Submitted by
SonofPearl on Sun Aug 9, 2009 11:33am.
14 year-old US International Master Ray Robson (pictured) from Florida has earned his first Grandmaster norm by tying for first place in the Arctic Chess Challenge in Norway.
Congratulations to Ray - only 2 more to go for the GM title!
GM Monika... Read more »
3315 reads | 35 comments | 4 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Sun Aug 9, 2009 10:41am.
Veselin Topalov (pictured) has pulled out of the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao. The apparent reason is a financial one, although the prize fund has not yet been confirmed. It seems the harsher financial climate this year may shoulder some of the ... Read more »
1861 reads | 15 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Sun Aug 9, 2009 1:28am.
The 18 year-old David Howell (pictured) won the 2009 British Championships in Torquay with a score of 9/11.
It was a convincing victory in a tough competition, with the youngster finishing with seven wins and four draws.
A crucial draw with bla... Read more »
1284 reads | 7 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Thu Aug 6, 2009 1:57pm.
Even if you can't remember what happened in the first four Grand Prix events, and more to the point, have forgotten what the winner qualifies for*, the 5th Grand Prix is still a major chess competition, which will be eagerly followed by chess fans... Read more »
2662 reads | 15 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Wed Aug 5, 2009 12:56pm.
ABC's WIFE SWAP CASTING FOR A CHESS ENTHUSIAST AND FAMILY $20K
ABC's primetime series "Wife Swap" is currently casting its fifth season and looking for unique, outgoing families with a defined family philosophy to take part in the show. Families... Read more »
1419 reads | 15 comments | 5 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Mon Aug 3, 2009 12:13pm.
Lev Aronian (pictured) made up for the disappointment of losing to Hikaru Nakamura in the Chess 960 championship in Mainz by winning the main event - the Grenkeleasing World Rapid Chess Championship.
The big shock occurred in the qualifying round... Read more »
2674 reads | 12 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Sat Aug 1, 2009 6:17am.
Ukrainian chess has great strength in depth at the top levels of chess, with four players rated over 2700 Elo (Ponomariov, Karjakin, Eljanov and Ivanchuk), and another 12 over 2600 Elo.
However, 19 year-old Sergey Karjakin will henceforth be play... Read more »
2969 reads | 25 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:58pm.
Hikaru Nakamura (pictured) has clearly got the hang of Chess960! After a disappointing first day in the qualification round-robin, he won all three of games on the second day to book his place in the final against Aronian.
Nakamura's form conti... Read more »
2526 reads | 21 comments | 4 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Thu Jul 30, 2009 12:56pm.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (pictured) won the Biel GM Tournament with a score of 6/10, half a point ahead of Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Morozevich.
Maxime drew his last 2 games, but it proved enough to win since Chucky lost to Moro in the penulti... Read more »
1665 reads | 12 comments | 3 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:47pm.
The Chess Tigers Mainz Classic is underway with it's usual entertaining variety of events.
Lev Aronian (pictured) sparkled on the first day of the 'Chess 960 Rapid World Championship' winning all three of his fascinating games against Nakamura, M... Read more »
1375 reads | 3 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Tue Jul 28, 2009 10:20pm.
The 2009 British Chess Championships is underway in Torquay. This huge event features over 800 competitors in total, taking part in opens, junior championships (for every age from 16 down to 8!), and many other competitions, with the National Ch... Read more »
1286 reads | 5 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
IM dpruess on Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:09pm.
The Mainz Chess Classic has a variety of fun events. It has an open action event, and an open Fischer Random action event. It also has World Championships in both action chess and Fischer Random (action), each of which features 4 players: the defe... Read more »
1501 reads | 11 comments | 3 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:26pm.
Rounds 7 and 8 at the Biel GM tournament finally saw some potentially decisive breaks from the pack in this 6-player, 10 round event.
The main beneficiary is 18 year-old Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (pictured) who comfortably outplayed Caruan... Read more »
912 reads | 5 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Mon Jul 27, 2009 11:30am.
The 24th international rapid chess tournament in Villarrobledo, Spain took place from 25-26th July, with 124 competitors slugging it out for the title won by Veselin Topalov last year.
At the end of the 9 round Swiss event, it was the German Gran... Read more »
1172 reads | 1 comment | 1 vote:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:55am.
Alexander Morozevich suffered his second consecutive loss with the black pieces in round six at the Biel GM tournament.
After obtaining a good position out of the opening, Moro was trying to press home his advantage when he erred badly with 43...... Read more »
2064 reads | 10 comments | 4 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:45am.
What happened to our regular single round victory? All games in round 5 at the Biel GM tournament were drawn, although Alekseev and Caruana battled it out in Sicilian Dragon that provided some real interest.
The expected game of the round barel... Read more »
1239 reads | 13 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:54pm.
Round 4 of the Biel GM Tournament saw the pattern of one white victory out of three games continue. This time it was the turn of young Fabiano Caruana (pictured) to earn the full point with a win over the leader, Alexander Morozevich.
As a resu... Read more »
2427 reads | 16 comments | 4 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:27pm.
The 'London Chess Classic' tournament announced recently now has a confirmed venue (see the press release below).
The line-up is:
Magnus Carlsen
NOR
2770
Vladimir Kramnik
RUS
2759
Ni Hua
CHN
2724
Michael Adams
ENG
2703
Hikaru Nakamura
... Read more »
1088 reads | 8 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:09am.
At the recent San Sebastian tournament Hikaru Nakamura won a blitz playoff against Ruslan Ponomariov to take the title. Unfortunately, due to a problem with the live game relay, there was a long delay before the moves of the second game were ava... Read more »
822 reads | 5 comments | 1 vote:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:32pm.
There seems to be a rule that Biel will have one decisive game per round, and the obliging game today featured Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured) against Fabiano Caruana.
Another apparent rule is that there are no Petroff's or Berlin's. Yay! After Mor... Read more »
1595 reads | 7 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:20pm.
Round two of the Grandmaster Tournament at the Biel Chess Festival continued the high entertainment factor of round one, with a dash of schadenfreude.
Alexander Morozevich (pictured) won again to lead on 2/2, a clear point ahead after just 2 rou... Read more »
1583 reads | 16 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:09pm.
The grandmaster group in Biel started the first round of their double round-robin event today like they meant business. The only surprise was that just one game out of the three played ended decisively.
An early exchange of queens didn't stop M... Read more »
1341 reads | 7 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Sat Jul 18, 2009 9:27am.
Is it just me, or are there more chess super-tournaments these days? With the ink barely dry on Nakamura's cheque for 9,000 euros for winning in San Sebastian, the action shifts to the Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland.
The 42nd Biel Chess Fes... Read more »
1583 reads | 5 comments | 2 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:11pm.
He needed a tie-breaker to do it, but Hikaru Nakamura (pictured) has won the San Sebastian tournament in a dramatic finish.
Ruslan Ponomariov won his last round game against Francisco Vallejo Pons to catch Nakamura on 6.5/9 and force the 2-game r... Read more »
2519 reads | 31 comments | 3 votes:
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:03pm.
With just one round to go in San Sebastian, Hikaru Nakamura (pictured) still leads on 6/8, half a point ahead of his nearest pursuer, Ruslan Ponomariov. But with nerves jangling, there is still all to play for.
In round 7, Nakamura was lucky t... Read more »
2268 reads | 20 comments | 2 votes: