If you have disabled Java for your browser, use the Site Map (linked in the header and footer).

Chessville
logo by
ChessPrints
 

Advertise
with
Chessville!!

Advertise to
thousands
of chess
fans for
as little
as $25.

Single insert:
$35
x4 insert:
@ $25 each.

From the
Chessville
Chess Store

From the
Chessville
Chess Store

9-29-2007

Your local, on the 8x8s:

A Chessville chess team has thrown down the gauntlet to the USCF board!  Associate Editor Rob Mitchell issued the on-line correspondence chess challenge on Friday September 14^th.  Restless for some response, our editor has also contacted the English Chess Federation, the Scottish and Irish too, also the Canadian Federation.  Somewhat to our editorial surprise the English Federation is the first to take notice, and ‘make further inquiries’; to which we at Chessville have responded, “do you want to play us or other chess federations?”  And latest… the Canadian chess Fed is also interested!

And that’s the news from Walla Walla.

Meanwhile, a big US Chess Event kicks off, The 2007 Miami Open Chess Tournament – LIVE

Alex Shabalov, Hikaru Nakamura, Izoria Zviad, Victor Mikhalevski, Varuzhan Akobian, Julio Becerra, Pascal Charbonneau, Darmen Sadvakasov, Gilberto Hernandez, Irina Krush, Igor Zugic…

The tournament is organized by Blas Lugo who attracted over 300 players!
     Follow live games: www.monroi.com
     Official web-site http://www.themiamichessopen.com/index.htm
     MonRoi coverage http://www.monroi.com/tournamentgate/Miami/
     HOT Video!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FmCswJsoec

(Taurus, cont.)  Wearing people down by playing without a clock and taking ages and ages about your move… waiting for them to make an impatient move immediately after the 5^th big pause, guarantees that better players will avoid you – and you can go back to beating Aries.

Gemini: typical of you to get into time trouble because even though you move fastest of all types, you have another idea before your hand even touches the piece, and while you are thinking about that move, 5 other ideas also show up. Sometimes both your hands shoot out at the same time to make completely different moves. Even so, stick with chess and don’t switch to darts or javelin.

Cancer: its hard to get over a loss, especially when an obviously unfair condition arose to disturb your naturally deep and sincere concentration, but get over yourself you big cry baby! Get out there again and keep playing. The time to quit is after winning, not losing!

Honorable Chess Gossip:

CLASH OF THE TITANS By Nataliya Krasavtseva: From 20th to 27th of September, Mexico hosted a Computer match between the two strongest chess programs in the world. The match took place during the Final of the World Chess Championship.

The program Rybka (World Computer Chess Champion 2007) played against Zappa (World Computer Chess Champion 2005, and vice champion in 2007). Zappa defeated Rybka by the score of 5.5 - 4.5.  If Rybka [Rybka’s Handlers] had not destroyed its own chances by continuing to play and lose drawn games, the result would have been 5.0 to 5.0.  Some people report computer chess as if it were interesting.  Personally, I think it’s a ‘perch-faller’.  Deep Zzzzzzzz’s.  Source: http://chessok.com/

Letter from Holland: Dear Parrot:

Always looking for high risk lines to unbalance chess computers , can you tell me what the Dilworth gambit in the Ruy Lopez is? A knight sacrifice? I just learned about the so-called Leipziger line (1900, about 3000 games) or Razzle Dazzle or Halloween in Four Knights: 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 and now 4. Ne5!? [Ne5 5. d4]. Official 20th century theory (Euwe-Keres) states it is "refuted", but far from it. It was considered "ïmpolite"! The Cochrane line in Petroff 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Ne5 d6 and now 4. Nf7 shows up occasionally in GM-tournaments nowadays, probably computer re-evaluated. A similar one in Two Knights Bronstein-Rohan (www.howtofoolfritz.com Tim Krabbe's "most fantastic 110 chess moves" has landed in the theory books.

Albert H. Alberts. [Mr. Alberts will notice this week’s Player’s Corner, in his honor.]  Any Chessville reader wanting to engage Mr. Alberts with his studies of MAMS [see 2 Chessville reviews] and contribute to MAMS 2, drop the Parrot an e-mail, and introductions will be made…

The World Chess Championship Tournament took place in Mexico City 13th-30th September.

VISWANATHAN ANAND
IS THE NEW FIDE WORLD CHAMPION !!

Chessville coverage & Chessville Forum // Download all the games // Official site // Chessvibes videos

World Senior Chess Championship is taking place in Austria, Jude Acers is playing in it – and who knows what’s happening? – not the official site or Fide, but this site offers the following as final scores, http://reports.chessdom.com/world-senior-chess-championship

Here is the leader board:

The 2006 winner was Viktor Korchnoi.

9-22-2007

Your local, on the 8x8s

A Chessville chess team has thrown down the gauntlet to the USCF board!  Associate Editor Rob Mitchell issued the on-line correspondence chess challenge on Friday September 14^th.  Chessville chat is that while many people are clamoring to get on board with the Chessville team, the board will chicken out.  The Parrot also checked if the BCF [British Chess Fellas] wanted a game, and they don’t.

College Chess USA

Dear college chess community, Registration is now open for the upcoming online individual College Chess League (CCL) tournament that starts on October 14th.  This tournament is open to all student chess players in the America’s and we will announce several category winners.  The tournament starts on Sunday, October 14, and your team registrations must be in by noon Friday, October 13.

This year’s Individual Online Championship Schedule (Games are played online on Sunday afternoons at 3 PM EST (= 2 PM CST = 1 MST PM = 12 PST):

The dates for 2007 are:
     Round 1 -- October 14
     Round 2 -- October 21
     Round 3 -- October 28
     Round 4 -- November 4
     Round 5 -- November 11

Prior to registration, please review the rules:  http://www.tatiana.net/iccl/index.cfm?page=generalRules
And register at http://www.tatiana.net/iccl/index.cfm?page=register.

We have many Grand-Master level players, and beginners.  If you want to be a spectator, free to log on ICC and root for your team, and watch the games.  If you would like to hear more about this event, please go to http://www.collegechess.org. We will also be using the ICCL email list to send out further information about upcoming tournaments, so we would appreciate it if you sign up on the ICCL mailing list.

Also, we would like to remind you that the National K-12 Collegiate Championship will take place in Houston on December 7 - 9. The Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship, our premiere OTB event, starts on December 27-30 in Miami. To register for the Pan-Am Games, go to http://www.mdc.edu/panamchess/.

Please take a look at our other planned events at http://www.tatiana.net/iccl/index.cfm?page=schedule

Thank-you for your support of college chess!
     Sincerely, Gregory Alexander, USCF College Committee Associate Chair

The event will take place in Hotel Centro Historico Sheraton in Mexico City.  The match will be played on two identical 8-cores computers.  The prize fund of the match is 10, 000 USD (the winner takes all).  In case of a tied match the prize fund will be shared equally.  Source: http://chessok.com/

Susan Polgar found this Chess-Blog site this week: “I am always amazed with new technology and it can definitely help all of us do a better job to promote chess, the game we all love.” She said.  Here is a link to a YouTube clip about chess blogging and forums from Canada:  http://jrobichess.blogspot.com/.

Meanwhile the USCF Chess Forum is still in the doldrums.  Some people are banned from it for mentioning that you can’t cite that the site is censored, while 2 new board members have voluntarily left until ‘it is cleaned up’.  I note that when I looked the Forum which is insured for $11,000 of member’s money per year, it had these usage statistics:

Who is online
In total there are 12 users online :: 7 registered, 4 hidden and 1 guest. Most users ever online was 24 on Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:49 am

I was ‘the guest’, and I presume the hidden 4 were the moderators making sure that the 7 actual visitors were not saying anything.

Worst Chess Joke Of All Time: [don’t read this, you’ll regret it]

A group of chess enthusiasts had checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories.  After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse.  "But why?" they asked, as they moved off.  "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."

The World Chess Championship Tournament takes place in Mexico City 13th-30th September.  The Parrot will also keep score of White versus Black, and Draws, which after 8 rounds looks like:

White 9 : Black 2 : Draws 22,
     ...exactly a 1:2 ratio of decisive games to draws.

Round 8 standings
     1 Anand - 5.5
     2 Gelfand - 5.0
     3 Kramnik - 4.5
     4 Leko - 4.0
     5-6 Grischuk, Aronian - 3.5
     7-8 Svidler, Morozevich - 3.0

Caption: Intense concentration in Aronian v Leko.

Since everyone everywhere is reporting on the World Championship the Parrot will restrict comments to current standings and the W:B:D ratios.  I know, I know, these are closely fought drawzzz, and no point being fed-up with them…

To cheer myself up I stole the picture of this trio from Susan Polgar’s website, which incidentally has very good coverage, and I believe she has or intends to, interview Anand.  UPDATE: I see these are now published, and are good reading.  In addition GM Polgar has been making broadcasts in Spanish and to Russia, plus conducting a press conference in 4 languages.

I like the picture because Peter Svidler is maybe the most cheerful chess player there is, and always the life of the party.

