The youngest granmaster in the world

The youngest grandmaster in the world is Filipino Wesley So, who last December made his final norm at the tender age of 14 years and two months. That was no fluke, as Wesley went on to win the 10th Dubai Open this April, with a 2708

Fabiano Wins Italian Championship

Fabiano Caruana is one of the world's youngest Grand Masters. He was born here in New York City and started playing chess in New York City. One of his First teachers was Gary Ryan which is a currently chess teacher for NyChess Kids. Teenage Grand Master Fabiano Caruana is Italian Champion. In the Italian Championship he played and recivied 9.5/11 points. Fabiano's 2729 performance rating in Martina Franca was not his first 2700-plus effort. He also achieved a 2715 performance rating in the strong Vlissingen, in southern Netherlands this past August. Caruana's family left the United States three years ago and last Spring moved to Budapest, Hungary, where Fabiano one his third Grand Master Norm in July.

MISKOLC 2007: THE KRAMNIK-LEKO RAPID MATCH

An eight-game match just concluded in Miskolc, Hungary between two of the World's very best chess players: World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and perennial Top-10 player Peter Leko, formerly the youngest grandmaster in history.

These two met for the biggest stakes just under three years ago, when they played in Brissag0, Italy for the Classical World Championship in 2004. Leko led the match 7-6 with one game left, but Kramnik won that final game and retained his title with a score of 7-7 because of his draw odds by virtue of being the champion.

Kramnik and Leko seem to be on friendly terms, unlike Kramnik and Topalov after their match last fall. They are also positionally-oriented players, and are not averse to making draws which has brought much criticism to them both.

This match was won by Kramnik with a score of two wins, one loss, and five draws (4.5-3.5). However, most of the draws were of the very interesting variety and were not the kind of draws these two normally are lambasted for!

Obviously, Leko is a national hero in Hungary, and this match was held in the National Theatre. Rapid chess is played at a time control of 25 minutes + 10 seconds added after every move starting from move 1. Two games were played per day, with a a press conference and a two-hour break between each game.

Last year Leko played a match here with 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov, which he won 4.5-3.5, the same score he lost to Kramnik by this year.

For complete coverage, you can visit the ChessBase website.

16th Melody Amber Blindfold/Rapid Supertournament in Monaco

With a long tradition (since 1992) of being one of the most interesting events on the top-level chess calendar, the Melody Amber tournament is underway once again. The tournament is held in Monaco, sponsored by Dutch billionaire Joop van Oosterom, and named after the patron's daughter, Melody Amber.

Oosterom is also the World Champion of postal chess; a variant of the game played by mail, where players can freely enlist the help of any human or computer program they wish.

There are two components to the tournament: Blindfold and Rapid. In the Blindfold Rounds, the GMs play on separate notebook computers that display the notation only the moves played thus far, but not the position on the chessboard (so they are not really "blindfolded"). This produces surprisingly good chess and, quite a number of humerous blunders. In the Rapid rounds, it is regular chess, played at a 25-minute time control.













The winner of the tournament is determined by the best combined (Blindfold + Rapid) score. Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand have each won the event five times.

The current leaders (with 7 out of 10) are Armenia's Levon Aronian, Ukraine's Vassily Ivanchuk, and Russia's Vladimir Kramnik (the World Champion). The local hero Loek van Wely is languishing at the bottom with 2 out of 10.

For more information, visit the ChessBase website.

8th Annual Anatoly Karpov Poikovsky Tournament

Top: Children at a Poikovsky chess club.
Bot: Some of the GMs analyzing after the game.

The 8th Annual Poikovsky Tournament, named for the 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov, is underway in Poikovsky, Russia. The red-hot Dmitry Jakovenko leads the event by a full point with 5 out of 7 with two rounds remaining.

It is not only the chess that makes this very strong tournament special: the Poikovsky region is awash in oil and can support chess; chiefly in its schools, where it is introducing the game.

The field of 10 has FIDE ratings ranging from 2619 to 2691, very evenly matched! The players are chosen not only for their over-the-board prowess, but also for their character, as the players are expected to give simultaneous exhibitions (one Grandmaster plays many amateurs at the same time), lectures, and chess lessons to the locals, usually children.

Anatoly Karpov and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will attend the closing ceremony.

For more information, check out the ChessBase website.

