Chess Over The Holidays
The year, and indeed the decade, are almost over (Year In Review, Part 1), but chess players don't let the holidays stop them from enjoying their favourite game. Far from it.
Here are just some of the events from around the world taking place now or soon.
Korchnoi v Spassky Match
They may have a combined age of 150, but the two legends are still going strong and are playing an eight-game match in Elista. They have already started and the older man, Korchnoi, won the first game! The games can be followed here.
Photo from the official site
The Russian Championship "Super-Final" runs from 20-30 December at the Central Chess Club in Moscow, with top seed Peter Svidler (pictured) defending the title he won last year in a ten player round-robin tournament.
The women's championship is also taking place concurrently with the men's event and Tatiana Kosintseva is the top seed.
Try out your Russian language skills by following the games here.
The 52nd Reggio Emilia tournament takes place from 28 December until 6 January in the Italian city. This competition is also a ten player round-robin event, with top seed Zoltan Almasi from Hungary.
Facing him will be Gata Kamsky, Viktor Bologan and many others, including four local entrants headed by the Italian Champion, Fabiano Caruana (pictured).
The official site for coverage further details is here.
The European Rapid Championship (a.k.a the 9th Amplico Life tournament) takes place this weekend (19th-20th December).
Over 600 entrants are taking part in this 13-round Swiss event with a time control of 15 minutes per game, with 10 second increments.
Big-name entrants include Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov and Vugar Gashimov (pictured). The official site is here.
The traditional Hastings Congress runs from 27 December until 5 January at this historic British venue.
Nineteen year-old British Champion David Howell (pictured) is the strongest home-grown entrant in the nine-round Swiss "Masters" competition.
The official website can be found here.
So is this the season of peace and goodwill? Yes, but not on the chessboards of the world!