I am personally also rooting for Vishy Anand to succeed. I happen to know that he was very generous to a fellow Indian conducting PhD researches in Chess, and that this is also par for the course for the gent!

Official site: www.chessmexico.com

World Senior Chess Championship is taking place in Austria and Jude Acers is playing in it, the web site features guest celebrities in these type sizes:

Setting aside the ‘little’ woman it’s a bit hard to make any sense of the web site, but presumably someone can, and I’ll try to report the results of it next week, I couldn’t actually find any this. No pictures yet, not even of big and little guest. Official site: http://www.austria2007.com/engl.htm

The Czech Coal Carlsbad Chess Tournament took place 7th-15th September. Players: Alexei Shirov ESP 2735, Vladimir Akopian ARM 2708, Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2706, Sergej Movsesian SVK 2667, David Navara CZE 2656, Viktor Korchnoi SUI 2610, Viktor Laznicka CZE 2594, Jan Timman NED 2560.  Official site: www.praguechess.cz.

Chess in Goa, India

The All Goa  Under -15 chess championship organised by  the Associacao Academica de Moira in collaboration with the Goa State  Chess Association attracted 81 entries. The tournament will serve to select the team to represent Goa at the Sub-Junior Nationals to be held at Chennai from 2 - 10 October.

Boys Section

In the 3rd round of the All Goa Under - 15 chess championship played at Associacao Academica de Moira, State champion Anurag Mhamal (3) shwed excellent technique to beat Rakhshith Rai in a drawish looking endgame.In  the most intereting game of the day both Umang Kaisare and Mohinish Naik(3)  launched fierce attacks against each others kings. Umang (3) broke through first and won. Cyrus Pereira(3) defeated Anirudh Bhat( 3) from the black side of the Queen's gambit declined.  Others with 3 points are Agasti Tariand  Vipul Kulkarni, while Keegan Furtado and Harikrishna M are on 2.5

Girls Section

In the girls section op-seed Celianne Carvalho beat Vaishaki Pilankar easily, While Jessica Pereira(2) defeated Olivia Mascarenhas(1). Others on 2 points include Diksha Chavan who beat Riya Sawant,and Sukanya Chari who put it over Rima Naik.

Augusto Pinto, 40, Novo Portugal, Moira, Bardez, Goa, India
E pintogoa@gmail.com or ypintogoa@yahoo.co.in

9-15-2007

The Major emphasis this week is on international chess, with the World Championship shifting into gear in Mexico.  But the Parrot did find a very interesting discussion going on in Chessville’s own forum – and anyone wanting to do a little chess-tourism in New York City should check out the rare chess pictures at the Parrot’s tail end.  [Editor:  Also check out The Parrot's Rare Chess Pictures - Album 1!]

The Parrot also caught up with NM Dan Heisman at the forum who agreed to be interviewed.  Dan is an active chess teacher in the US, and was interviewed here about 6 years ago, and is also very active at Chessville’s forum.

Funniest Find of the Week:  Anyone out there still playing postal chess?  Here is an international invite:

Dear Parrot, My Name is Marco Hansen and I live in Lippstadt/Germany. I am 37 Years old… I like to play Postal Chess (Card or Letter only) with someone who likes to,… I like to share friendships from everywhere around the world…! I speak and understand German…,English and Netherlands. My Address is: Marco Hansen, Eickelbornstr 8, 59556 Lippstadt Germany. E-Mail: marco_hansen@t-online.de.

Now, the Parrot checked out this guy in his best German, and he seems OK!  He wrote back: “I can’t stop laughing at your funny words…”  So this week the Parrot’s best Schwabisch is the funniest thing around.  Grüss!

The World Chess Championship Tournament takes place in Mexico City 13th-30th September. Participants: Viswanathan Anand 2792 (born 1969), Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2769 (1975), Alexander Morozevich RUS 2758 (1977), Peter Leko HUN 2751 (1979), Levon Aronian ARM 2750 (1982), Peter Svidler RUS 2735 (1976), Boris Gelfand ISR 2733 (1968), and Alexander Grischuk RUS 2726 (1983). Rest days: 17,22,26 September. Tiebreak games if required 30th September. Play starts at 14:00 local time (-6 GMT). Prize fund: US$1.3 million.  Official site.

After a very careful start with 4 draws, Kramnik and Anand each score a point in round 2 to face each other in round 3. The Parrot will also score White versus Black, and Draws which after 2 rounds looks like W1 : B1 : D6

Round 2 standings
1-2 Kramnik, Anand - 1.5
3-6 Gelfand, Svidler, Grischuk, Leko - 1.0
7-8 Aronian, Morozevich - 0.5

The Liverpool Chess International (Official website) - Final Individual and match scores:

The 60th Championship of Russia (top league) took place in Krasnojarsk 3rd-14th September.

Final leading standings:
1 Rychagov - 7.0
2 Vitiugov - 7.0
3 Dreev - 7.0
4 Amonatov - 7.0
5 Tomashevsky - 7.0
6 Timofeev - 7.0
7 Sakaev - 7.0
8 Zvjaginsev - 7.0
9 Rublevsky - 7.0
10 Tregubov - 7.0
11 Kobalia - 7.0
12-16 Zakhartsov, Bareev, Malakhov, Motylev, Makarov - 6.5
17-26 Korotylev, Popov I., Novikov, Najer, Smirnov, Grachev, Turov, Kokarev, Chuprov, Romanov - 6.0

Official site: russiachess.org.  But forget it if you can’t read Russian, there is an English language option, but no news of this event appears there.  With this 11-way tie for first, 2608-rated A. Vitiugov is the kid to watch.  Another young star rises over Petersburg.

The Czech Coal Carlsbad Chess Tournament takes place 7th-15th September. Players: Alexei Shirov ESP 2735, Vladimir Akopian ARM 2708, Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2706, Sergej Movsesian SVK 2667, David Navara CZE 2656, Viktor Korchnoi SUI 2610, Viktor Laznicka CZE 2594, Jan Timman NED 2560. Time control: 2 hours for 40 moves then 1 hour for 20 moves and then 1 hour till the end of the game. Playing days: 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 15 September.  Official site.

Round 6 standings:
1-2 Akopian, Movsesian - 4.0
3 Ponomariov - 3.5
4-5 Navara, Laznicka - 3.0
6-7 Shirov, Timman - 2.5
8 Korchnoi - 1.5

9-8-2007

Letters: Dr. Frank Brady, President of the Marshall Chess Club, sent the Parrot an additional note on his Fischer Lecture. The Parrot will keep readers informed if video recordings or transcripts become available to the public.

“I don't have anything written as yet, but Queens Public Television is going to tape it for airing (in Queens), and someone else wants to tape it as well, and I would be happy to send you a copy of that tape as soon as it is duplicated.

As to the lecture, for the most part, I am not going to repeat my analysis of Fischer as it appeared in the book, but I will, of course, touch on some of the same things that I presented decades ago. I will attempt to recreate in word pictures Fischer's visits to the Marshall, such as his lunchtime of red caviar on brown bread sandwiches (always with a bottle of Lowenbrau), his speed games in the late afternoons, his participation by teletype in the Havana tournament, his series of public chess lessons, and anything else to which I was eyewitness or arranged for him.  I will also attempt to bring up to date his life and career from the end of my book (1972) to the present day, with as much new material, insight and detail as I can.  I expect to have a slide show to accompany my words.”

A press release from The Western Massachusetts Chess Association is please to announce it’s sponsorship of a very important chess event: the 1st annual Eli L. Bourdon Memorial (2007 is the centennial anniversary of the pioneer teacher and legendary promoter/organizer) on Saturday, September 8, 2007.

The tournament, a three round event, will be rated by the United States Chess Federation, and will be held in the city that Bourdon resided in, at the historical Holyoke Public Library on 335 Maple Street.  The tournament will begin at 9:30 AM on Saturday, September 8th and is expected to run into the early evening.

A total prize fund of $450 is being offered with cash prizes available for first and second place finishers, as well as various rating class prizes as well. Additional information can be found on the Western Massachusetts Chess web site at: www.wmass-chess.us or by contacting Edward Kostreba, WMCA treasurer at 413-967-7984.

Funniest Find of the Week:   is a Golden Oldie, but it will take you 10 minutes to find the punch-line; the u-Tube video clip is slightly incorrect, since the illusionist doesn’t actually beat them all…. But I won’t ruin the joke.
 

Meanwhile The Liverpool Chess International, St. Georges Hall Concert Room is taking place from September 3rd to 9th, 2007.  The Chinese team recently convincingly bashed the Russians, male and female, and we should all wake up to the quality and strength of their chess.

The Chinese Team:
  Average age: 20, Average Elo: 2571
The UK Team:
  Average age: 29, Average Elo: 2551

After the Brits found themselves trailing during the early rounds against the truly scary Chinese team who just beat the Russians, the top board duo of Adams and Short [captioned] struck back for the UK and won the 3rd match by the score of 5-3 to pull within 2 points of China.  Official website.