A real chess boxer

Vladimir Klitschko is a Ukrainian IBF heavyweight world boxing champion with a PhD in sports science and an avid interest in chess. Last Saturday he defeated his American boxing challenger Ray Austin with a flury of punches in the second round of their fight.
Dr. Vladimir Vladimirowitsch Klitschko, who turns 31 in a two weeks, was born in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan
In April 2006 Klitschko captured IBF and the IBO world heavyweight championships. He went on to become – the "man to beat" in the heavyweight division. His camp hopes for a unification fight against WBC champion Nikolai Valuev,
Mr Klitschko, lives in Beverly Hills, California, where he trains with his older brother, former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. Both Klitschko brothers are avid chess players and have visited the ChessBase office in Hamburg

2007 MOSCOW OPEN: 10-YEAR OLD NYZHNYK WINS GROUP B WITH 8.5/9!

Yet another prodigy has announced his arrival on the world chess scene: 10-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk of Ukraine won the strong Group B tournament with a stunning 8.5 out of 9! He currently has a FIDE rating of 2217 (which in itself is very impressive for a 10-year-old!), and his performance rating was 2633! He will gain a boatload of rating points and will likely achieve the FIDE Master title (2300 rating required). In the past couple of decades Ukraine has produced amazingly strong players, and it appears that Nyzhnyk is just the next in line. He also comes to each game armed with...a teddy bear!

The very strong Group A tournament was won by GMs Evgeny Najer and Vitaly Yemelin with 7.5 out of 9.

For the full article, please visit ChessBase.

CARLSEN WINS BLINDFOLD RAPID EVENT

16-year old GM Magnus Carlsen (2690), GM Peter Heine Nielsen (2651), GM Emanuel Berg (2586), and renowned author IM Stefen Pedersen (2439) participated in a round robin blindfold rapid tournament.

In this event, each player faced the other three players twice, once with each color, and the time limit was 25 minutes with 20 seconds added after every move starting at move 1.

Carlsen and Pedersen finished with 4 out of 6 and played a two-game match (again, blindfold+rapid) to see who the winner would be. Carlsen swept the veteran GM 2-0.

The site was the Danish island of Funen.

For more information about this event, visit www.chessbase.com.

AKOPIAN WINS STRONG GIBTELECOM OPEN IN GIBRALTAR

(Photo: The winner GM Akopian is on the left, defeating GM Yuri Kuzubov in the decisive Round 9 Game)

From January 23 to February 1, the very strong GibTelecom Chess Festival was held in Gibraltar, the biggest event being the 9-round GibTelecom Open. This even featured dozens of GMs, IMs and other titled players.

In the end, the event was won clear by GM Vladimir Akopian who, in 1999 was the runner-up for the FIDE World Championship (he lost the final match by one point to Alexander Khalifman). Sporting a 2700 FIDE rating making him the second seed (English superstar Michael Adams was #1 at 2735), he finished with 7.5 points out of 9. His tournament got off to an inauspicious start by losing in Round 1 to American IM Irina Krush, who missed her second GM norm by half a point with a loss in the final round.

Tying for second place were the former Ukrainian Champion Alexander Areschenko, Israeli star Emil Sutovsky, and former U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura, all with 7 points out of 9. Nakamura's return to chess after a brief break has been very successful, with crushing victories at American tournaments and now showing his stuff (again!) against many of the world's best.

The next major tournament is the Aeroflot Open in Moscow, which brings in over 80 GMs every year to compete for $200,000 in prizes!

ARONIAN, TOPALOV, AND RADJABOV SHARE FIRST IN CORUS 2007

The 2007 Corus Chess Tournament held in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands concluded on Sunday, with the leaders Topalov and Radjabov making a draw, while Armenian star Levon Aronian knocked out Sergei Tiviakov who, way back in 1993, won the PCA World Championship Qualifier Tournament ahead of about 80 Grandmasters. Aronian was recently ranked #3 in the world, and is considered a strong possibility to become World Champion in the future. The trio finished with 8.5/13, half a point ahead of Vladimir Kramnik.

This year's edition of Corus was perhaps not quite the strongest as has been in years' past, but still one of the premier tournaments, indeed will be one of the tournaments in the new "Grand Slam of Chess." (The other tournaments will include Morelia/Linares, the MTel Masters, and one additional event to be selected every year. It is strange that the Dortmund tournament is not the fourth tournament).

Many interesting games were played, and this year, for the first time we believe, press conferences and post-game analysis sessions by the players in English were recorded and can be replayed on the web! This brought the coverage of the event to a new level.

To see more about the Corus Tournament, visit the Corus Tournament website.

For other reports about the event, check out the ChessBase website.

TOPALOV WILL MAINTAIN LEAD AFTER 11 ROUNDS

With games still in progress, one result is in that will ensure that Veselin Topalov maintains at least a half-point lead in the Corus A tournament at Wijk aan Zee: Teimour Radjabov drew World Champion Vladimir Kramnik with Black, giving the second-place Radjabov 7 out of 11.

Topalov had a huge advantage over four-time Russian Champion Peter Svidler on the Black side of a Sicilian Najdorf, but it seems he has let Svidler escape into a superior ending! If Topalov loses, his lead will decrease to one-half point, if he draws his lead will remain a full point, and if he wins his lead will increase to 1.5 points.

