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Romanian Chess Championships 2012
Titles approved by FIDE at the PB in Al Ain
Mikhail Tal Memorial 2012
2nd Schoenenwerd Open in Switzerland
Caruana and Le Quang start with wins, Tomashevsky held to a draw
2nd International Chess Tournament of Forni di Sopra
Nikolai Chadaev first in the World Blitz Championship Qualifier
2nd Ferdowsi International Chess Open Tournament (Updated)
2nd HDBank Cup Open Chess Tournament (Updated)
Baden-Baden and Bremen on fire in German Schach Bundesliga
Kramnik-Aronian match announced, to be held in Zurich
The friendly match between Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian will be held from 21 to 28 April in Zurich, Switzerland and will consist of six games played at classical time control. A first press release was distributed today by the Zurich Chess Club, which organizes the event.
During the 11th round of the Tata Steel tournament, on January 27th in Wijk aan Zee, Vladimir Kramnik suddenly entered the press room. As it turned out, the ex-World Champion was to sign a contract later that evening together with Levon Aronian and a sponsor, for a 6-game match (classical games!) in the last week of April. More details would be announced soon, and today we received a first press release.
PRESS RELEASE
Zurich Chess Challenge: Kramnik vs. AronianThe Zurich Chess Club announces a six-game chess match between Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Levon Aronian (Armenia) from 21 to 28 April 2012. The numbers 2 and 3 of the World ranking will meet in the time-honored Hotel Savoy Baur en Ville at Paradeplatz, the venue of many a famous chess event in the past. Kramnik and Aronian are the winners of the two most prestigious tournaments of the last months. While the 36-year-old Kramnik has gained a convincing victory at the London Chess Classic in December, the 29-year-old Aronian has just won the famous tournament in Wijk aan Zee with an outstanding score.
Both players belong to the hottest candidates in the World championship qualifier later this year. The Zurich Chess Challenge will be the first encounter in the history of chess between two players with a rating above the magical 2800 limit and it is the first ever friendly match at the top level. It is sponsored by Oleg Skvortsov, IGC International Gemological Laboratories and Aspeco N.V., Antwerp.
About IGC International Gemological Laboratories
IGC International Gemological Laboratories is a Russian institute providing gemological services, such as diamond grading reports, enhanced diamonds identification, man-made/synthetic diamonds and imitation detection as well as certification of diamonds, gemstones and jewelry in the Russian Federation. IGC is the Russian branch of GCI - a group of gemological laboratories located wordwide.
About Aspeco N.V.
Aspeco N.V. is a part of the K. Girdharlal Group of companies who are one of the world's leading diamantaires with sales offices around the globe. In Antwerp, Aspeco N.V. is active in selling a large assortment of polished diamonds originating from the group manufacturing. Aspeco N.V. is also procuring rough diamonds from various renowned sources both for trading and for manufacturing purposes.
About the Zurich Chess Club
The Zurich Chess Club is the oldest chess society in the World. In its long history it has staged numerous world class events, regularly attracting the elite of the day. Two years ago it celebrated its 200-year jubilee with a spectacular chess show involving all living World champions. It has not been idle since then as witnessed by the recent simultaneous displays by Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen.
We can add the following details about the match, which were kindly provided by Vladimir Kramnik to us:
- The time control of the six classical games will be 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves and then 15 minutes to finish the game, with an increment of 30 seconds from move 61.
- If a game lasts less than three hours, the players will play a rapid game with reversed colours (with 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment on the clock).
This last feature was in fact a suggestion by Kramnik himself. It will be nice for the spectators, but also for the players because the whole idea of the match is that Aronian and Kramnik will get some more practice in a period when there are few tournaments.
Tags: Category:Dragan Solak wins the Turkish Chess Championship
Ask a direct opening or tactics question directly to a Grandmaster 2700+!
Norway to hold first super tournament in 2013
Next year a new super tournament will be organized in Stavanger, Norway. The country's top player Magnus Carlsen will both participate and assist in promoting the event, which will be by far the strongest chess tournament ever held on Norwegian soil. "I always try to win when I play tournaments, but it would be really special to win at home," said Carlsen.
A press conference on Tuesday night in Sandnes, Norway - 'ambassador' of the tournament, Magnus Carlsen, in the middle | Photo Geir Einarsen
Chess is big in Norway, and it's getting even bigger. The FIDE World Cup 2013 will be held in Tromsø, and a year later the Olympiad will be held there as well. But there is more.