Latest results:
GM Adams, Michael 2724 - 2681 Ni, Hua GM 1-0
GM Short, Nigel 2683 - 2685 Bu, Xiangzhi GM 1-0
GM Wang, Yue 2696 - 2599 Rowson, Jonathan GM 1-0
WGM Hou, Yifan 2523 - 2536 Pert, Nicholas GM 1-0
GM Wang, Hao 2626 - 2526 Jones, Gawain GM ½
GM Howell, David 2519 - 2649 Zhang, Pengxiang GM 1-0
WGM Shen, Yang 2439 - 2418 Arakhamia-Grant, Keti IM 0-1
WFM Ding, Yixin 2278 - 2401 Houska, Jovanka IM ½

Dear Parrot, this year our country’s major chess event games is already available at: http://malaysiaopen.net/.   Best wishes, Kim Lye Malaysia www.gilachess.com

The 60th Championship of Russia (top league) is taking place in Krasnojarsk 3rd-14th September.
Leading Round 4 standings:
1 Dreev - 3.5
2-7 Amonatov, Vitiugov, Khismatullin, Timofeev, Korotylev, Najer - 3.0
8-24 Sakaev, Potkin, Motylev, Rychagov, Tregubov, Novikov, Smirnov, Zakhartsov, Bareev, Bocharov, Lastin, Savchenko, Malakhov, Popov I., Kiselev, Zvjaginsev, Grigoriants - 2.5
Official site: www.russiachess.org

Hundred years of chess tournaments celebrated.  It has been exactly one hundred years since the first international chess tournament was held in the Czech countries. In 1907, the world chess top players gathered in Karlovy Vary and chess magazines in the whole world were singing their praises for months afterwards. For this anniversary, the civic association Prague Chess Society is organizing a grand master chess tournament called Czech Coal Carlsbad Chess Tournament 2007 in Karlovy Vary, where the chess elite will be present. The participation to this classical chess tournament will be the strongest in several decades compared to other competitions held in the Czech Republic.

From Friday September 7th to Saturday September 15th 2007, eight grand masters will challenge each other in the hotel Carlsbad Plaza. They were chosen carefully so that the tournament would host three players belonging to the current world top (rating over 2700 ELO points, GM Alexej Širov, GM Ruslan Ponomarjov and GM Vladimir Akopjan), two players as chess legends (GM Viktor Korčnoj and GM Jan Timman) as well as the best chess player of Czech Republic (GM David Navara), the best chess player of Slovakia (GM Sergej Movsesjan) and the best Czech junior player (GM Viktor Láznička).  Official site.

Ivan Morovic has been elected as President of Chilean Chess Federation. Ivan Morovic Fernandez (born 24th March 1963) is the best Latin American chess player for many years.  Morovic was born in Vina del Mar, Chile.  He began to play chess at age nine.  At age 22, he became the first Chilean to hold the title of International Grandmaster.  The site of the Chilean Chess Federation is: www.fenach.cl.

In Budapest, the latest norm tournaments are under way, including four Americans in the IM section:  Eric Cooke, William Paschall, Mackenzie Molner and Nick Adams. Their scores are respectively, 1.5, 4.0, 3.5 and 2.5 from 6 rounds of play. The leader has 5.0.

9-1-2007

The Marshall Chess Club
Grandmaster Lecture Series
Presents

Dr. Frank Brady

International Arbiter
Marshall Chess Club President
Bobby Fischer’s biographer
Author of “Profile of a Prodigy”

Lecture:
"Bobby Fischer, the Enigma:
The Pride and Sorrow of Chess"

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007, 7:30 PM

Refreshments will be served
Lecture free to Marshall Chess Club members, $20 for non-members.

Marshall Chess Club
23 West 10^th Street
New York, NY 10011
Phone 212-477-3716 Fax 212-995-9281
www.marshallchessclub.org

Now Hiring: Would you like to hear about a fabulously well-paid job in chess that you can do at home, replete with prestige, national awards, and all for very little effort?

So would I.  Meanwhile, Chessville has some unpaid jobs that you can do at home, with little hope of winning a Pulitzer, Nobel or an Oscar, but for only a few hours per week you can support chess.  Our growth over the past few years needs your support so we can keep growing!  So… We Want You!  Here are the current opportunities, and how to get hooked up with us:

Chessville is an equal–opportunity exploiter - women and people of color are also encouraged to apply.

Everybody’s first question is, “how much of my time will this take every week?”  So here are the open jobs and the corresponding time commitment [as an average]:

• TCW Associate Editor - New On the Net Prepares the New on the Net section of the newsletter each week.  Estimated weekly time commitment:  2-3 hours.

• TCW Games Reviewer Selects games from current events for use in TCW.  May also compile them into a PGN file for reader download.  Estimated weekly time commitment:  1-2 hours.

• Associate Editor for History - History section:  Responsible for the overall Chess History section at Chessville, including organization and maintenance of records pages and editorial oversight of history-related features, including Past Pawns and Chessville Vignettes.  Estimated weekly time commitment:  1-2 hours.

• Associate Editor for Scholastics - Scholastics:  Responsible for the scholastic offerings at Chessville, including normal editorial functions as well as solicitation, preparation, and possibly writing of additional scholastic material at Chessville.  Estimated weekly time commitment:  1-2 hours.

• Associate Editor for Beginning Instruction -Instruction - Beginner:  Responsible for organizing and developing of general chess educational materials at Chessville.    Estimated weekly time commitment:  1-2 hours.

• Associate Editor for Intermediate Instruction - Instruction - Intermediate:  Responsible for organizing and developing of general chess educational materials at Chessville.    Estimated weekly time commitment:  1-2 hours.

• Associate Editor for Advanced Instruction - Instruction - Advanced:  Responsible for organizing and developing of general chess educational materials at Chessville.    Estimated weekly time commitment:  1-2 hours.

• We also need a Webmaster and Associate Webmaster. Estimated time commitment 85 to 150 hours per week*  [*The publisher won’t notice this small lie.  Actually contributions can be quite modest, even on a project basis.]

Contact us via this link, bow-tie optional.

The 60th Championship of Russia (top league) takes place in Krasnojarsk 3rd-14th September. Participants are: Rublevsky Sergei g RUS 2679, Malakhov Vladimir g RUS 2676, Landa Konstantin g RUS 2669, Volkov Sergey g RUS 2659, Zvjaginsev Vadim g RUS 2658, Tomashevsky Evgeny g RUS 2654, Bareev Evgeny g RUS 2653, Timofeev Artyom g RUS 2650, Motylev Alexander g RUS 2648, Smirnov Pavel g RUS 2636, Sakaev Konstantin g RUS 2634, Kobalia Mikhail g RUS 2634, Najer Evgeniy g RUS 2623, Korotylev Alexey g RUS 2616, Riazantsev Alexander g RUS 2615, Nepomniachtchi Ian m RUS 2613, Galkin Alexander g RUS 2608, Dreev Alexey g RUS 2606, Bocharov Dmitry g RUS 2605 etc. 65 chessplayers in all.

Alexander Grischuk won the 61st Blitz Championship of Moscow on the prizes of newspaper "Vechernyaia Moskva" and Moscow Chess Federation.  The event took place 26th August.
Final results:
1 Grischuk - 17 [captioned]
2-3 Bareev, Malakhov - 14
4 Nepomnjashchy - 13
5 Korotylev - 12
6 Najer - 11.5
7 Savchenko - 11
8-9 Dvalishvili, Zvjaginsev - 10.5
10-11 Dobrov, Grachev - 10
12 Dreev - 9.5
13 Amonatov - 8
14 Balashov - 7.5
15 Ulko - 6.5
16-17 Vasjukov, Papin - 6
18 Malakhov - 5.5
19 Vlasov - 4.5
20 Voevodin - 2.5

16 y.o. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Silvia Collas [both, captioned] became the Champions of France.  The French Championships took place in Aix-les-Bains 13th-25th August.  Official site.

8-25-2007

Letters from 2 World-class players this week:

First, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk writes to say that Chessville is one of her favorite sites on the web, and that she has been busy making new podcasts – one is illustrated in this letter, where she discovered a little problem with Fritz 10.

Secondly, who does Garry Kasparov ask for advice?  We have a letter on the chessic philosophy of IGM András Adorján, which we have given its own column.

Your local, on the 8x8s:

New England Masters (August 13-17)
Final Standings

1. GM Leonid Kritz- 7/9
2-3- Alexander Shabalov and Dean Ippolito- 6.5/9
4- IM Robert Hess- 6/9
5-7- IM Lev Milman, IM Joshua Friedel and FM Ray Robson- 5.5/9
8-13- GM Eugene Perelshteyn, IM Justin Sarkar, IM David Vigorito, IM Ronald Burnett, FM James Critelli and Max Enkin- 5/9

Official Site: http://www.newenglandmasters.com/index.htm

Greg Shahade reports at http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_513.php on the August Junior ratings update.  Obviously Hikaru Nakamura is way out in front, actually extending the gap from the previous report.  Captioned are the biggest movers in the list, from left to right: John Bartholomew up 15 points, next is Robert Hess, up 14, then Alex Lenderman, up 25, then Joel Banawa, up 16.

1. GM Hikaru Nakamura: 2742 19-years old (Last Ranking: 1st, Rating Change: +4)
2. IM Josh Friedel: 2543, 20 years old (Last Ranking: 2nd, Rating Change: +1)
3. IM Lev Milman: 2531, 19 years old (Last Ranking: 3rd, Rating Change: no change)
4. IM Salvijus Bercys: 2488, 17 years (Last Ranking: 4th, Rating Change:+3)
5. IM John Bartholomew: 2488, 20 years old (Last Ranking: 5th, Rating Change: +15)
6. IM Robert Hess: 2486, 15 years old (Last Ranking: 6th, Rating Change: +14)
7. IM Alex Lenderman: 2480, 17 years old (Last Ranking: 7th, Rating Change: +25)
8. NM Joel Banawa: 2407, 17 years old (Last Ranking: 10th, Rating Change: +16)

Anyone intereted in the details of chess research around the world should consult this page for parallel session papers: http://www.scottishjuniorchess.co.uk/cisccon/Programme.html.  Additionally, anyone interested in taking part in doctoral candidate Prasath’s research, especially those who can conduct in vivo testing, contact TheParrot.

Conference Programme Main Agenda:

Children’s Involvement in Education: Ethical Issues and Empowering Research Policy and Practice - Janet Shucksmith, Teesside University

What does Research into Expertise tell us about Chess Teaching and Coaching? - Ferdnand Gobet, Brunel University

Chess and Education: the Re-creation of Learning School, Home and Community
- Susan Polgar, Grandmaster and Director of SPICE at Texas Tech University

Development and Impact of Chess-in-the-Schools in New York City Public Schools - Fritz Gaspard, Chess in the Schools, New York

Children and Social Capital - Virginia Morrow, University of London

10.30 – 11.15 Chess: Just a Game or a Powerful Teaching Strategy for Learning Mathematics - Dr Steve Tobias, Steve Carroll, (James Cook University, Townsville, Australia) and Sam Grumont (Castlemaine Innovations and Excellence School Cluster Coordinator)

The Rewards of Self-Control and the Joys of Concentration: What Chess Might Teach us About Learning - Jonathan Rowson, British Chess Champion (2004 – 2006)

Children’s Health and Well Being: the Process of Mentoring and Coaching in Informal Education - Kate Philip, University of Aberdeen

Using Chess in a Counseling/Mentoring Approach for Students - Fernando Moreno, Montgomery County Public Schools

After a GM Polgar-tutorial there follows an International Chess Tournament.  Rounds One, Two and Three - Round One: Fisher Bonus 3 minutes + 2 seconds per move - Round Two: Bronstein 5 minutes + 3 seconds per move - Round Three: One-minute Hour Glass

Rounds Four and Five - Round 4: 15 minute Rapid Play - Round 5: 25 minute Allegro
In the middle of the tournament there is another: Rapid Play Team Match: Scotland Select vs Aberdeen and Twin Cities

International Chess Tournament, Round Six - Bronstein 20 minutes + 10 seconds per move
International Chess Tournament, Round Seven - All moves in 45 minutes

In addition, the parallel sessions involve topics and speaking from around the planet – here is a sample: former ACF head Graeme Gardiner along with wife Wendy, is heading out today for the conference. He will present a paper entitled, Positive Moves in Australian Chess with Particular Regard to Autism.

Other Australian representatives at the conference will be Sam Grumont (Castlemaine Innovations and Excellence Mt Alexander, Victoria Schools Cluster Coordinator) as well as Dr Steve Tobias, Steve Carroll and Harry Poulton (James Cook University) who, Grame informs me, are all working on the same project relating to mathematics and chess.

China all over Russia!

The 4th China vs Russia Match takes place 18th-31st August 2007 in Nizhnij Novgorod (Russia).  The participants are: Russia: Jakovenko Dmitry g RUS 2735, Alekseev Evgeny g RUS 2689, Inarkiev Ernesto g RUS 2663, Tomashevsky Evgeny g RUS 2654, Timofeev, Artyom g RUS 2650, Kosintseva Tatiana m RUS 2502, Kosintseva Nadezhda m RUS 2475, Kovalevskaya Ekaterina m RUS 2454, Korbut Ekaterina wg RUS 2445, Tairova Elena wg RUS 2410, China: Wang Yue g CHN 2696, Bu Xiangzhi g CHN 2685, Ni Hua g CHN 2681, Zhang Pengxiang g CHN 2646, Wang Hao g CHN 2624, Zhao Xue wg CHN 2500, Shen Yang wg CHN 2439, Ruan Lufei CHN 2433, Huang Qian wm CHN 2410, Wang Yu A wg CHN 2384.

After 3 rounds: men China - Russia 8.5:6.5, women China - Russia 9.5:5.5

The official site: www.russiachess.org/ but, the site has no listing at all of the event by round 3, when the Russians managed to hold the Chinese to an even score.  Overall score; China 18, Russia 12.

The French Championships take place in Aix-les-Bains 13th-25th August.  Participants of the men tournament: Tkachiev Vladislav g FRA 2655, Fressinet Laurent g FRA 2646, Bauer Christian g FRA 2626, Vachier-Lagrave Maxime g FRA 2595, Nataf Igor-Alexandre g FRA 2588, Dorfman Josif D g FRA 2584, Sokolov Andrei g FRA 2582, Fontaine Robert g FRA 2567, Vaisser Anatoly g FRA 2544, Degraeve Jean-Marc g FRA 2520, Renet Olivier g FRA 2498, Guidarelli Laurent m FRA 2450.  Official site

Round 7 standings:
1-3 Tkachiev [caption], Vachier-Lagrave, Sokolov - 5.0
4-5 Dorfman, Bauer - 4.0
6-8 Degraeve, Fontaine, Fressinet - 3.5
9-10 Vaisser, Nataf - 3.0
11 Renet - 1.5
12 Guidarelli - 1.0

Dutch Bash Brits at the 5th Staunton Memorial, Final Team Score - Holland 38, U.K. 28.  Arbiters were Eric Schiller and Bob Wade OBE.  The event was organized by Ray Keene OBE, Barry Martin and Clive and Sue Davey of the Staunton society.  Final individual results below:

Still worth reading are Steve Giddin’s very intelligent round-by-round reports.  A sample of his writing is this cliff-hanger final game:

There were two particularly notable moments in the final round's play.  Sokolov, who could finish equal first by beating Adams, maintained some pressure throughout, but missed his best chance at the crucial moment:

Sokolov captured on b6, but Adams was much more concerned about 39.Bd6!, which wins a pawn.  Black would be forced to seek chances in a rook ending a pawn down, which he may or may not be able to save.  In the game, play instead continued 39.Bxb6 Bxb4 40.Re5 Rb7 41.Be3 Bd6 42.Rh5+ Kg6 43.Rg5+ Kf6 44.f4, which also looks promising for White, until one sees Black's next move.  44...Rb4!  The move Sokolov had missed.  Now the draw is inevitable.  45.Rxd5 ½–½

8-18-2007

Your local, on the 8x8s:  2007 CHESSCA OPEN • GUELPH • ONTARIO  guaranteed prize fund: $2,500.  September 29-30 • Old Quebec St. mall, Guelph • 9 am • 5 rounds swiss • 90’+ 30" • CONTACT • meichenlee@chessca.com • (519) 265-1652 • entry fee: $50 • less 10% for seniors (65+), students, females, and non-rated players.  •• held in the beautiful and historic Old Quebec Street Mall, Guelph (FREE parking available)  •• conveniently located across the road from Greyhound bus station and Via Rail train station  •• guaranteed $2,500 in cash and prizes  •• 10% early-bird discount (paid registration received before September 1, 2007)  •• $5 discount for seniors (age 65+), females, students, and unrated players.  •• FREE entry for all FIDE-titled and CFC 2200+ players (must be registered by September 1, 2007)  •• all chess sets and digital chess clocks provided  •• light refreshments provided throughout the event registration: www.chessca.com/chesscaopen.html.  CONTACT • meichenlee@chessca.com • (519) 265-1652.  Guelph is easily accessed from the north east via Toronto, and is near Kitchener. From the West Detroit or Cleveland/Buffalo.
 

At the end of the round, Reuben and Anderton share the title.  Look for more pictures plus a Live-Games and download link at the Official site.

Dutch Bashing Brits at the 5th Staunton Memorial,  Standings after 8 rounds:

Team Score: Holland 28½ - England 19½.  Official site.

In Budapest another series of norm tournaments in the FirstSaturday series is ended, and I note some US and Canadian players taking part, including in Masters-A; Drake Jenkins with a performance rating [tpr] of 2180, about 100 over his standard rating:

In the GM group Bui took the top with another 100+ tpr, but USA’s Yury Lapshun went the other way:

Information has been forwarded by IM Miklos Orso, Int. Arbiter, who was also kind enough to send all the games for each round of the entire event. If you can also publicize his event I assume he could forward them to you.

