World Team Championship 2011

World Chess Team Championship 2011
15-26th July at the New Century Grand Hotel Ningbo, China (update)

The Chinese Chess Association with the patronage and support of the Ningbo Municipal Government and Ningbo Sports Bureau has the honour to announce the 2011 World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo, China. The event will be held from July 15 2011 (arrival) to July 26 2011 (Departure) at the playing venue in New Century Grand Hotel Ningbo.

According to FIDE Regulations D.07.11.6.2., the following Federations are entitled to send a team:
1. China (host country)
2. Russia (winner 2009)
3. Ukraine (Olympiad 2010)
4. Israel (Olympiad 2010)
5. Hungary (Olympiad 2010)
6. Azerbaijan (Europe qualifier)
7. India (Asia qualifier)
8. USA (America's qualifier)
9. Egypt (African qualifier)
10. Armenia (FIDE President's nomination)

The championships will be played using a 9 round, round-robin system. The time control: 90' for 40 moves + 30' to the end + 30'' increment per move, staring from move 1. Zero tolerance rule will apply and draw offers can not be made for the first 30 moves.

Each match will be scored by match points as used in the FIDE Olympiad. Winner will get 2 points, a draw will give each team 1 point, and a loss is scored as 0 points.

China completed the team just few days ago: Wang Yue, Wang Hao, Li Chao b, Yu Yangyi and new national champion Ding Liren will represent the country.

Russian captain GM Evgeny Bareev will announce his team soon. The candidates are Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, 2010 European champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Nikita Vitiugov, Peter Svidler and 2011 European champion Vladimir Potkin. Vladimir Kramnik asked to be excused from the World Team Championship.

Update: Russian team selected

Update: Armenia captain Arshak Petrosian announced his team - Levon Aronian, Sergei Movsesian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian and Armenia 2011 champion Robert Hovhannisyan.

Update: Indian team announced

Update: Azerbaijan team announced

Update: Israel team announced

Update: Ukraine team announced

Wojtaszek wins Marx György by 1.5

IX. György Marx Memorial men - Final standings

1. Wojtaszek, R 8 2. Berkes, F 6½ Smirin, I 6½ 4. Salgado Lopez, I 3½ Bologan, V 3½ 6. Ács, P 2

IX. György Marx Memorial women - Final standings

1. Kashlinskaya, A 6½ 2. Mádl, I 6 Mkrtchian, L 6 4. Rudolf, A 5 5. Dudás, E 3½ 6. Sharevich, A 3

Official website: http://marxgy.ase.hu/en/index.html

Anand: ‘Chess is very South-heavy, it doesn’t play nationally’

Viswanathan Anand: ‘Chess is very South-heavy, it doesn’t play nationally’
Ashish Magotra Jun 27, 2011

Viswanathan Anand has been playing chess at the highest level for 24 years.

That’s longer than the time Sachin Tendulkar has been around in international cricket, that’s around the same time when the Simpsons made their television debut and that’s before India launched its policy of liberalisation. To cut a long story short, he’s been around for a long time and he hasn’t scraped the bottom. He’s been around at the top, competing with the best the world has to offer.

Maybe, that’s also why he’s taken for granted, in a certain sense. He’s been around for so long that he seems like a fixture. He’s the top ranked player in the World at present, and one of the only six players in history to break the 2,800 mark on the FIDE rating list — the list of achievements can go on for a long time. But put him next to Tendulkar, and we all know who is going to garner the attention.

“In India, chess is very South-heavy. Maybe, you can add West Bengal and Maharashtra to that. But it’s a very southern sport and it doesn’t play nationally. What is beginning to change is that more people are starting to take it up from various parts of the country, which is heartening. And the second thing is that because we are using the schools network, a lot of kids are able to learn it along with their studies. In fact, we also think that there is a positive co-relation between the two,” said Anand from Chennai.

In the popularity sweepstakes, Anand and chess have carved out a niche for themselves. But that’s it – there’s nothing beyond that. Despite various initiatives to try and make chess more popular, there is a feeling that it’s never quite managed to shake off the tag of being a game for the intellectuals. And perhaps that’s hurting the ‘sport’ of Kings.

“See the thing with chess is that to truly appreciate what’s happening you need to know the rules. If you don’t know the rules, you can’t see what’s happening, you can’t see the battle unfolding,” said Anand. “Unlike any other physical sport where you can see things happening and learn from them without being an expert.”