The big game will be on Saturday, as Topalov will have white against Vladimir Kramnik!

The final round will be played on Sunday.

TOPALOV WINS AGAIN, MAINTAINS LEAD AT COURS WITH 7.5/10

Veselin Topalov (in the picture at the left, from the Corus website) is at it again! After recording a draw against Armenian superstar Levon Aronian in Round 9, he crushed "wunderkind" Magnus Carlsson in only 26 moves. Carlssen got his rooks entangled in the White position with no way to escape the clutches of the Bulgarian's pieces.

Carlssen is regarded as perhaps the most promising young player in the world today, but he was taught a lesson by the World #1.

With second-place Teimour Radjabov making a short draw today, Topalov has opened up a full-point lead with only three rounds remaining in the event. Vladimir Kramnik is tied with Radjabov for second place, and this tournament could have big implications for the next year or two in the chess world: Topalov continues to win these supertournaments, often coming from behind to do so. He also squares off with Kramnik in Round 12, in what will surely be the most watched game of the event.

Right now, Topalov cannot get into the Candidates Matches, but if someone decides not to play (e.g., Boris Gelfand has complained about the lack of preparation time for the event) would a place be found for Topalov to play?

When Kasparov lost his World Championhip title to Kramnik in 2000, he still dominated tournaments, the way Topalov is now doing. Kramnik has won many top tournaments, but has not been dominant in recent years, though he has shown that he can bring the goods when it counts the most: The World Championship matches.

TOPALOV TAKES LEAD AT CORUS WITH WIN OVER ANAND

FIDE ex-World Champion Veselin Topalov is continuing his comeback form, taking the lead in Round 8 of the Corus Supertournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. To do so, he knocked out perennial Top 3 player Viswanathan Anand with the White pieces in a positional tussle that saw Anand resign prematurely. Topalov said after the game that he felt Anand simply did not want to defend the tough position anymore!

Over the past three years, Topalov has clearly been the king of the supertournament world, and it seemed only a matter of time before a more experienced elite player would take the lead at Corus, which was held for the first 7 rounds by Teimour Radjabov. Topalov has 6 points from 8 games (4 wins and 4 draws, with no losses).

This result came a day after Topalov's long-time manager, Silvio Danailov, announced that he had a new $2 million bank guarantee from Bulbank, a major bank based in Bulgaria, in hopes of arranging a World Championship rematch with Vladimir Kramnik. This seems problematic, however, as FIDE regulations state that such a match must be completed 6 months before the next World Championship tournament begins (September 2007 in Mexico City), so it is unclear what will happen next.

One thing is clear: losing the World Championship match to Kramnik has not shaken the confidence of "Vesko" at all. The two meet in Round 12 of the 13-round event.

RADJABOV CONTINUES TO DOMINATE CORUS

The 2007 edition of the annual Corus "supertournament," held in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands has a superstar field, including World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Alexei Shirov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Peter Svidler, Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Motylev, David Navara, Loek van Wely, Sergei Tiviakov, and the current tournament leader--with an incredible 5 out of 6!--Teimour Radjabov. The Azeri teen is on a scorching pace, and right now is trying to win his first supertournament.

The tournament has 14 players in all, and there will be 13 rounds of play--each player will face all the other players in the table. Several of the world's Top 10 are playing.

The tournament concludes on Sunday, January 28.

US CHESS LEAGUE FINAL MATCH IS TONIGHT!

The Final Match of the 2006 US Chess League season will be played tonight at 8:30 Eastern Time. Ths San Francisco Mechanics will face off against the New York Knights for the Championship!

Here are the matchups:

White - Black
1. IM Josh Friedel (SF) -GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY)
2. IM Irina Krush (NY) -IM David Pruess (SF)
3. IM Dmitry Zilberstein (SF) -FM Robert Hess (NY)
4. Matthew Herman (NY)- Sam Shankland (SF)

The time control will be 60+30 (60 minutes for the entire game with 30 seconds added after every move starting at move 1).


Go Knights!!


The Internet Chess Club will have coverage of the match, and ICC members wil also be able to access live commentary on ChessFM (www.chess.fm).

The website of the US Chess League is www.uschessleague.com.

KRAMNIK WALKS INTO MATE! DEEP FRITZ LEADS 1.5-0.5

The latest Man vs. Machine chess match is taking place in Bonn, Germany. It began on Saturday, November 25 and a new game is played every two days, the final game will be played on Tuesday, December 5. World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who just defeated Veselin Topalov to unify the chess world, faces Deep Fritz 10, one of the strongest chess software programs in the world.

In the first game Kramnik, with the White pieces, held a stable advantage throughout the game but eventually it ended in a draw. It was a good sign that Kramnik was able to press the machine without any real risk.