Forthcoming English Chess Events, courtesy Sophie Hare, ECF

IBCA EUROPEAN INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS: 13th-24th August 2007. St. Aidan's College, Durham.

This event is played over nine rounds. Rounds 1 to round 6 will be played from Tuesday 14th to Sunday 19th August. The final three rounds will be played from Tuesday 21st to Thursday 23rd August. Click the link below for results and live games.  http://www.braillechess.org.uk/

CHILLINGHAM RAPIDPLAY & 1ST WHITBY WEEKEND STARS BARRED CHESS CONRESS:  For details on Chillingham Rapidplay (13 October 2007) please click here.  For details on Whity Weekend Congress (23-25 November 2007) please click here.

The Chess Classic Mainz takes place August 13th-19th 2007 in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz [captioned] . The main events is held with participation of Viswanathan Anand IND 2792, Levon Aronian ARM 2750, Etienne Bacrot FRA 2695 and Rustam Kasimdzhanov UZB 2683. They play a Chess960 event (14th-16th August) and rapid chess (17th-19th August) with time control 20 min./ game and increment 5 sec./move.
Aronian and Anand qualify for final in Chess960.  They play a 4 game match.

8-11-2007

Your local, on the 8x8s:  7-Way Tie in U.S. Open

There was a seven-way tie in the U.S. Open (Cherry Hill, NJ July 28-August 5). Boris Gulko, Alexander Shabalov, Sergey Kudrin, Benjamin Finegold, Michael Rohde, Michael Mulyar and Anton Del Mundo all scored 7.5/9, good for $2263.  Boris Gulko won the title on tiebreak.  See the full report by Jennifer Shahade.

As part of the festivities, recent brilliancy prize winner at the US Woman's Champ Elizabeth Vicary took this unusual photo of six girls playing bug-house.

Check the date – its not April 1^st:
     Here is a report of what Fide have “in mind” see http://www.russia-ic.com/news/show/4516/

The world’s second largest chess federation (FIDE) intends to build hotels in 165 countries.  All hotels are said to be in the shape of chess figures.  FIDE plans to build 150 hotels and chess centres within the nearest four years.  According to FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, at the first stage nearly US$1 billion is to be allotted for bringing the plans to life.

The total cost of the project is estimated at US$50 billion.  It is already known that a number of chess centres and hotel complexes will first appear in Chisinau (Moldova), People’s Republic of China, and such Russian cities as Samara, Yekaterinburg, and Khanty-Mansiysk.

Another grandiose part of the FIDE project is building of a chess city that will consist of 32 hotels in the shape of chess in the UAE. It is an expensive project but FIDE has already arranged a settlement with several investors.

In associated news equally strange is this explanation of a new commercial enterprise – Bessel Kok is being interviewed by a Herr Dr. Gralla of Neues Deutschland:

Dr. Gralla: In 2006 you ran a campaign for the presidency of FIDE, against the incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. That campaign was bitter and sometimes very polemic. After you lost the election at Torino it comes as a big surprise that you have started to work together with Mr. Ilyumzhinov, and that you have even agreed to run the commercial arm of FIDE, “Global Chess BV”. Can you explain this decision to us?

Bessel Kok: Firstly, “Global Chess BV” is not the commercial arm of FIDE. It is a private company, in majority funded by Mr. Ilyumzhinov.

The Parrot wonders if an international governance organization for chess has any conflict of interest when its sort-of associated commercial arm is controlled by the Fide President.

More arms!  USCF have been at arms length with Fide for several years – I wonder how if will negotiate this and other ‘difficulties on behalf of chess players, or if they will get into the hotel business?

British Focus – It’s a big chess party in the UK with the 94th Championships of The British Isles takes place 29th July - 11th August in Great Yarmouth.

Caption: Round 10 Leaders Meet On the top table Aagaard (left), on 7½ points, meets Stephen Gordon (7).

Caption: Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, defending Ladies Champion at the start of her round 9 game against 1979 Champion Robert Bellin of Great Yarmouth. The game finished in a breathless time scramble, but when the dust settled, Bellin was able to force a draw by repetition.

Caption: I see a long-time correspondent taking part, here are Former BCF Presidents David Anderton (left) and Stewart Reuben [friend] meeting each other on top board in the penultimate round of the Seniors Championship.

14 year old Sheila Dines (left), England International junior player, and Lateefah Messam-Sparks, British Under 16 Girls Champion, model the Great Yarmouth British Championship T-Shirt. Sheila Dines was in action in the morning in the under 14 event. Sheila also plays in the afternoon Major Open event, a game she won to move on to 3 / 8 pts.

So, the stage was set, and Leading players after 9 round were: 1st: Aagaard 7½. 2nd . Haslinger 7. 3rd= Gordon & Pert 6½. 5th= Kosten; Rudd; Rowson; Conquest; Hebden; Flear & Storey all 6 pts.
Photos courtesy Bob Jones, British Championship Press Officer.

Look for more pictures plus a Live-Games link at the Official site: www.bcf.org.uk/events/bc2007/index.html

More Brits!  5th Staunton Memorial, STOP PRESS standings:

Round 3 Standings: 1. Adams, Michael g ENG 2724 2.5; 2. Wells, Peter K g ENG 2517 2.5; 3. Van Wely, Loek g NED 2680 2.0; 4. Sokolov, Ivan NED g NED 2666 1.5; 5. L'Ami, Erwin g NED 2598 1.5; 6. Smeets, Jan g NED 2538 1.5; 7. Werle, Jan g NED 2552 1.5; 8. Jones, Gawain C B g ENG 2526 1.5; 9. Timman, Jan H g NED 2560 1.5; 10. McNab, Colin A g SCO 2416 1.0; 11. Houska, Jovanka m ENG 2401 0.5; 12. Speelman, Jon S g ENG 2511 0.5

[Captions are of the current leader Michael Adams of Cornwall, a couple of players being daft with toys, and finally, players, arbiters and organizers collected at Simpson’s in the Strand.]

Further reports will undoubtedly emerge from the pen of organiser and regular Chessville columnist GM Ray Keene.  Official site: http://howardstaunton.com/index.shtml

8-4-2007

Your local, on the 8x8s:

108th US Open begins Saturday 28th at Cherry Hill, NJ

Results for in for The Denker Tournament of High School Champions and the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls.

Captioned is Warren Harper (Houston, TX), winner of the 2007 Arnold Denker.  Susan Polgar writes “For winning the Denker tournament, Warren received a full scholarship to Texas Tech University and $500 cash scholarship from the US Chess Trust.  Warren is interested in studying Medicine.”  Polgar continues:

This year, Julia Kerr, another student of mine and also a member of the Polgar Chess Center won the 2007 SP National Invitational for Girls on tie break.  Julia received my collector's chess set value at $400 (sponsored by Jeff Smith and House of Staunton), ICC membership (sponsored by ChessClub.com), $500 cash scholarship (sponsored by US Chess Trust), $105 stipend (SPF), and Texas Tech University full scholarship.

Captioned is Megan Lee, winner of the $500 Ursula Foster award for top under 14 girl.

1. GM Pia Cramling (2533) of Sweden
2. WGM Lela Javakhishvili (2460) of Georgia
3. WGM Jovanka Houska (2401) of England
4-5. WGM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (2418) of Georgia
4-5. WGM Iweta Rajlich (2406) of Poland
6-7. WGM Irina Krush (2479) of USA
6-7. WGM Cristina Adela Foisor (2372) of Romania
8. Myriam Roy (1975) of Canada, FQE Selection, supporting talent.

Small criticism of Monroi’s presentation: if the editorial comment is ‘recognising women in world chess’ then a suggestion is to label their photos, so we too, can recognise them.  Shown here is the winner, Pia Cramling.  Games by www.monroi.com.

8th Montreal International Chess Tournament Empresa (July 19-29) Fédération québécoise des échecs.  Vasily Ivanchuk became the winner of the 8th Montreal international chess tournament Empresa took place 19th-28th July.  This is his 3rd consecutive victory in the tournaments.

Montreal International Empresa
Final standings
1 Ivanchuk - 7.0 [caption]
2 Tiviakov - 6.0
3 Harikrishna - 5.5
4 Kamsky - 5.0
5 Eljanov - 5.0
6 Sutovsky - 4.5
7 Miton - 3.5
8 Bluvshtein - 3.5
9 Charbonneau - 3.0
10 Short - 2.0

Finals results and cross-table:

Honorable Chess Gossip:  Essential reading for collectors, historians and those interested in chess art:  As follow up to the Staunton Memorial reported in the Parrot last week, Chessville columnist GM Ray Keene OBE, has written another fascinating article on the background of the event, including for example, the game the artist Marcel Duchamp played against Koltanowski, and the result, 1-0.  The essay should appear in full with its own Chessville page.  Ray talks of the contribution to chess of the artist Barry Martin; “the most consistent, the most dedicated, the most inventive and, pace Marcel Duchamp, perhaps the most important”.

