IM Alexander Ipatov wins Sofia blitz

Alexander Ipaov, the young talented International Master  convincingly won the Sofia Blitz open tournament which concluded on 29th April here in Sofia. After gaining first position in the Swiss system qualifications on Wednesday,  he managed to finish a full 1,5 points ahead of his competitors in the 17 rounds final.

Anand leads by one point after 4th Game

Topalov held by Anand in the WCC 2010 3rd Game

This time, no face to face or psychological duel looked early in the game.The players seem to have found their attitude and the game really started. 
The third game was also much quieter than the previous two.   After a catastrophic Grunfeld on the first day, Anand decided to radically change the type of position by choosing the Slav  strong defense.   The Queens leave the scene fairly quickly, slowly exchange the minor pieces and also the position flattens.  If Topalov had a symbolic advantage thanks to the relative weakness of the pawn "a6", this was not sufficient to destabilize the peaceful Anand. The Indian player controled the position with ease and a draw iwas  finally signed in 46 moves. 

CLICK ON THE LATEST VIDEO for a REPORT from Sofia

Anand Wins 2nd Round Game Equalises with Topalov

Catalan defense! Brave choice by both players. White's idea in such position is to get an initiative for the pawn.They have to pressure on queen's side of Black and they have to do that Black doesn't develop their queen's side. The pressure of White's Bishop g2 is very strong on pawn b7 and Black cannot develop.

 

Anand sacrificed a pawn for a better business documents.  The finish was superior, especially after the gain of the Pawn "b6".Anand took his time and position his pieces on white squares to avoid any sacrifice or discovery of Pawn "e3". Topalov, usually leaning forward on the chessboard, is back in his seat ...
.

Despite getting  a better position in the opening with Black piecesTopalov made a wrong move 25...Ne3. Anand jumped on the opportunity and by piling up pressure managed to turn around the game. With this victory the World Champion equalizes the score, before the first rest day it is 1-1.

ANAND BLUNDERS AND LOST THE OPENING GAME AT WCC2010

It was the  most decisive opening games in World Championship history. Veselin Topalov rattled off his moves quickly and comfortably, with Anand following suit, until he apparently ran into his challenger's home preparation (or muddled up his own). On move 23 he blundered in a very dangerous position, and Topalov drove his advantage forcefully home

Click on the LATEST VIDEO for a REPORT from SOFIA by GM Robert Fontaine and Gerard Demuydt

8th DELHI OPEN 2010 HIGHLIGHTS ON DD SPORTS CHANNEL

DD Sports Channel will telecast  4 Exclusive  Highlights of the DELHI Open International Chess Championships 2010 produced by Vijay Kumar as under:

Episode 1  on  26th April 2010 from 10.30 p.m. to 11 p.m.   [ 1800 hrs GMT ]
Episode 2  on  27th April 2010 from 10.30 p.m. to 11 p.m
Episode 3  on  28th April 2010 from 10.30 p.m. to 11 p.m                                         Episode 4 on   29h April 2010 from 10.30 p.m. to 11 p.m

The telecasts, besides India, will also be available in Middle East, South East Asia, and Part of Europe thru free to air satellite Pas 10

VISHY ANAND : KING OF KINGS

Here is a short biographical film on the great achievments of the World Chess Champion Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand who created history by winning World Chess Champions title in all the three formats of the Game, Knock out, Round Robin and Match Play. Produced by renowned Television Producer Vijay Kumar, a great friend of Chess, who has been following Anand for over two decades,the programme was telecast on India's National Television Network DOORDARSHAN. Here is   a shorter version of the Original Film Titled "Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, King of Kings

CLICK ON THE THE LATEST VIDEO for the SHORT FILM

OR  CLICK ON THIS VIDEO LINK:http://blip.tv/file/3522294

FIDE World Chess Championship 2010 Opening Ceremony

Veselin Topalov will have White pieces in the first game

The opening ceremony of the 2010 FIDE World Chess Championship

match to be played between India's Reigning World Chess Champion Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand and Bulgarian Grandmaster Veselin Topalov concluded in Sofia yesterday. There were more than 20 TV cameras and about 100 journalists attending. Speeches were given by Bulgaria Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, Indian Ambassador and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Veselin Topalov got white color in the draw of lots and will therefore play with white pieces in the first game of the 12 games encounter.

CLICK ON THE LATEST VIDEO FOR OPENING CEREMONY'S VIDEO REPORT IN  EUROPE-ECHECS   BY ROBERT FONTAINE & GERARD DEMUYDT  STRAIGHT FROM SOFIA

Anand's ardous journey of 2000 KM to reach Sofia

Five countries, 2000 kilometres, about a million potholes, an unexpected ferry and the „Lord of the Rings“ trilogy. A report of a crazy roadtrip through Europe.