“But with the advent of the internet, you can feel the tension of the players without being at the venue. It has happened to me recently while watching games on the internet and I believe it’s so much easier to actually understand and learn from the best players in the world. It’s like a whole new world out there, just waiting to be explored.”

In a detailed interview, Anand speaks about the journey of chess and his part in it, about his greatest battles across the 64 squares and how the internet and computers might help finally break down the barrier to popularity and make the battles come alive for all those watching.

Full interview here.

Brunello wins 1st Festival Internazionale di Torre delle Stelle

M. De Rosa

Official website: http://torredellestelle.cagliariscacchi.com

In the first round, Italian women champion wfm Maria De Rosa got a draw against GM Timman

De Rosa, Mariagrazia - Timman, Jan

[B83]

(annotator M. De Rosa)

90'+30"/40+30'

Torre delle Stelle (Cagliari),

22.06.2011

1.e4 c5 2.Cf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Cxd4 Cf6 5.Cc3 d6 6.Ae2 Ae7 7.0–0 0–0 8.f4 Cc6 The modern Sicilian Scheveningen.

9.Ae3 e5 10.Cb3 exf4 11.Axf4 Ae6 12.Rh1 d5 13.e5 Cd7 14.Cxd5 Cdxe5 15.Cxe7+ Dxe7 16.De1 

The idea i sto play Dg3.

16...Ad5 17.Ab5 

Too early for 17.Dg3 owing to 17...Cg6

To evaluate 17.Df2 and then Tae1.

17...a6 18.Axc6 Cxc6 19.Dg3 De4!? 20.Cc5! Dxc2 21.Cd7 Tad8

21...Tfd8, 22.Cb6 Ta7 23.Ac7±

22.Cxf8 Rxf8 23.Tf2 De4 24.Td2! Te8 25.h3 h6

25...Axa2 26.b3 Axb3 27.Ad6+ Rg8 28.Dxb3+-

26.b3 De6 27.Ad6+ Rg8 28.Tad1 Ae4 29.Aa3 Ag6 30.Ab2 Rh7 31.Td7 De2 32.Dc3 Te5 33.Dd2 Dxd2 34.T1xd2 Tb5 35.Tc7 Cb4 36.Ad4

White owing to Zeitnot do not see 36.a4 Th5 37.Txb7 Txh3+ 38.gxh3 Ae4+ 39.Rh2 Axb7 40.Td6+-

36...Cc6 37.Ab2 Cb4 38.Ad4 Cc6 39.Ab2 ½–½

(draw)

The tournament was won by Sabino Brunello (uaoh!!) with 6 out of 7, then GM Markos 5.5, then GM Kogan and GM Timman 5.

Maria (22 years old, university student) was 7th together GM Sergio Mariotti.

2011 US Junior Chess Championship Dominated by Young

By Chess Coach William Stewart

Original article on the 2011 US Junior Chess Championships available on William's website

Gregory Young Cleans Up!

Gregory Young dominated the 2011 US Junior Chess Championship with a score of 7.5/9, overcoming a field with an average USCF rating of 2408! Young kicked off the tournament with a fine attacking win against Raven Sturt, a solid defense and counterattacking win against John Bryant, and a positional grind against Jialin Ding to begin with a perfect score at 3/3. Immense pressure against Conrad Holt in round 4 led to a tactical blunder on move 24 to move Young’s score to 4/4. The path to perfection was brought to a screeching halt in round 5, as Alec Getz achieved significant pressure in the opening which led Young to blunder from an inferior position on move 24 and resign. In round 6, Young quickly created a strong attack against Kayden Troff and broke through his opponent’s position with a series of tactical blows to win material, which Young smoothly converted to an easily winning endgame.

Young Exchanges Blows w/ Naroditsky After 29. ...Nxe1

With 5 out of 6 points, Young was leading the field however he needed to finish strong to ensure top honors. In round 7, he faced the original tournament favorite - Daniel Naroditsky - in a tactical slugfest. The game began calmly as white opened with the Maroczy Bind, however Young’s active response created wild complications. Shot after counter-shot ensued, and the position resulted in a drawish rook + opposite-colored bishop endgame with Young maintaining an extra pawn. At the time, I thought Naroditsky would hold the draw without too much difficulty - however his defense was simply not active enough and Young was able to force through towards the white king. This was Young’s best effort of the tournament, as Naroditsky forced him to accurately attack until the very end.