He continues with his association with the artist: “In 1991 Barry and I went to France to meet ‘Teeny’ Duchamp at her family home near Fontainebleau.  We were allowed to explore the house full of Marcel Duchamp’s works, sketches and notebooks.  Barry played Teeny a game of chess on Marcel’s own designed chess set and board (the Buenos Aires Set).”

“Next we went to see the ‘Échecs’ exhibition in Paris at the Bibliotheque, with a view to borrowing some sets for a possible event at the Tate Gallery.  There we met Jacqueline Matisse-Monnier, Teeny’s daughter from her first marriage to Pierre Matisse, Henri Matisse’s son.”

The long essay then mentions a couple of contributions by John Cage, Barry's Potato Set, Garry Kasparov, the Media Coverage, Shakespeare, and winds it way to a discussion of Victorian polymath Staunton's role in the original design of our modern pieces.

Catch the tournament at WWW.HOWARDSTAUNTON.COM and the very strong Dutch team led by Sokolov, Timman van Wely, Smeets, Werle and L’Ami face the Brits Speelman, Wells, Adams, McNab, Jones, and Jovanka Houska.  Venue, Simpson’s in the Strand [captioned.]

The 94th Championships of The British Isles takes place 29th July - 11th August in Great Yarmouth.

The traditional celebrity first-move is performed by The Mayor, who suggests 1.d4, which defending champion Rowson is happy to go along with.  Good advice as it turned out as Rowson won.
 

Leading round 4 standings
1-2 Pert, Aagaard - 4.0
3 Kosten - 3.5
4-13 Flear, Rowson, Barrett, Briscoe, Conquest, Ward, Gormally, Oswald, Gordon, Arakhamia-Grant - 3.0

Look for more pictures plus a Live-Games link at the Official site: www.bcf.org.uk/events/bc2007/index.html

The North Urals Cup took place in Krasnoturinsk (Russia) 22nd-31st July 2007. Participants: Hou Yifan wg CHN 2523, Zhu Chen g QAT 2522, Ushenina Anna m UKR 2502, Zhao Xue wg CHN 2500, Stefanova Antoaneta g BUL 2481, Galliamova Alisa m RUS 2468, Paehtz Elisabeth m GER 2457, Muzychuk Anna wg SLO 2456, Lahno Kateryna m UKR 2450, Pogonina Natalija wg RUS 2429.

The main tournament in International Chess Festival in Biel took place 23rd July - 2nd August. Participants: Teimour Radjabov AZE 2746, Alexander Grischuk RUS 2726, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2710, Judit Polgar HUN 2707, Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2685, Loek Van Wely NED 2679, Alexander Onischuk USA 2650, Alexander Motylev RUS 2648, Boris Avrukh ISR 2645, Yannick Pelletier SUI 2591.

An analysis of Win, Draw, Lose of rounds 1 thru 9 reveals winners with:

Black: Polgar 2, Moylev, Carlsen, Pelletier Van Wely, Grishuk and Radjabov 1.
White: Carlsen and Onishuk 3; Radjabov, Bu and Pelletier 2; Avrukh, Grishuk and Van Wely 1.
By Round 7 Van Wely had yet to win with either color, but then won his last two games.  In 45 games there were 24 draws.

But the big drama was the play off between Carlsen and lat year’s US Champ Onishuk, which went draw, draw, so they did it again, and it went draw, draw – then Magnus came through against Alex.  A great result by both players.  Official site: www.bielchessfestival.ch/cms/

Viktor Korchnoi wins the Banja Luka Tournament took place 22nd-30th July 2007. Participants: Korchnoi Viktor g SUI 2610, Stojanovic Mihajlo m SRB 2601, Solodovnichenko Yuri g UKR 2582, Ruck Robert g HUN 2563, Andersson Ulf g SWE 2520, Ilincic Zlatko g SRB 2509, Vukic Milan g BIH 2481, Jakovljevic Vlado m BIH 2440, Savanovic Aleksandar m BIH 2432, Narancic, Vlado f SRB 2344.  Official site: www.skbanjaluka.com.

7-28-2007

Your local, on the 8x8s:

108th US Open begins Saturday 28th at Cherry Hill, NJ.  The Denker Tournament of High School Champions and the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls both start on Sunday at 11 AM.  “Chess Life On-line will offer daily coverage” is the only URL I can find, but the Monroi company will be showing live games.

MonRoi International Women Grand-Prix Finale:  Round 4 Brit Woman leads.  Monris announce “World's top female chess payers from over 30 countries participated at MonRoi's International Women's Grand-Prix.”  Though this information came under ‘standings’ which didn’t actually mention any standings.

July 25, 2007
[Section - Board 1] Roy, Myriam vs Arakhamia Grant, Ketevan 0-1
[Section - Board 2] Houska, Jovanka vs Krush, Irina 1-0
[Section - Board 3] Rajlich, Iweta vs Javakhishvili, Lela 1/2-1/2
[Section - Board 4] Cramling, Pia vs Foisor, Cristina Adela 1-0

Standings after round 4:
1. Houska, Jovanka m ENG 2401 3.5 [captioned]
2. Cramling, Pia g SWE 2533 3.0
3. Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan m GEO 2418 2.5
4-5. Krush, Irina m USA 2479 2.0
4-5. Javakhishvili, Lela m GEO 2460 2.0
6. Foisor, Cristina Adela m ROM 2372 1.5
7. Rajlich, Iweta m POL 2406 1.5
8. Roy, Myriam CAN 1925 0.0

According to the site three players now are at 3.5 – see ‘results’ rather than ‘standings’, and I calculate this means the 5th round, Houska, Arakhamia-Grant and Cramling.  But then I couldn’t find the participant's photos again, and became bored.  Games by www.monroi.com.

8th Montreal International Chess Tournament Empresa (July 19-29) Fédération québécoise des échecs.

Round 6 standings
1 Tiviakov - 4.5
2-4 Kamsky, Ivanchuk, Harikrishna - 4.0
5-6 Miton, Eljanov - 3.5
7 Bluvshtein - 2.5
8 Sutovsky - 2.0
9 Charbonneau - 1.5
10 Short - 0.5

President Polgar?  “"I am looking forward to meeting my colleagues in Cherry Hill.  And for the big question that many of you have asked, would I accept the position of President if I have the support of my colleagues?  Yes.  I think that I can bring a lot to this federation within the US as well as Internationally.  But this is the decision that my colleagues have to make."

The North Urals Cup takes place in Krasnoturinsk (Russia) 22nd-31st July 2007.  Participants: Hou Yifan wg CHN 2523, Zhu Chen g QAT 2522, Ushenina Anna m UKR 2502, Zhao Xue wg CHN 2500, Stefanova Antoaneta g BUL 2481, Galliamova Alisa m RUS 2468, Paehtz Elisabeth m GER 2457, Muzychuk Anna wg SLO 2456, Lahno Kateryna m UKR 2450, Pogonina Natalija wg RUS 2429.

Round 5 standings
1-3 Pogonina, Zhu Chen, Stefanova - 3.0
4-7 Ushenina, Zhao Xue, Lahno, Galliamova - 2.5
8-10 Hou Yifan, Muzychuk, Paehtz - 2.0

Official site: www.northuralscup.ru

The main tournament in International Chess Festival in Biel takes place 23rd July - 2nd August. Participants: Teimour Radjabov AZE 2746, Alexander Grischuk RUS 2726, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2710, Judit Polgar HUN 2707, Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2685, Loek Van Wely NED 2679, Alexander Onischuk USA 2650, Alexander Motylev RUS 2648, Boris Avrukh ISR 2645, Yannick Pelletier SUI 2591.

Last week’s commentary said: Once the youngest player to qualify as a grandmaster from the FirstSaturday events in Budapest, and with the 2007 Canadian Open under his belt – Bu has made it into the big-time tournament circuit and is 5th rated, just behind Judit Polgar.  Also captioned is Magnus Carlsen, the real dark-horse to win this event, although based on his current surge in experience maybe he is not so dark?  He will have to overcome the next-highest rated player, Alexander Grishuk, who is also playing very well at the moment, as well as also top-rated Teimour Radjabov.  Should be an excellent fighting tournament.

Early days, but Alexs Onishuk and Motylev join ‘that kid’ in the lead, and Grischuk has still to come forward.

Round 3 standings:
1-3 Carlsen, Onischuk, Motylev - 2.0
4-8 Pelletier, Radjabov, Bu Xiangzhi, Avrukh, Polgar - 1.5
9 Grischuk - 1.0
10 Van Wely - 0.5

And Round 4 saw Carlsen defeating Motlev with the black bits, Onishuk defeating vanWely, and Grishuk overcoming Pelletier, leaving Carlsen and last year’s US Champ Alex Onishuk in 1st place with 3 points. 5 rounds to go. Caption is a round 4 game Teimour Radjabov against Judit Polgar.