Months of careful planning for the chess world championship in Sofia by the Anand team were disrupted by a volcano in Iceland, located under Eyjafjallajökull, one of the smaller glaciers of the North Atlantic island. Tens of thousands of people were stranded on airports in Europe. One of them was Viswanathan Anand, who had travelled with his wife and manager Aruna from Madrid to Frankfurt on Thursday April 15th. They planned to continue their journey to Sofia on Friday April 16, together with three other travellers. Two more seconds were to fly from other airports in Europe to the Bulgarian capital on Friday to join the team there.

On Thursday April 15, Hans-Walter Schmitt and another helper of the Anand team flew to Sofia to prepare the arrival of the team Friday. The plan was good and well thought through. But then, on Friday, the bad news was that the ash cloud from Iceland had reached Frankfurt Airport and the airport had to be closed at 09.00 a.m. This meant that the planned flight to Sofia, LH3484, which was scheduled to depart at 10.05 a.m., was cancelled, just like hundreds of other flights. It was quite unclear how long the airport would remain closed, therefore Aruna Anand and the team decided to rebook for the evening flight, LH3488, which was scheduled for 19.45 p.m.

Anand’s baggage was checked through to Sofia. Since it was not clear, however, if the evening flight would depart on time, or depart at all, Aruna thought that it wise to collect the checked-through baggage from Madrid, just to have everything under control in case of another cancellation. She was in close contact with Lufthansa, who were very cooperative, and picked up the baggage herself on Friday afternoon. You should know that finding four pieces of luggage in a major airport like Frankfurt is not an easy task, especially when there are heavy disruptions. Only in case of an emergency, e.g. if somebody has life-saving medicine in his suitcase, an airline is willing to make baggage available for the passenger.

After solving this problem, it soon became clear that the evening flight to Sofia would not depart as well, since Frankfurt airport would be closed until Saturday morning at 02:00 a.m. Once again the tickets were rebooked, and despite a long waiting list, Anand and his team were accepted and even got boarding passes for the first flight on Saturday, April 17, LH3484, at 10.05 a.m. However, on Friday, when it became clear that the situation at all major airport was becoming more and more critical, Aruna Anand and her team had already started searching for alternatives. Plans were made to travel to Vienna, which had one of the airports that was still open at that time, to get a flight from there. However, Vienna also closed down on Friday evening.

Anand Topalov WCC Match to begin on 24th April at Sofia

The World Chess Federation distributed a message that the WCC 2010 match between

WCC match Anand vs Topalov may be delayed

Meanwhile, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) has also written a letter to the FIDE to move the championship by three days. “We hope they will oblige,” AICF secretary DV Sundar told DNA. The FIDE offices were closed on Sunday and a formal response from them is expected on Monday.

ANAND amongst TEN GREATEST INDIAN SPORTS PERSON of all time

All Sports Magazine for its third anniversary special issue of April 2010 has chosen the theme of selecting the ten greatest Indian sporting achievement of all time with Abhinav Bindra's individual gold medal winning feat in shooting being right at the top. The magazine has also nominated

YIFAN WINS K L OPEN 2010

GM Hou Yifan, the wonder-girl from China, was crowned as the champion of the 3^rd KL Open Chess Tournament 2010 which concluded here today at Hotel Olympic Sports, KL. Yifan, who started the last round with a full point lead over rest of the field, needed just a draw in the last round, which she did with ease against GM Megaranto Susanto of Indonesia. Yifan became richer with the 1^st prize of RM 10000 and the glittering DYTM Raja Nazrin Shah Trophy.

GM Nguyen Anh Dung & top seeded player of the tournament, GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil won their crucial last round encounter against GM Iuldashev Saidali & GM Murshed Niaz  respectively to secure 2^nd and 3^rd place respectively with a score of 7/9.

A group of 6-players; GM Megaranto Susanto, GM Thomas Luther, IM Swapnil Dhopade, GM Dzhumaev Marat, IM Khamrakulov Dzhurabek and IM Ashwin Jayaram tied for 4-9 places with a score of 6½/9

CLICK ON THE  VIDEO LINK  FOR VIDEO REPORT: http://blip.tv/file/3473662

Chinese GM Hou Yifan set to win K L Open 2010

CHINESE WONDER GIRL GM HOU YIFAN ALL SET TIO WIN KL OPEN 201

The wonder-girl from China, GM Hou Yifan, who was the sole leader at the end of round seven, now has pulled away from rest of the field with a 1-point margin in the eight and penultimate round with a splendid win against GM Dzhumaev Marat and, barring some major mishap, is all set to win the 3^rd KL Open Chess Tournament 2010 and pocket the 1^st prize of RM 10000 and the glittering DYTM Raja Nazrin Shah Trophy.

