chess Club (Zimbabwe, Africa); Kailua Chess Group (Hawaii); Hanahau'oli School (Hawaii); the United States Chess League (USA); and the Polgar Chess Center (New York).

This week a petition is being circulated around USCF clubs asking for assurances about drug-testing in the USA. At least one delegate has refused to circulate the petition in his own club, in his own words:

“Yes, it is an anti-USCF action designed to destroy USCF's financial foundation.  No decent USCF member should/would ever consider taking such a step.”

New Chess Web sites:

ECO Chess Openings with EXCEL Spreadsheets
  ( https://www.storesonline.com/site/1005399 )

PGN Files for Pocket or Laptop Computers
  (https://www.storesonline.com/site/1005400 )

Chess Software Tools
   (https://www.storesonline.com/site/chesssoftwaretools)

Chess Mover & Chess Diagram Software
   (https://www.storesonline.com/site/chessmover)
 

FIDE Boss Offers to Buy Lenin’s Body for $1 Million
Reports Mosnews and Interfax.

Head of the FIDE World Chess Federation, and the president of the Russian internal republic of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, has said he is ready to allocate $1 million for the shipping of the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin’s body to the Kalmyk capital of Elista.  “I have officially told Russian communist leader Gennady Zyuganov that if the question of burying Lenin’s body is raised, we are ready to allocate $1 million to bring both the mausoleum and body to Elista,” Iliumzhinov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

World Chess Team Championship, is about to begin in Beer Sheva City, Israel, 31 October - 11 November. Gennadi Sosonko will be the main commentator.  Official site.
Information courtesy Tzachi Slav.

The CORSICAN CIRCUIT 2005, Rapid Chess in Aiacciu (oct 26th-27h) and Venacu (Oct 28th-29th) and Corsica Masters in Bastia (oct 30-nov 3rd) FIDE rated event (1h30+30"per move).  175.000 Euros of prizes.

Many great players will take part : Anand, Polgar, Bacrot, Adams, Bologan, Shirov, Sasikirian, Tiviakov, Lautier, Tregubov ...

Official site: www.opencorsica.com

The 2nd Samba Cup, 14-23 October, Skanderborg, Denmark.  Players: Vasily Ivanchuk 2748 Ukraine, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2707 Romania, Lazaro Bruzon 2677 Cuba, Artyom Timofeev 2658 Russia, Kamil Miton 2636 Poland, Zhang Pengxiang 2613 China, Curt Hansen 2607 Denmark, Baadur Jobava 2601 Georgia, Magnus Carlsen 2570 Norway, Lars Bo Hansen 2565 Denmark.     Official site

Baadur Jobave wins
with 5½ points!

The 9th Essent Chess Tournament, 21st-29th October.  Current stages: Round 4, Crown Group and Round 7, Open.  The Official site: www.essentchess.nl was not working when the parrot looked.

International Chess Tournament Femida 2005, 16-26 October, Kharkov, Ukraine.  Players: Vladimir Burmakin (RUS 2535), Alexander Zubarev (UKR 2505), Alexander Kovchan (UKR 2504), Svetlana Petrenko (MDA 2327), Oxana Vozovic (UKR 2327), etc.
Official site: www.ukrchess.org.ua  Information courtesy WGM Anastazia Karlovich

Round 7 leading pairings:
1 Bocharov, Dmitry (5.0) - Romanov, Evgeny (5.0) 1- 30
2 Ovetchkin, Roman (5.0) - Popov, Valerij (5.0) 15- 2
3 Khairullin, Ildar (5.0) - Andreikin, Dmitry (5.0) 11- 37

Web URL: http://www.ruschess.com/Rusbase/main.php

What’s Up in Public Newsgroups? Conversational themes this week continue to investigate:

(1)  Blacklisting an author’s books because of criticisms he made in them about USCF’s versus International Rules.  Politicos at USCF continue their silence on the issue of carrying Mr. Eric Schiller’s titles.

(2) The proposed ChessCafe deal with USCF has been made public, which forgives the debt owed USCF and extends the contract to the year 2011, without seeking new bids for USCF’s Books and Equipment business.

(3) And of course… the eternally popular subject of Fischer gets stimulated again by a song: In three days, the Leeds-based band "iliketrains" will release a single called "A Rook House for Bobby".

The FIDE World Chess Championship took place September 27th - October 16th at Potrero de los Funes, San Luis, Argentina. Players: Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Michael Adams, Peter Leko, Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler, and Judit Polgar.

He got the lead early – and stayed the distance.  Topalov plays the tournament of his life!  Here is a happy ‘Toppy’ being interviewed by the local press.

Final Standings

In the last round Judit Polgar with Black held Toppy to a draw, but he was already 1.5 points clear of his nearest rival Peter Svidler and the issued was already clinched for the New World Champion.  The World Championship website was visited by 1,321,771 chess fans according to the site-counter.

Chessville coverage      Official Site

The CORSICAN CIRCUIT 2005, Rapid Chess in Aiacciu (oct 26th-27h) and Venacu (Oct 28th-29th) and Corsica Masters in Bastia (oct 30-nov 3rd) FIDE rated event (1h30+30"per move).  175.000 Euros of prizes.