Young Sacs a Piece Against Harper w/ 16.fxe6!?

Young uses Fischer-Sozin variation 3 times against the Sicilian

Young was able to ensure his 1st place victory with an excellent sacrificial win over Warren Harper in round 8. For the third time in the tournament, Young successfully employed the Fischer-Sozin Variation against the Sicilian. I was surprised at his opponents’ inability to cope with this aggressive opening and prepare a legitimate response. After sacrificing a piece with 16. fxe6!? Young achieved an extremely imbalanced position with good attacking chances against the black king. Harper was unable to stand the pressure and resigned on move 36, moving Young to an unbeatable 7 out of 8 points. In the last round, Young forced a drawn position against Victor Shen in 55 moves to finish with an impressive 7.5/9 points - winning the 2011 US Junior Closed Championship in dominating fashion. Congratulations to Gregory Young on a fantastic tournament - and taking down the first place prize of $3,000 dollars!

Game .pgns are available at http://saintlouischessclub.org/2011-junior-closed-championship

By Chess Coach Will Stewart (USCF 2256, FIDE 2234)

Triumph return for Morozevich as he wins the Russian HL Championship

Final top 10 standings

1. GM Morozevich (2694) 8 points (11 games)

2-3. GMs Timofeev (2665), Galkin (2598) 7½ points

4-12. GMs Tomashevsky (2707), Sjugirov (2629), Matlakov (2632), Inarkiev (2679), Volkov (2615), Zvjaginsev (2659), Grachev (2669), Rublevsky (2682), Fedoseev (2506) 7 points

Official website: http://russiachess.org

Fier wins zonal 2.4 by a landslide

Final top 5 standings

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Fier Alexandr	BRA	2560	8.0	0.0	40.5	51.0
2	FM	Barbosa Evandro Amorim	BRA	2343	6.5	0.0	41.0	54.0
3	IM	Di Berardino Diego Rafael	BRA	2480	6.5	0.0	40.5	52.5
4	GM	Cordova Emilio	PER	2561	6.0	0.0	41.5	53.5
5	IM	Molina Roberto Junio Brito	BRA	2406	6.0	0.0	40.0	52.0
6	GM	Matsuura Everaldo	BRA	2480	6.0	0.0	39.5	49.5
7	GM	El Debs Felipe De Cresce	BRA	2497	6.0	0.0	39.0	49.5
8	IM	Toth Christian Endre	BRA	2366	6.0	0.0	37.0	48.5
9		Dias Simao Poscidonio	BRA	2029	6.0	0.0	31.0	40.0

Full results here: http://chess-results.com/tnr51710.aspx

Attacking chess tactic

White to move. How should white proceed?

1r3k2/4nrb1/1qNpQ3/3P1p2/p3b3/P1p4R/1P3P2/K6R w - - 0 1

Wojtaszek wins Marx György Memorial with 1 round to go

Round 9 results

Smirin, Ilia	- Salgado Lopez, Ivan	1/2
Bologan, Viktor	- Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	0-1
Ács, Péter	- Berkes, Ferenc	1/2

Standings after 9 rounds

1.	Wojtaszek, R	7½
2.	Berkes, F	6
	Smirin, I	6
4.	Bologan, V	3
5.	Salgado Lopez, I	2½
6.	Ács, P	2

Official website: http://marxgy.ase.hu/en/index.html

Women's standings

IX. György Marx Memorial women

1.	Mádl, I	5½
	Kashlinskaya, A	5½
3.	Mkrtchian, L	5
4.	Rudolf, A	4½
5.	Dudás, E	3½
6.	Sharevich, A	3

Commonwealth and South African Open round 3 video

Commonwealth and South African Open Chess Championships
Round 3 video by Vijay Kumar

The third round video contains Exclusive Interviews with top seed GM Nigel Short, 2nd seed GM Abhijeet Gupta, 3rd seed GM Jones Gawain and International Masters D Harika, Prathmesh Mokal, Tania Sachdev and Sahaj Grover.