Trailing Yifan is a group of six players with a score of 6/8; top seed GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil, GM Megaranto Susanto, GM Nguyen Anh Dung, GM Iuldashev Saidali, GM Irwanto Saidikin and Murshed Niaz. A further group of 14-players are jointly on the 3^rd place with a score of 5½/8.

CLICK ON THE LATEST VIDEO for KL OPEN Video Report/Interviews

Five Share Lead at K L OPEN after Round 6

The overnight leaders GM Hou Yifan and GM Dung were joined by 3-more players; GM Thomas Luther, GM D Marat and IM Oliver Dimakiling at the end of the 6^th round of the 3^rd Malaysian Open Chess Tournament 2010 in progress here at Hotel Olympic Sports. All these players are now are on 5/6. With three rounds remaining, a close finish is on the cards in this 30000 RM prize money tournament.

The top table clash between the 1^st seeded GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil & Hou Yifan was drawn after 32 moves and the same result was seen in the game between GM Ziaur Rahman and GM Dung. However; on the 3^rd board GM Thomas Luther from Germany nursed hard a small advantage in his game against IM Ashwin Jayaram of India to score a full point. Meanwhile IM Oliver Dimakiling from Philippines produced the upset result on the top boards by defeating GM Cao Sang from HungaryFive

CLICK ON THE THE  LATEST VIDEO for K L OPEN REPORT WITH INTERVIEWS

GM Yifan Hou and GM Nguyen Anh Dung maintain the lead

Second seed GM Yifan Hou from China was finally held to a first draw in round five, by GM Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam, who until then also completed perfect score from four games . GM Thomas Luther quickly recovered from the yesterday's defeat and bounced back with a victory against IM Purnama Tirta Chandra. Top rated GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili is back in the race after a somewhat slow start and is already challenging Yifan on the top board in the next, 6th round.

In the other games, FM Yee Soon Wei of Brunei earned a valuable victory from Indian IM Saptarshi Roy. 

Click on Latest Video for video report  by Vijay Kumar..

Dung Stuns Thomas Luther, Joins Yifan in Lead : KL OPEN

Grandmaster Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam produced the most notable result in round four of 3^rd K L Open Chess Tournament 2010 by wining against 3^rd seeded German, GM Thomas Luther. He now joins the 2^nd seeded Hou Yifan in lead with a score of 4/4.

On the top board GM Hou Yifan, playing against the 5^th seeded Hungarian player, GM Cao San, was able to breakthrough the French defence of her opponent to score a full point in just 32-moves.

On the 3^rd board, IM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh & IM Swapnil Dhopade of Indian decided to play it safe and signed a peace treaty. While on the 4^th board GM Megaranto Susanto stopped the dream run of FM Sayantan Das. Similarly the top seeded Georgian; GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil also stopped the impressive performance of Malaysian player Lim Chiung Hoong Roonie, who has so far played all the titled players.

WATCH THE VIDEO REPORT CLICK on http://blip.tv/file/3460643

KL Open 2010 ; Hou Yifan shares LEAD WITH 6 OTHERS

A minor upset was also witnessed on the top board as GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil could not break through the solid defense of IM Nguyen Van Huy from Vietnam and had to be content with a draw after a long struggle of 80-moves.

Grandmaster Dzhumaev Marat Shocked at KL OPEN

WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram from Vietnam created the biggest upset of round two of the 3^rd Malaysian International Open Chess Tournament 2010 in progress here at Olympic Sports Hotel by defeating the 7^th seeded Uzbek Grandmaster Dzhumaev Marat. In a Dutch Opening Game, Hoang, playing white, displayed great preparation in this line to gain an advantage from the start. The season Marat tried all his defensive resources but had to surrender the guile of Hoang in 42 moves. With this win Hoang is amongst the leaders on the top place.

Meanwhile on the top board GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil had no difficulty in thwarting off the challenge of FM Mahmud Syarif of Indonesia from the black side of the English opening in just 34 moves.

On the 2^nd table, the Chinese wonder girl, Hou Yifan was also able to score a full point against Khairul Anam of Indonesia however; she had to face a very stiff resistance from her lowly placed opponent, who had better chances in the game. The struggle lasted for 60-moves before the experienced Yifan prevailed.

Similar setting was also witnessed on the 3^rd board as GM Thomas Luther had to bring on all his experience against WGM Nafisa Muminova of Uzbekistan to score a full point.