Official site: www.bielchessfestival.ch/cms/

7-21-2007

Your local, on the 8x8s:  Final of the 2007 Frank K. Berry US Women's Championship:  Round 9 results were:

1. Katerina Rohonyan 1/2 Alisa Melekhina
2. Tatev Abrahamyan 0-1 Irina Krush
3. Batchimeg Tuvshintugs 1-0 Chouchanik Airapetian
4. Camilla Baginskaite 1/2 Tsagaan Battsetseg
5. Elizabeth Vicary 0-1 Anna Zatonskih

Krush, Rohonyan and Zatonskih qualified for the Women's World Championship Cycle.  And Irina Krush is US Woman’s Champion.  IM Irina Krush clinched the Frank K.Berry 2007 US Women's Chess Championship by winning the last round game against Tatev Abrahamyan.  WGM Katerina Rohonyan was co-leader until the last round, when she was held to a draw by 16-years old WFM Alisa Melekhina.  Last year’s champion IM Anna Zatonskih scored three consecutive wins to catch Rohonyan on the 2nd place tie.  These top 3 players have qualified for the FIDE World Championship cycle, report here.

There is no break in the action for Irina Krush, as she is heading to Montreal, Canada, where Irina will participate in the 2007 MonRoi International Women's Grand-Prix Finale, the culmination event after the 7 qualifiers in different countries.

Following a couple of nice wins in round 9 with the black pieces final results are:

US Women's Chess Championship Final Standings:
1. IM Irina Krush 7.0
2-3. IM Anna Zatonskih and WGM Katerina Rohonyan 6.5
4. WIM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs 5.5
5. WIM Tsagaan Battsetseg 5.0
6-7. WFM Alisa Melekhina and WGM Camilla Baginskaite 4.0
8. WFM Tatev Abrahamyan 3.5
9. WFM Elizabeth Vicary 2.5
10. WFM Chouchanik Airapetian 0.5

Additionally, Elizabeth Vicary won the GoddessChess Brilliancy Prize.  Here is the raw score of the game:

Baginskaite,C (2328) - Vicary,E (2148) [E11]
ch-USA w Stillwater USA (7), 19.07.2007

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Bxd2+ 7.Nbxd2 0-0 8.0-0 d6 9.e4 e5 10.d5 Nb8 11.Ne1 a5 12.Nd3 Na6 13.a3 Bg4 14.f3 Bd7 15.b4 c6 16.dxc6 bxc6 17.f4 Rab8 18.Rb1 axb4 19.axb4 Rb6 20.fxe5 dxe5 21.c5 Rxb4 22.Nxb4 Qxc5+ 23.Kh1 Nxb4 24.Qb3 Rb8 25.Qc4 Qd6 26.Qe2 c5 27.Nc4 Qe6 28.Rfc1 Bb5 29.Bf1 Nxe4 30.Qe3 Bc6 31.Bg2 f5 32.Nd2 f4 33.gxf4 exf4 34.Qe1 Ng3+ 35.hxg3 Qh3+ 0-1

Fabiano Caruana scored his 3rd and final GM norm - subject to FIDE confirmation - and has broken Hikaru Nakamura’s record as the youngest ever American GM.  Fabiano Caruana (b. July 30th, 1992 in Miami, Florida) GM at the age of 14 years and 350 days, Hikaru Nakamura –15 years and 58 days.

http://www.marshallchessclub.org/index.html
 

8th Montreal International Chess Tournament Empresa (July 19-29) Fédération québécoise des échecs.  Organisme voué à la promotion des échecs au Québec.  For more information on this ACP Event, see: http://www.chess-players.org/ but wait a few days until they put up some information.  Here is the field:

And the first round went like this – [what happened to Nigel?]

Eljanov - Charbonneau 1-0
Harikrishna - Sutovsky 1-0
Miton - Short 1-0
Bluvshtein - Kamsky 1/2
Tiviakov - Ivanchuk 1/2

The second round <gulp> …

Kamsky - Miton 1-0
Eljanov - Bluvshtein 1/2
Charbonneau - Ivanchuk 1/2
Short - Harikrishna 0-1
Sutovsky - Tiviakov 0-1

Harikrishna is off to a flying start, and Nigel Short loses two games back to back.  Official site

President Obama? At least the guy credits chess as a benefit for poor kids, according to the Chicago Sun:

“…And it’s working. Parents in Harlem are actually reading more to their children. Their kids are staying in school and passing statewide tests at higher rates than other children in New York City. They’re going to college in a place where it was once unheard of. They’ve even placed third at a national chess championship.”

Meanwhile USCF election processes are almost closed, but with no financials released to the voters on how incumbents wishing for re-election have done during their time in office.  (USCF have lost money in 9 of the past last 11 years.)

Coming Up: $10,000 HOUSTON OPEN – JULY 20

Bu Xiangzhi won The 2007 Canadian Open Chess Championship which took place 7th-15th July 2007 in Ottawa. 10 rounds Swiss system.  Leading final standings: 1 Xiangzhi Bu - 8.0  2-6 Nigel D. Short, Kamil Miton, Chanda Sandipan, Tomas Krnan, Bator Sambuev - 7.5 7-22 Vadim Milov, Sergey Tiviakov, Andrey V. Rychagov, Mark Bluvshtein, Abhijit Kunte, Alex Yermolinsky, Anton Kovalyov, Hoang Thong Tu, Frank De La Paz Perdomo, Thomas Roussel-Roozmon, Alexander Reprintsev, Leonid Gerzhoy, Joe Bradford, Daniel Rensch, Jonathan Tayar - 7.0  Official site: www.canchess.ca

Susan Polgar writes to Fide President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov:

[copied from http://www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com:80/ with permission, Susan Polgar]

Copy: Georgios Makropoulos, Geoffrey Borg, Ignatius Leong, Boris Kutin, Jorge Vega, Bessel Kok

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing to you for a special request.  As you know, Women’s Chess is a subject very dear to my heart and I am working very hard to promote chess for young female players in America.  I am glad to see many strong young female players today and I hope to see many more earning the grandmaster title and breaking the 2600 rating mark in the near future.  This would be wonderful and it can give a big boost for chess overall.

However, I would like to see FIDE recognizing some of our pioneers, especially Vera Menchik, who was well ahead of her time.  Since we already award the Grandmaster title to Women’s World Champions, I propose to have this policy apply to all previous Women’s World Champions, starting with Vera Menchik.

I understand that this is purely a symbolic gesture, as none of them are with us today.  Nevertheless, I think that it is the right thing to do.

Thank you for considering my request.

Sincerely, Susan Polgar

The main tournament in International Chess Festival in Biel takes place 23rd July - 2nd August. Participants: Teimour Radjabov AZE 2746, Alexander Grischuk RUS 2726, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2710, Judit Polgar HUN 2707, Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2685, Loek Van Wely NED 2679, Alexander Onischuk USA 2650, Alexander Motylev RUS 2648, Boris Avrukh ISR 2645, Yannick Pelletier SUI 2591.

Once the youngest player to qualify as a grandmaster from the First Saturday events in Budapest, and with the 2007 Canadian Open under his belt – Bu has made it into the big-time tournament circuit and is 5th rated, just behind Judit Polgar.  Also captioned is Magnus Carlsen the real dark horse to win this event, although based on his current surge in experience maybe he is not so dark?  He will have to overcome the next highest rated player Alexander Grishuk who is also playing very well at the moment, as well as also top-rated Teimour Radjabov.  Should be an excellent fighting tournament.

Official site: www.bielchessfestival.ch/cms/

A letter to the Parrot says:

Hello, you might want to look into this report of one British participant of the 6th Berlin Bughouse Gathering:  For more coverage, including results, complete players lists etc., see
http://www.bughouse.info/gatherings/berlin/07/berlin2007.html  Cheers, Daniel Denes.

Okay!  But the writer provided two other URLs of video of the event, which were not working at press time.  Perhaps they will be able to be accessed from the URL above?

7-14-2007

GM Xiangzhi Bu of China and GM Kamil Miton of Poland are leading the 2007 Canadian Open with 6.5 points in 8 rounds.  Following with 6.0 points are: GM David Howell ENG, GM Chanda Sandipan IND, GM Vadim Milov SUI, GM Suat Atalik TUR, GM Sergey Tiviakov NED, GM Valeriy Aveskulov UKR.

Since juniorchess.ca started hosting Canadian Open viewable games online (provided by Monroi) in the evening of July 9, there have been more than 1,400 visitors from 60 countries viewing these games 3,000 times as of 2 pm EDT today.  Fifty-five percent of viewers are from Canada, followed by USA (14.2%), Netherlands (5.7%), Turkey (4.7%) and UK (3.4%).

Time for Chess Crime Watch:  This message is from Shelby Lohrman of the Rochester Chess Center.  His company was the official vendor at the World Open where the theft of 21 CHRONOS CLOCKS occurred.  Anyone with information on this theft needs to contact Mr. Lohrman.  $2300+ retail of Chronos clocks have been stolen.

“This is crippling my business. I was brought up taught treat people the way you want to be treated yourself. If that was the case I was would be walking real funny right now.  I need the names of the people involved.  I heard that the Chronoses were being traded to pay off gambling debts from Backgammon and I heard one was sold at a poker game that was going on for $40.