On Tuesday night a press conference was held in a hotel in the city of Sandnes, which was attended by about 30 journalists of all the major Norwegian media. Present were Magnus Carlsen, his manager Espen Agdestein, Jeanette Nygård, representative for the Stavanger region, Siv Kristin Heriksytad, webmaster, Kjell Madland, managing director of Jadarhus and Jørn Holmen, marketing manager. At the press conference a brand new super tournament was announced.
The idea is to have a 10-player round robin, similar to the Tal Memorial, in Stavanger, in June 2013.
Stavanger, Norway on Google Maps
Magnus Carlsen is an obvious, first confirmed participant, and nine more world class GMs will be invited. In fact, Carlsen himself will play a role in the invitation process. We spoke to his manager Espen Agdestein, who explained:
Yes, he will be involved in picking the players. He will be there to advice, to help the organizers. You can say he will be some kind of ambassador, assisiting to promote the tournament.
Carlsen himself told Norwegian newspaper VG:
I am fortunate to have some power in the selection. I find it most inspiring to invite as many as possible of the best in the world. I know the players themselves, and hope to persuade them to come. Those I've talked to so far are very positive. Remember, most major tournaments are in the fall.
The initiator is Kjell Madland, managing director of Jadarhus and former general manager of football club Bryne. His interest in chess is easy to explain: Madland's son is a talented chess player.
Jadarhus is a real-estate company in Stavanger, and it will be one of the main sponsors. The other is HTH, a kitchen equipment company. Three municipalities in the Stavanger region have also shown interest in the event. There is even a website already, which will soon be available in English as well: NorwayChess.com.
A budget of 5 million Norwegian kroner (about €650,000 or US $870,000) is available. This comes from the two main sponsors, and part is funded by the Stavanger, Sandnes and Rogaland municipalities.
About half of the budget will be available for the players (prizes, starting fees, accomodation, transport), and half for organization costs. Joran Aulin-Jansson, President of the Norwegian Chess Federation, pointed out to us that the tournament will in fact be part of a bigger festival:
We intend to organize an open tournament alongside the main event. Furthermore, there will be a school tournament with hundreds of children.
Hundreds of amateurs will be able to play chess themselves, while watching ten elite players in Stavanger. It is the intention of the people involved to organize the festival every year. Aulin-Jansson:
If the first edition is successful and all parties are satisfied, organizers, sponsors, players... then we will continue. But at the moment the Norwegians are obviously very positive towards this initiative. We will try our outmost to make this a great tournament for everyone involved. It will be a great benefit for chess.
The tournament is supposed to take place in June, 2013. In recent years, Magnus Carlsen played in another big event in this month: the Kings' Tournament in Bazna, Romania. Aulin-Jansson:
We will certainly do our best to avoid clashes in the calendar. It is not our intention to ruin other tournaments!
At the press conference, Magnus Carlsen was wearing a suit jacket with his sponsor brands on it: Simonsen (one of Norway's leading corporate law firms) and Arctic Securities (an employee owned investment bank). His deal with G-Star ended on December 31st, 2011 but these two Norwegian sponsors prolonged for another two years. Espen Agdestein:
They are even incorporating more 'Magnus' in their company brand. They want to profit even more of the partnership by integrating his profile into their brand. Therefore, we recently had another photo shoot. Simonsen already made things like vouchers, with his photos.
Here's a behind the scenes video of the new photo shoot.
Tags: Category:Yuri Averbakh turns 90
Only a week after Boris Spassky, the oldest living former World Champion, turned 75, we have another legend celebrating a special birthday. Yuri Averbakh, the oldest living grandmaster in the world, turned 90 today.
Yuri Averbakh at his 80th birthday | Photo Jurgen Stigter, Wikipedia
Yuri Lvovich Averbakh is one of the last true legends of the 20th century. He won two Soviet Championships and participated in the famous Zurich 1953 Candidates tournament. At the same time he is a renowned endgame theoretician who published numerous books, which were translated into twenty languages, and produced hundreds of studies. Averbakh is also an international arbiter (a role he fulfilled at World Championships and Olympiads) and International Judge of Chess Compositions. On top of that, the Russian grandmaster is an active chess historian.
Having learnt chess at the age of seven, Averbakh got captivated by the game in 1935, when the second international tournament in Moscow was held.
