Anand Leko Rapid at Miskolc from 2nd June

Ganguly Shines At Asian Continental Chess

Asian Continental Chess Championships  top 10 players of the event qualified  for the World Chess Cup to be held in  Khanty Mansiysk 2009.  The qualified players for the World Cup 2009 are:

Shirov Wins M-tel Masters Trophy

In the final round the sole leader Carlsen suffered his first loss at the hands of Shirov who thus remained undefeated and took the coveted M-t

Carlsen Takes Sole Lead at M-Tel Masters

Round 9 results:

Carlsen beat Wang Yue 1-0

Topalov beat Ivanchuk 1-0

Dominguez drew with Shirov ½–½

Standings before the final round:

1. Carlsen : 6

2-3. Topalov and Shirov : 5½

4-5. Dominguez and Wang Yue : 4

6. Ivanchuk: 2

XXII Magistral Ciudad de Leon to go Live on TV

XXII Magistral Ciudad de Leon to go Live on TV             

by Leontxo Garcia

The elegant Auditorium of Leon has been carefully inspected by the Castilla y Leon TV technicians in order to determine the best location for cameras, microphones and control desk. They are not preparing a classical concert broadcast, but live programmes during the XXII Ciudad de Leon chess tournament (June 5-7th). Since the Kasparov-Karpov World Championship, Seville 1987, nobody in Spain has bet so much to promote chess on TV. The rapid play and the tension gestures of Carlsen, Morozevich, Wang Yue and Ivanchuk will be caught instantly.

"The last game of every semi-final (Friday and Saturday) and the final (Sunday) will be broadcasted live. Besides that, the Castilla y Leon TV will produce daily special programmes, with interviews and features. There is also a clear interest from the TVE (Spanish main public channel), for putting  out spl programmes.

Ganguly & Sandipan lead Asia Continental

On boards 3 and 4, two Filipinos, GM Antonio Rogelio Jr. and GM Wesley So, could not achieve more than draws against very determinated opposition. On board 5, Yifan Hou attacked sharply, but then suddenly switched gear and brought Toufighi Homayoon into a nice endgame zugzwang. Top ten finishers will qualify for the World Chess Cup 2009, which is taking place in Khanty Mansiysk from 20th November to 15th December

SASIKIRAN TOP SEED AT ASIAN CONTINENTS CHESS

India’s 2^nd Best Player GM Krishnan Sasikiran with 2682 ELO points is the TOP SEED. Besides Sasi, Parimarjan Negi, Abhijeet Gupta, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte, Neelotpal Das and Aswin Jayaram will represent India in the Men’s section.

India’s World Jr Womens Champion D Harika has been seeded number 2, right behind the former world women champion GM Zhu Chen. Besides Harika  Tania Sachdev, Swati Ghate, Nisha Mohta and S Meenaksh forms the Indian Team

FIDE World Team beat Azerbaijan in Presidents Cup

Kramnik makes a Hat Trick of Wins

On the 2^nd table Vladimir Kramnik , however defeated  Gadir Guesinov  while the other two games between Gashimov –Karjakin and Shirov – Radjabov ended in draws.

In the Fourth and fifth  rounds  Anand    had no alternative but to accept draws  taking his score to  3 points from 5 games. In contrast His Bonn WCC match Rival Vladimir Kramnik won both his games and made a hat trick of wins taking his individual score to 4 points. FIDE World Teams Sergay Karjakin won  both his game and gave the World tean two solid points. Shirov drew both his games.

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Anand receives Chess Oscar for the 6th time

The first round saw a well-prepared Shakhriyar Mamedyarov take a point from Alexei Shirov, who defeated Gadir Guseinov in round two. Anand defeated Vugar Gashimov to put the FIDE World team in the lead by 4.5:3.5 points. Before the games started the World Champion received his sixth Chess Oscar from the FIDE President.
Anand spoke to Vijay Kumar After the Ceremony

Presidents Cup 2009, Baku

"At Chess Classic I keep my fingers Crossed"

In October Vishy Anand successfully defended his title of World Champion. This was followed by a prolonged break from tournaments. In an interview with Harry Schaack the World Champion reviews the events of the last half year – and looks ahead to the GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship. At the beginning of August he will defend his title of World Rapid Champion – in Mainz and for the eleventh time.

Anand to get Chess Oscar In Baku

The offcial awarding of Viswanathan Anand with the Chess Oscar will take place in the beginning of May in Baku, informs azerisport.com cited by e3e5.com

Anand will be presented with the Chess Oscar at the opening ceremony of the chess match Azerbaijan vs The World. Besides the players (Anand, Kramnik, Karjakin, and Shirov for the World and Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Gashimov, Guseinov, and Mamedov for Azerbaijan), at the ceremony will be the FIDE President Kirsan Ilymzhinov and Boris Spassky.

The popular edition of «64-Chess Review» conducts an annual poll to choose the strongest Grandmaster. At the end of last season the award was won by the Indian player, who was able to defend his champion title in a match against Vladimir Kramnik held in October in Bonn. Later on Anand received most votes in the poll and won the award.

Anand to play in Presidents Cup at Baku

The central event during the President Cup, scheduled to take place on 7-9 May in Baku, will be a chess match between Azerbaijan and the World.

The World will be represented by some of the strongest players of the present day - current world champion Viswanathan Anand (India), former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), winner of the tournament in Wijk aan Zee Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine) and Alexei Shirov (Spain).

The match will be played in Sheveningen format, where each member of one team meets all players from the opposing camp. The time control is 25 minutes per player.

Anand slips to 2nd Spot,Topalov is World No 1

The top 100 FIDE rating April list is out. Veselin Topalov retains the top spot after his strong performance in the Nanjing tournament and the Chess Challenger match against Gata Kamsky. The World Champion Vishy Anand is second with 2783, while Carlsen is third with 2770.  The difference between the 4th Vladimir Kramnik and the 20th Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is only 34 points, leaving the battle for the top positions wide open.

Pental Harikrishna [2686]went ahead of Sasikiran[2682] by 4 Elo points.

The upcoming GM Welsey So  entered  the top 100 at position 89 with 2641 points.

Anand on his life between BONN & LINARES

Anand Joint 3rd at Ambar after R 10

Anand was unlucky to loose to Morozevich in the 10^th round and slipped to joint 3^rd spot with Carlsen with both on 12 points, half a point behind Kramnik who is on 12.5. Levon Aronian  however is leading the championship with a clear half a point difference against his nearest rival Vladimir Kramnik  on 13 points.

Round 10 was  a most unusual round – all games were decisive and Black won the round 4-2. White made serious mistakes and outright blunders in all games where White lost.

Anand beat Kramnik, Takes sole lead at Amber

World Chess Cup 2009 in Khanty Mansiysk

The 2009 World Chess Cup, an integral part of the World Championship Cycle 2009-2011, will take place in Khanty Mansiysk from 20th November to 15th December. The tournament once again is a knock out event with 128 players. There shall be six (6) rounds of matches comprising two (2) games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round, plus the final seventh (7th) round comprising of four (4) games. The time control shall be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one.

Anand Kramnik Joint Leaders at Amber

On the seventh playing day Kramnik defeated Aronian with a score of 1½-½. Anand scored 1½ against Karjakin, while Carlsen twice won against Wang Yue. Now Anand and Kramnik are sharing first place while Aronian and Carlsen are half a point behind.

In the 8th Round Anand will face Vladimir Kramnik