If someone offers you some new chess equipment at a tournament at a tremendous discount, it is most likely stolen.  Buying of stolen property makes you just as guilty as those who stole it.  These people need to be punished thru the law and the USCF should take action.  We have a strong suspicion of who the thieves were.  I am not giving out names or locations yet for obvious reasons.  If the clocks are not returned to me and I catch the people that did this I will be taking full legal action.  I have already contacted the police department.

Anyone who had a Chronos I or II (long Chronos) or a Chronos Blitz offered to them in brand new condition without a box or a manual at the World Open needs to contact me thru our website.  I have serial numbers of all the stolen clocks.”

Thanks, Shelby Lohrman, Rochester Chess Center, http://www.nychess.org/

Local focus on Chess at the Oak Park, Illinois Public Library thru 8-27-2007.  BYOB (Bring Your Own Board) Chess Night.  Bring your favorite board and pieces to share some rounds of open chess in the friendly confines of the Main Library.  A small supply of boards will be available if you don't have your own.  Local chess guru, John Buky of the Chess Academy, will be stopping by to offer guidance.  No registration required.  BYOB Chess Nights run on Mondays through August 27.  Call 708-452-3440 with any questions. 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Book Discussion Room, Second Floor, Main Library.

Coming Up: $10,000 HOUSTON OPEN – JULY 20
http://www.cajunchess.com/tourns/tournament9.shtml

Coming Up: DENKER DATE

Denker Tournament of High School Chess Champions Set for New Jersey FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Contact: Dewain Barber (714) 998-5508 AmChessEq@aol.com July 13, 2007, Press Release #20 of 2007

(Crossville, TN)  The 23rd Annual Denker Tournament of High School Champions will be played at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, NJ from July 29 to August 3.  This event was founded by GM Arnold Denker to provide an opportunity for the best high school players from each state to meet and compete.  Visitors are invited to attend the Opening Ceremony at 9 AM on July 29 where each representative will be recognized.  This year, a scholarship will be provided by Texas Tech University.  Check your own state for confirmed participants:

100,000 beta test the Chesspark.com web site, which aims to be the best on-line.  With $1,000,000 raised, co-founder Jack Moffitt is confident the full-featured product launch will go well on the 3rd Quarter this year.

Gary won’t make it.  A preliminary survey is that GM Garry Kasparov as representing the main opposition party in Russian politics seems not to have obtained sufficient votes or confidence for the forthcoming election, according to a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation.  69% of respondents say they are unlikely to vote for the leader of the opposition Other Russia coalition.

Read All About It:  Don’t miss Ray Keene’s column this month, which among other things covers an alarming Cuban farm-girl who during a simul, stole...  On playing a team of knights, Sir John Laws, Sir Duncan Ouseley and Sir Jeremy Hanley [top board, House of Commons!] HRH Thatcher's response on be asked to make the first move at an event, and how Sir Jeremy persuaded her to do it.  Then there's Fidel Castro v Tigran Petrosian.  In a note to the columnist about the Cuban farm girl, the Parrot asked if this is why there is an extra Queen in some sets?

Trouble at Chess-Mill: For a dozen months past, the Parrot has been copied material from the Chess Journalists of America, which too is ‘suffering’ an election and also a forthcoming Aug. 1st annual CJA meeting.  One incumbent officer who is a USCF board member is accused by another officer of not submitting financials when requested, and per California laws, including this interaction:

“DO YOU DENY that officers of the CREDIT UNION told you weeks ago that you were and are still -- mandated by law, to grant access to CJA accounts to any member of the CJA Board, year round??”

”Indeed I do.”  Was the response.  The Parrot has seen a facsimile copy signed by the Director of Operations and Call Center of the Water and Power Community Credit Union, stating that such materials December 2005 through May 2007 were forwarded to the CJA treasurer, Randy Hough as well as to Daren Dillinger who requested them.

The Parrot is personally not a member of the CJA, and therefore is not invested in either side, but will not become a member while such strange operations seem to flourish in it – this example being one of many – since evidently one would be compromised by joining such a group.

Advance to Goa:  2nd Buddhidata Vinayak Rolling Trophy Chess Tournament for Boys & 2nd Buddhidevata Vinayak Rolling Trophy Chess Tournament for Girls for Primary Students of Goa organized by Taleigao Chess Academy in association with Goa State Chess Association will be held on Saturday September 8 & Sunday September 9 at NIO Community hall, Donapaula.  Student of 1st to 4th std can participate in this tournament.  Entry fee Rs.50/- Entry forms will be available from 15th August 2007 at Taleigao Chess Academy, Dynasty Manor, Odlembhat, Near Bank of India, Taleigao, Caranzalem Goa. More Information from: Contact number 2451143 or 9326132702 or Email : goachess@dataone.in Website : www.goachess.info.

Puzzle Solution from Canadian Open: 30.Qxg7+!! Kxg7 31.Bxh6+ Kg8 32.Rg5+ Kh8 33.Bg7+ Kg8 34.Bf6+ Kf8 35.Bh7!!, and now 35...Ne7, to guard against the mate on g8, allowed 36.Bg7 checkmate!  The event blog suggests having this one put on your t-shirt.

7-7-2007

Your local, on the 8x8s

Coming Up:  $10,000 HOUSTON OPEN - JULY 20-22, 2007. Adults: 5SS, G/120 - 2-day or 3-day Schedule Available - Open Section is Fide Rated.  Side Event: Scholastic (Individual) -4SS, G/30 - 1 day only, Sat. July 21st.  Crown Plaza Hotel Houston N. - Greenspoint, 425 Sam Houston Pkwy E., Houston, TX.  The organizer would like pointed out that the Chess Life information is incorrect.  Hotel rates should read $89 per night. For more info, see http://www.cajunchess.com/tourns/tournament9.shtml.

The World Open began Thursday June 28th and ran 'til Jul 4th in Philly, with the CCA as organizer - this year there are chess political messages on the same page as tournament info.  Live games could be viewed at the MonRoi site, some say, some say not.  Caption: WIM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs, who took part.

9 players were tied for first:  GMs Nakamura, Chanda, Stripunsky, Mikhalevski, Becerra, Yudasin, Akobian, Najer and Shabalov.  After a speed play-off Akobian won it.  Wow?  The Monroi site does not say so at press time and no picture is available of the winner.  Wow?

A follow Letter-to-the-Parrot from CV Columnist Ray Keene to his interview last week with Rick Kennedy, expands on the context of draws, and also Soviet 'negotiations' of such things.  GM Keene often writes in lower case, and here it is!

"the point about my commenting from the position of having been a participant in top events is perceptive - [editorial note - the parrot commented on a discussion about the worth of the weight of experience in top-flite engagements in a resulting discussion] - for example the vast majority of the games i played against hartston when we were the best uk players ended in draws. it was widely assumed we agreed beforehand. however i think i can say with absolute certainly that not a single game was pre-arranged though some ended as seemingly contentless draws. in fact draws were offered and refused-to be later accepted-in some of our most apparently bloodless encounters. i won three over a 25 year period while hartston won 2 , and the rest -around 25-were drawn-some very quickly-but they were not prearranged in any way. the same i suspect is true of the curacao games. armed neutrality might be the best way of describing the petrosian, geller, keres games.

on the other hand i am almost certain that keres whether consciously or subconsciously-threw four games v botvinnik in the 1948 wcc match tournament, and i also believe i have seen other games thrown involving soviet players. so i certainly don't deny that soviets were capable of  this - i just happen to believe that in curacao the draws between geller, keres and petrosian were not guaranteed in advance and if fischer had been playing well their refusal to fight each other wd only have benefited him!"

ray

Official FIDE top 31 World Rankings:

And Su Polgar's scrutiny, early this week, of the top 100 players produces five Americans:

Result: The Sparkassen Chess Meeting took place 23rd June - 1st July 2007 in Dortmund. Participants: Viswanathan Anand 2786 IND, Vladimir Kramnik 2772 RUS, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2757 AZE, Peter Leko 2738 HUN, Boris Gelfand 2733 ISR, Magnus Carlsen 2693 NOR, Evgeny Alekseev 2679 RUS, Arkadij Naiditsch 2654 GER.  Official web-site.

Final standings:

1 Kramnik - 5.0
2 Alekseev - 4.0
3 Leko - 4.0
4 Anand - 4.0
5 Mamedyarov - 3.5
6 Carlsen - 3.0
7 Gelfand - 2.5
8 Naiditsch - 2.0

Result: Ivanchuk wins Pivdenny:

Final standings:

AND, as reported last week:

Results: Ivanchuk wins Aerosvit-2007.

Final standings:

More Alekhine's Parrot Archives

search tips

The
Chessville
Chess Store
 

Reference
Center

The Chessville
 Weekly
The Best Free
Chess
Newsletter
On the Planet!

Subscribe
Today -
It's Free!!

The
Chessville
Weekly
Archives

Discussion
Forum

Chess Links

Chess Rules

Visit the
Chessville
Chess Store