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Welcome to the Watchers of Elite Tournaments Group. Here we can root for our favorite players and discuss the games they are a part of. There are many tournaments in various places around the world. We all watch from many different countries at all hours of the day and night. This group is the place to tie it all together! Feel free to start a thread or post a note about a contest you have enjoyed or that you anticipate.

Vugar Gashimov has played the Modern Benoni three times thus far at Linares. He has acheived a break even score in those three games with a draw against Gelfand in round 1, a win over Vallejo in round 5 and a loss to Grischuk in round 8. Does Gashimov's use of the Benoni prove that it is a 2700+ quality opening? Or is there reason to worry about the soundness of the Benoni? I am excited by Gashimov and the Benoni. Modern Benoni games display fighting chess. It is important to note that Gashimov has only employed the Benoni after 3 Nf3, which is considered the safe form (along with 3 g3 c5). I expect that if white played 3 Nc3, Gashimov would play the Nimzo-Indian. The Modern Benoni does become extremely risky when white is allowed the Taimanov Variation.

Here is the Wikipedia page with the brackets (including first-round pairings) for the Chess World Cup 2013: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_World_Cup_2013 At the time of this posting, there are four days until the tournament begins. If you have any comments on the topic of this edition of the Chess World Cup, please leave them here. Mine is this: One reason why I'm excited to watch this one is that Hikaru Nakamura is FINALLY participating in a Chess World Cup, after skipping the last few for a number of reasons. I've always thought the rapid-tiebreak format of this tournament would favor him.

Oliver Barbosa became the third Filipino super Grandmaster after he ruled the 10th Parsvnath International Grandmasters Chess Tournament in New Delhi, India on Monday.

London is next! The field is tremendous including the world's top 4 players, and 4 Brits and Nakamura. After another tournament victory by Carlsen at the Tal Memorial, as he approaches his 21st birthday, I want to ask how big is Carlsen's potential? Can someone fill me in on where the Tal Memorial 2011 Blitz event went?

Great fighting games going on in the Women's World Championship. It looks like Humpy will have to employ a sharper opening with the Black pieces. She is playing the Petroff and there is not enought tension in the positions for Hou to feel threatened; I think Humpy is/has gotten some of her ideas playing with the Black pieces from Anand.

Round 3- Nakamura and Aronian drew a very closed, positional game which featured no captures for the first 28 moves. Big news is that Carlsen blundered a minor piece in one move to give Paco Vallejo-Pons his first win of the tournament, after losing his first two games. Anand-Ivanchuk still being contested, with the Chessdom computer giving Black, ahead by a pawn and a minor exchange (Bishop for Knight) a 2.36-point advantage.

All games in Round 1 were draws.Gata Kamsky in Game 2 defeated Veselin Topalov in an English Opening today in 31 moves. Grischuk and Aronian played to a draw today. The other two games as of this writing are still in progress.

A tough tourney so far for Magnus Carlsen .Anand and Nakamura head into today's play tied for 1st. Home Tournament Amateurs News & media History Sponsors Contact Information Live games Standings of grandmaster group A Standings after round 4 1. V. AnandH. Nakamura 3 3. L. AronianA. GiriM. Vachier-Lagrave 2½ 6. V. KramnikE. l'AmiI. NepomniachtchiR. PonomariovJ. Smeets 2 11. M. CarlsenA. Grischuk 1½ 13. W. Hao 1 14. A. Shirov ½ Sitemap Disclaimer © 2011 - Tata Steel Chess - webdesign Connections B.V.

This forum is for comments and discussion regarding the back-to-back dual event of the 2010 Tal Memorial and World Blitz Chess Championship. Let's get excited!

The Grunfeld is alive and well at the Tal Memorial. Anand played it in both of the first two rounds. From the relay I saw he only used like 20 minutes of his clock against Kramnik. That is amazing home preparation. When will we see the first decisive game?

No major sponsorship has come from India for the Anand--Topalov match. The match will be played in Bulgaria. The official website is the property of the Bulgarian Chess Federation which is an example of how the Bulgarians are pushing much harder for Topalov to take the title than the Indians are pushing for Anand. Topalov's age suggests that he is closer to his peak than Anand. Does any of this affect Anand?

Is there a Good Guy and a Bad Guy in the World Championship Match? Do Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand represent polar opposites of any aspect of decorum? What is the view of most people who are not Bulgarian and not Indian?

I just heard the bad news that the 7th World Champion Vassily Smyslov died March 26 I believe due to heart failure. He was the oldest living World Champion prior to his death.Perhaps the strongest GM during the 1950's. Soulpower 74 (Ernie)

Thus far, Topalov has won all of his white games. That bodes well in terms of match play conditions regarding his upcoming battle with Anand. How do you think Topalov's form at Linares compares to Anand's form at Corus (+2 undefeated)? Forgetting results and looking at pure chess, is Topalov or Anand looking stronger? By the way, Topalov has, for the moment, passed Carlsen in the live ratings. There are four rounds remaining in Linares but I am already looking forward to the Title Match. How about you?

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6133 The commentary submitted by Anish Giri was very short. Was his commentary appropriate for what is happening in Linares? Do we deserve more? Do you expect more from Giri?

thanks for having me. about 1900 on this site and glad to be invited to this group. I never watch enough prime chess matches because I can never find them. do you guys have a list of where each upcoming event is?

So, Corus ended today with one of the tournament favorites, Magnus Carlsen, finishing first place in group A, after drawing against GM Caruana. It was a great race to the finish from day one. Everybody was pulling for a different GM and the deeper we got into the tourney we saw some of the favorites stay short despite their best efforts. I personally enjoyed seeing the day by day on the official website and was even fortunate enough to be able to catch a few of the live game transmitions. All in all it was a great tournament with very competitive matches and a couple of upsets and surprises.

Hikaru Nakamura commenting on his game against Shirov at Corus Wijk aan Zee 2010. Nakamura had white. "I felt I had to win if I wanted to win the tournament." 1.e4 c5?! "In my must-win situation, this is somewhat of a mistake. A draw would have been great for him,so it was a bad decision not to play 1...e5." These comments did not go unnoticed by Kramnik, who got in some wry little quips when annotating his own game with Nakamura later: "I know Nakamura would play the Dutch, as I'm somehow known as a theoretician. Unfortunately I didn't have time to buy a book on the Dutch since the book stores were closed after I finished my game yesterday." "Around 3 o'clock last night I was pretty annoyed. I hadn't found anything yet, and it's not possible you can equalize with the Dutch. Finally, I had a shower, where I realized that I just shouldn't take on e4!" "I don't know where he went wrong; maybe his opening choice was wrong." Kramnik-Nakamura, round 8 analysis Then, after beating Magnus Carlsen, Kramnik continued: “At the start of the game Magnus just sat there with his eyes closed to the point where I wondered whether he’d fallen asleep and I should wake him up,” Kramnik told reporters afterwards. “But, seriously, my guess is that Gary (Kasparov) called him beforehand and told him he should try 1. e4. In the end he came up with 1. d4, which was the wrong choice, I think. He should have avoided the Catalan, a line I have a great score with, no matter whether I play white or black.” Video at Chessvibes. with thanks to Musikamole and Ziryab for pointing these comments out.

GM Josh Friedel and NM Arun Sharma will broadcast live coverage of Corus Wijk Aan Zee on Chess.com TV on Thursday 21 January at 5:30 am Pacific Time. IM Daniel Rensch will cover Corus on Chess.com TV on Friday 22 January at 6 am Pacific Time. Please note the schedule for Chess.com TV can be fickle but as of now that is what it says.