International Open Torredembarra

International Open Torredembarra

Sunday, 26 June 2011 18:16

The 13th International Open Torredembarra will be held from 2nd to 10th July, 2010, in Torredembarra (Catalonia), Spain. Club d'Escacs Torredembarra is managing the 9-round Swiss tournament. Top seeded among 89 pre-registered players is the last year winner GM Viktor Moskalenko, author of the much praised books "Revolutionize Your Chess" and "The Wonderful Winawer". Tournament website

International Championship of Slovakia

International Championship of Slovakia 
Sunday, 26 June 2011 23:48

The International Championship of Slovakia will be played from 9th to 17th July 2011 in Banská Štiavnica for the second year in succession. The Championship is managed by SSZ, Town and SK Banska Stiavnica, and will be played as Open A and Open B.

In addition, Štiavnica Bughouse Championship is set for 13th July and Štiavnica Blitz Championship set for 14th July.

Chess legends GM Lajos Portisch and GM Lubomír Kaválek will play a blindfold game and host simultaneous exhibition on 16th July. Lajos Portisch is also an great singer and he will perform on Sunday during the tournament’s closing ceremony. Portisch's performance will also have Valer Hegedüs playing the piano.

Currently 96 players are signed to play in the Open A tournament. Top rated are GM Gleizerov Evgeny RUS 2600, GM Ftacnik Lubomir SVK 2559, GM Gonda Laszlo HUN 2541, GM Medvegy Zoltan HUN 2536, IM Danin Alexandre RUS 2534, GM Michalik Peter SVK 2507, GM Timoscenko Gennadij SVK 2502, GM Boros Denes HUN 2497, GM Petrik Tomas SVK 2495 and GM Likavsky Tomas SVK 2484.

Open B currently has 74 signups. More information on the official website.

Commonwealth and South African Open Chess Championships

Commonwealth and South African Open Chess Championships
Information and videos by Vijay Kumar

Chess South Africa on behalf of FIDE and the Commonwealth Chess Association organizes the 2011 Commonwealth & South African Open Chess Championships. The Championships run from Saturday 25th June 2011 until Sunday 3rd July 2011.

The playing venue is at the Emperors Palace Hotel Casino & Convention Resort in the City of Ekurhuleni in Gauteng, South Africa. Guaranteed total prize fund is R205 000 = aprox 20.000 EUR.

The Championships include the following three individual events:
- The 2011 Commonwealth & South African Open Chess Championships (Main event)
- The 2011 Commonwealth & South African Open B - section
- The 2011 South African Open Blitz Chess Championships

The South African Open Blitz Championship 2011 was played on 25th June and England's GM Gawain Jones convincingly won the title with a crushing 9/9 score. Second is Indian hope IM Grover Sahaj with 8.0 points.

The Open events continue with massive participation of 388 players in the Main Event and 324 in the B Section. Full player lists are bellow. Enjoy the videos from the opening ceremony and first two rounds.

More information on the official website

Commonwealth & South African Open Chess Championships (top 10 seeds):

1 GM Short Nigel D ENG 2682
2 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2604
3 GM Jones Gawain CB ENG 2596
4 GM Lafuente Pablo ARG 2555
5 GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2526
6 GM Smerdon David AUS 2520
7 IM Harika Dronovali IND 2520
8 IM Huschenbeth Niclas GER 2502
9 IM Grover Sahaj IND 2485
10 GM Laxman Rajaram IND 2446

Calendar of Events - July and August 2011

It has been quiet in KL (and DATCC) since the last Warrior event being held at the end of May. Between then and now, there were two International events held in Indonesia i.e. the ASIAN Cities and the ASEAN Age Group, the MSSM event in Penang, and other weekend events that were held out of KL i.e. Setia Chess Club Grand Prix Series in Kuantan and the KLK Perak Grand Prix in Kampar. There were smaller invitational FIDE Rated events held such as the EXCEL Event organized by Jax Tham and the Nf6 Masters event held at DATCC. But of course, the only ongoing event that still goes strong is the monthly InSoFar weekend events namely the Elite Open series, Junior series and Scholarship series that continues to strive despite the silence.

From here on, the chess community can start to look forward to the coming of two back-to-back major events in KL starting with the Malaysia Chess Festival in August and the KLCA Open in September. There is also a rumor that another major international event is being planned immediately after the KLCA Open but this can only be confirmed once the sponsors have agreed to put up the budget for the event. And with just over 6 more weeks to go before the Malaysia Chess Festival clocks off, a few events are in store for those who would like warm up as preparation for these 2 (or 3...) major events.

One of the more anticipated event is the SMK Hillcrest Chess event scheduled for 10th July - an event that was advertised since April 2011. With a lot of goodies and prizes to be given away, the organizer is expecting more than 500 players to participate in its inaugural event. Another event will take place in Perak on the same day which is the KLK Perak Grand Prix to be held in Ipoh, going into its second year after a successful series last year.

Setia Chess Club in Kuantan is also organizing its SCC Grand Prix D series event where the winners will have a chance to be invited to the Grand Final to be held in December.

Currently, UPM is hosting the MASUM Chess Championship to crown the best University Chess Team in the country and the next major chess activity will be the FIDE Arbiter's Seminar to be held in Kuala Lumpur from 30th June to 4th July.

The following is a calendar of chess events for July and August. These have been compiled from various sources as such, please contact the organizer/association for events confirmation or registration. If you would like to add your event to the calendar, or correct some of the information contained within the list, please contact Najib Wahab at najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com

Please click image for a clearer view.

Malaysian Chess Festival!!!

The organisers and DATCC has a proper announcement and update on the upcoming Malaysian Chess Festival 2011 this August 2011 at CitiTel MidValley, Kuala Lumpur.

The Malaysia Chess Festival is ON!

After much speculation, the 8th edition of the Malaysia Chess Festival is back on the calendar. Albeit missing the generous sponsorship from Dato Tan Chin Nam, the traditional sponsors such as ASTRO, CitiTel and IGN including last year's first time sponsor Swensen and KLK Berhad have come to the fore to make the annual event a reality. According to organizer Hamid Majid, it is important to have the momentum going to make sure that the event stays in the calendar. The Malaysia Chess Festival is a unique chess event that offers a variety of event format ranging from classical time control to rapid and blitz events, and for various playing level and ages from the young and the young at heart.

This year's event will feature the usual anchor event, the Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open with the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng International Seniors Open as the side event for the senior players and the Malaysia Open Chess Challenge for the amateurs. These are FIDE rated events with 90 minutes playing time plus 30 seconds increment per move played over 9 rounds. With more than RM70,000 in total prize money for these three events, it remains as the most lucrative event for the local chess calendar. These events are scheduled to start on 17th August with players registration and Round 1 to start on 18th August. The final Round 9 is scheduled on 25th August followed by the closing ceremony and the Malaysia Open Blitz event. There will be 2 rest days in between the scheduled 9 rounds - after Round 5 on Sunday, 21st August and before Round 9 on Wednesday, 24th August.

During the first rest day on Sunday, the organizer will be holding the Age Group Chess Championship and for the second rest day on Wednesday, exhibition and simul matches will be conducted by various grandmasters against our aspiring juniors. Both events are open to junior players of all ages and playing strength.

This year's event exhibit a slight change from the norm with the classical event being conducted prior to the rapid whereas in the previous editions, the organizers would run the rapid events first including the team event before settling on the more serious tournaments. The individual rapid and team events are conducted after the major events to take advantage of the school break which starts on the 25th and 26th of August thereby allowing some time for outstation team to take part before their Hari Raya going home exodus. After all, with most holiday goers filling up the major highways over the weekend, it is only sensible to take part in this year’s festival and delay the travelling dates to a more less stressful journey - on Sunday after the event concludes.

The individual rapid event shall be conducted on the 26th August over 7 rounds starting at 8:00am with registration and Round 1 to start at 9:00am. A total prize fund of RM2,500 has been set aside for the event with the eventual winner to bag RM700 for his/her effort. The traditional ASTRO Merdeka Team event will start the following day to be played over 9 rounds with Round 1 to Round 6 to scheduled on Saturday and the remaining 3 rounds on Sunday. The event is scheduled to complete by 2:00pm to allow players to return home and reach their destination just before break fasting time with a one day rest on Monday before the Hari Raya celebration on Tuesday.

Those interested to find out more about the event can contact Hamid Majid at +60193158098 or email aham@pc.jaring.my.

Otherwise, click on the following link to download the registration forms for the various event held during the Chess Festival.

1. 8th Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open Chess Championship
2. Malaysia Open Chess Challenge
3. Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng International Seniors Open Chess Championship
4. ASTRO Merdeka Rapid Team Open Championship
5. Merdeka Rapid Individual Open Championship
6. SWENSEN'S Open Rapid Age Group Championship

(source: DATCC’s blog@ Najib Wahab)