The second game, which just concluded minutes ago, saw the World Champion walk into checkmate! In the famous Game 2 of the recent World Championship match, Kramnik allowed a forced mate which Topalov did not see. Computers do not pardon such mistakes, but the Mate-in-1 Kramnik allowed this time is something that most of our chess students would quickly see! This is almost unprecedented for a World Champion.

Kramnik must shake this bitter disappointment off if he is to come back in this match, and many believe that he can, considering how well he has controlled the computer in the first two games.

You can follow the games live at the Official Website, as well as on ChessGames.com (if you are a member), or the ICC or PlayChess Server (memberhip required).

LEKO, PONOMARIOV AND ARONIAN WIN TAL MEMORIAL

The Memorial supertournament held in honor of the late ex-World Champion Mikhail Tal ended yesterday, with a three-way tie for first between Hungary's Peter Leko, Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov, and Armenia's Levon Aronian. All three finished with 5.5 out of 9.

The star-studded field decided to make quick draws on the last day of the event, with only one game lasting longer than 20 moves. This seems to disappoint the writers from ChessBase.com, but it is a reality of chess tournaments. The last round is usually not the place to go hunting for scalps, as players are trying to secure a prize without risking their standing in the table too heavily.

There is a blitz tournament that is also part of this event, which is fitting because Tal was legendary for his love of blitz chess. That event is still ongoing.

To see ChessBase.com's original article, click here.

3-WAY TIE WITH 2 ROUNDS TO GO IN TAL MEMORIAL, GAZZA VISITS

Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine), Peter Leko (Hungary), and Levon Aronian (Armenia), lead the Tal Memorial supertournament being held in Moscow. Each member of the trio has 4.5 out of 7, and two rounds remain.

Garry Kasparov, the 13th World Champion, visited the tournament because, as it turns out, it is being held right near his home! He offered impromptu game commentary and greeted the players and organizers.

To see original article from ChessBase.com, click here.

US CHESS LEAGUE SEMI-FINALS ON TAP

IM Jay Bonin of the New York Knights, the USCF's most active player almost every year.

The US Chess League, in its second season, has brought back big-time team chess back to the United States. There are currently 10 teams in the league: Baltimore, Boston, Carolina, New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tennessee. The matches are played over the internet on the Internet Chess Club. Each Monday there is a Monday Night game (in the tradition of the National Football League), and the other 4 matches are played on Wednesday night at different times and time controls (because of the four different time zones represented).

There are five teams in each Conference, East and West. The top three teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. This time the Boston Blitz finished in the top spot in the East and the San Francisco Mechanics finished in the top spot in the West. They received byes for the first round of the playoffs, being seeded directly into the semi-finals.

In the East, the New York Knights defeated the Carolina Cobras in the 2 vs. 3 game, by a score of 3-1 to move into the semi-final match against Boston.

In the West, the Seattle Sluggers drew a match with the Dallas Destiny 2-2. Having draw odds for finishing higher during the regular season, the Sluggers advanced to the semi-final against San Francisco.

The Semi-Final matches will be played on Wednesday, November 15 at 7PM and 9PM Eastern Time. Boston will receive draw odds against New York, and San Francisco will receive draw odds against Seattle.

NYChessKids is proud to be an official sponsor of the New York Knights. Go Knights!

To see the US Chess League homepage, click here.

RUSTAM KASIMDZHANOV WINS CORSICA MASTERS

With the recent World Chess Championship reunification match between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov ending in victory for Kramnik, there was a lot talk that the post-1993 FIDE World Champions were not "real" champions. Karpov (1993-1999) is of course one of the greatest players ever, but was considered second-best to Kasparov and not the champ. After Karpov refused to defend his title in 1999, it was won by Alexander Khalifman, Viswanathan Anand, Ruslan Ponomariov, and Rustam Kasimdzhanov before being taken by Veselin Topalov. These are all top players, some stronger than others, but they were never regarded as "real" champions by most of the chess public.

People forget that Rustam Kasimdzhanov, the 2003 FIDE World Champion, had to eliminate several of the best players in the world to get this honor, and that he is a very strong player, with a 2700+ rating.

Uzbekistan's greatest player helped his legacy a bit by winning the Corsica Masters rapid knockout tournament. 16 strong GMs competed, playing a set of two-game matches with tiebreaks if necessary. After the first round, 8 remained; 4 remained after the second round; and Kasimdzhanov and Viswanathan Anand—the undisputed best rapid player in the world for a decade. Anand had, in fact won this event five consecutive times: 2000-2004, before it was won by Vadim Milov of Switzerland last year.

Kasimdzhanov won the first game with Black, then held Anand to a draw in the second game to win the tournament. The total prize fund was 100,000 euros.

To see the original ChessBase article, click here.