Many great players will take part : Anand, Polgar, Bacrot, Adams, Bologan, Shirov, Sasikirian, Tiviakov, Lautier, Tregubov ...
Official site: www.opencorsica.com

The 2nd Samba Cup, 14-23 October, Skanderborg, Denmark.  Players: Vasily Ivanchuk 2748 Ukraine, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2707 Romania, Lazaro Bruzon 2677 Cuba, Artyom Timofeev 2658 Russia, Kamil Miton 2636 Poland, Zhang Pengxiang 2613 China, Curt Hansen 2607 Denmark, Baadur Jobava 2601 Georgia, Magnus Carlsen 2570 Norway, Lars Bo Hansen 2565 Denmark.     Official site: www.skanderborgskakklub.dk

The Women International Tournament dedicated to the Independence Day of Azerbaijan, 15-23 October, Sheki, with 10 players participate in the tournament, including N.Gaprindashvili, E. Kovalevskaya, N. Zhukova.
Official site: www.azerichess.com.  Information provided courtesy F. Gasanov, Vice president of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation.  There is an English language version of this site which was not working when the parrot gawked at it.

The 5th Asian Individual Championship, Hyderabad, India, October 6th-15th.  The top players in the field include nine players with a rating of 2600 or more. This list includes: K.Sasikiran (Ind), Dao Thien Hai (Vie), Zhang Zhong, Ni Hua, Ye Jiangchuan, Zhang Pengxiang (all China), Ghaem Maghami (Iri), Darmen Sadvakasov and Murtas Kazhgakeyev (both Kaz). Those prominent missing the starting line up are V.Anand and Kasimdzhanov who are playing at San Luis and the reigning world junior champion P.Harikrishna.

Notable among the players in the start list are former world junior champion Darmen Sadvakasov (Kaz) and former world women's champion Xie Jun (Chn). It is well known that Xie Jun was a star visitor during the Anand v Kamsky, World Championship Candidates Match held at Hyderabad in July-August 1994.

Official site: www.asianchess2005.com
 

Karabakh International, 1-11 October, Stepanakert, Karabakh.

Final standings top 3, Group A:

1 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2724 6.0
2 Anastasian, Ashot g ARM 2596 5.5
3 Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2662 5.5

Final standings top 3, Group B:
1 Petrosian, Tigran L g ARM 2564 6.5
2 L'Ami, Erwin m NED 2541 6.5
3 Grigoriants, Sergey g RUS 2539 6.5.

The Parrot recommended excellent daily reports in English from the Official site: www.karabakh2005.com

15th Seniors World Championship, 27 September - 10 October, Lignano, Italy.

Official site: www.prenassi.it

Final standings top 2 Men:
1 Spassov Liuben 2396 BUL 8.5
2 Jansa Vlastimil 2511 CZE 8.5

Final standings top 2 Women:
1 Saunina Ludmila 2279 RUS 7.0
2 Erenska Barlo Hanna 2247 POL 7.0

This week the Parrot looks at What’s Up in Public Newsgroups? Conversational themes revolve around 3 subjects:

(1)   The current World Championship, especially the fantastic performance by Topalov,

(2)   Censorship of author’s books in the United States, and

(3)  Historic role of the USSR in the world championship, and the future fate of FIDE – it was reported this week that Kirsan Ilumzhinov, president of the state of Kalmykia is to step down from that role, Ilumzhinov is also the president of FIDE and speculations for the future of chess are engaged.

The FIDE World Chess Championship is now taking place, September 27th - October 16th, at Potrero de los Funes, San Luis, Argentina.  Players: Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Michael Adams, Peter Leko, Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler, and Judit Polgar.

Players play “ping-pong” chess on their day off,
says the official web-site.

Topalov plays tournament of his life!

Standings after Round 9

And, the Parrot recommends for GM commentary:  www.SusanPolgar.blogspot.com.  Here is an extract:

Topalov has been ranked among the world's elite for a long time.  However, because of his low key demeanor, many people don't know much about him.  Due to his super-human-like performance in this World Championship, many people found out about him and started to compare Topalov to some of the greatest World Champions such as Fischer and Kasparov.  Topalov, the man who is on the mission to become the next FIDE World Champion gracefully stated:

"Please don't compare me to Fischer.  I wouldn't even dare to say I'm superior to my rivals here.  I'm just in good form right now, that's all."

This is the remarks of a TRUE Champion in my eyes, commented Susan Polgar.

Chessville coverage      Official Site

The Parrot recommends excellent daily reports in English from the Official site: www.karabakh2005.com

American Hikaru Nakamura is in mid-field.
 

15th Seniors World Championship, 27 September - 10 October, Lignano, Italy.

Official site

Bulgarian Team Championship

Many of the best Bulgarian players, including 14 GMs and 25 IMs.

Official site: www.chessmix.com

Information courtesy: Bulgarian Chess Federation

American player leads in Monarch Assurance PLC 14th International Chess Tournament, 24th September - 2nd October, Isle of Man.  Participants: Sergey Tiviakov g 2678 NED, Christian Bauer 2641 FRA, Alexander Areshchenko g 2625 UKR, Mikhail Kobalia g 2614 RUS, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami g 2603 IRI, Vladimir Epishin g 2600 RUS, Alexander Galkin g 2598 RUS, Sergey Erenburg g 2595 ISR, Oleg Korneev g 2594 RUS, Alexander Shabalov g 2593 USA etc.

Round 5 leading standings:
1 SHABALOV,Alexander USA g 2593 4.5
2 ARESHCHENKO,Alexander UKR g 2625 4.0
3 GORMALLY,Daniel ENG g 2557 4.0
4 IKONNIKOV,Vyacheslav RUS g 2560 4.0
5 KOBALIA,Mikhail RUS g 2614 4.0
6 KORNEEV,Oleg RUS g 2594 4.0
7 POSTNY,Evgeny ISR g 2559 4.0

View games     Games in PGN
Official site: www.bcmchess.co.uk

Official site: www.scgchess.org