His first major success was first place in the Moscow Championship of 1949, ahead of players such as Andor Lilienthal, Yakov Estrin and Vladimir Simagin. He became an International Grandmaster in 1952. In 1954 he won the USSR Chess Championship ahead of players including Mark Taimanov, Viktor Korchnoi, Tigran Petrosian, Efim Geller and Salo Flohr.
In the 1956 Championship he came equal first with Taimanov and Boris Spassky in the main event, finishing second after the playoff. Later Averbakh's daughter, Jane, would marry Taimanov.
Averbakh's other major tournament victories included Vienna 1961 and Moscow 1962. He qualified for the 1953 Candidates' Tournament (the last stage to determine the challenger to the World Chess Champion), finishing joint tenth of the fifteen participants. He also qualified for the 1958 Interzonal at Portorož, by finishing in fourth place at the 1958 USSR Championship at Riga. At Portorož, he wound up in a tie for seventh through eleventh places, half a point short of advancing to the Candidates' Tournament.
Averbakh is the eponym of several opening variations, perhaps most notably the Averbakh System in the King's Indian Defence: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Bg5. (See also Averbakh's Wikipedia entry.)
During the Kasparov-Karpov blitz match in Valencia, in October 2009, Averbakh gave a lucid lecture on the Valencian origin of modern chess. He was in fact the first to suggest, back in 1985, that Lucena borrowed many if not all problems of his 1497 book from the now lost Valencian chess book by Francesch Vicent. Afterwards the lecture, about which you can read more here, the then 87-year old veteran was more than willing to pose for photographs with fans from the audience and indeed with some journalists as well.
On the occasion of his 90th birthday, Vladimir Barsky interviewed Averbakh for the website of the Russian Chess Federation. The legendary grandmaster is still very much interested in chess history, and even in the intellectual games that preceded chess, like tic-tac-toe. He provides many examples of chess playing a role in many different languages, regions and (former) empires.
For example, he tells Barsky that until the 19th century the Treasury in England was called 'the house of the chess board'.
William the Conqueror introduced a rigid system of taxation and set up a special ward for the collection of taxes. The table, on which taxes were calculated on the forest, water and so on, was covered with black squares divided by the cloth, resembling a chessboard.
Members of the House (they received the high title of barons of the chessboard and the board had the right to include it in its coat of arms) were known for their probity, and taxes were collected probably better than we do now. So the chess board on the emblem was a symbol of honesty. And the tax collection process was perceived as a battle between the Treasury and the payer.
As Averbakh told Dagobert Kohlmeyer, the festivities around his birthday will take several days. On Wednesday there will be organized a special night at the Technical Scientific Library in Moscow, where Averbakh himself once established a chess center.
We also want to attract veterans to chess. However, instead of playing tought tournaments, they solve chess problems. Dedicating time to endgame studies helps against Alzheimer's disease.
sais Averbakh in the interview. He explains his old age by pointing out that he always did a lot of sports.
Until two years ago I went for a swim frequently.
During the Anand-Gelfand World Championship in May in Moscow, Averbakh will be involved in a seminar for chess historians.
Tags: Category:Aeroflot Chess 2012
Ivan Cheparinov wins the Georgi Tringov Memorial
Yaroslav Zherebukh and Nino Batsiashvili win RSSU Grandmaster Cup
Extreme Chess Championships part II
The second episode of the Extreme Chess Championships was recently published uploaded to YouTube. In this chess reality TV show, created by Jennifer Shahade, her brother Greg Shahade and Daniel Meirom, a group of young Americans of different cultures fight each other at the board with 15 minutes plus 5 seconds increment.
The games are played in the famous Marshall Chess Club in New York*. The commentary provided in these nicely produced videos includes explanation of the moves at novice level, making the series a great tool to popularize the game.
Here's the second episode of the Extreme Chess Championships aka "X Chess Champs". This one features a "Battle of the Sexes" double header with 16-year-old chessmaster Alena Kats facing poker player & chess champ Alex Barnett while law student & ballerina Alisa Melekhina plays an intense match vs. Stanford senior Elliott Liu.
You can find the X Chess Champs on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We previously wrote about them in this article, where you can find the trailer and the first episode.
*Update February 8th, 2012 12:56 CET
The games in the videos were actually played at the offices of Chess-in-the-Schools, the New York City non-profit that brings chess to kids all over the city.
