THE WEEK IN CHESS 831 11th October 2010 by Mark Crowther

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1) Introduction

My thanks to Luiz Roberto Da Costa Jr, Luis Blasco de la Cruz, Adolivio Capece, Yuri Vovk, John Hoggatt, Jim Hill, Laszlo Nagy, Dave Clayton, Mindaugas Genutis, Mihajlo Savic and everyone else who helped with the issue.

The 3rd Grand Slam Masters final is well under way. Vladimir Kramnik leads with 2 wins and a draw from Viswanathan Anand. The main story is the continue poor form of Magnus Carlsen who lost his first two games along with three at the recently concluded Olympiad. He did at least get on the scoreboard with a marathon draw against Shirov in Round 3.

I have been working hard for the last few years on my computing skills. It has been a long hard road. However this issue is the start of something new. The games have been processed, almost completely, by a new set of programs I have written. Things are still in the development stage so any problems please let me know. One of my hopes is to work towards using players' full names. This is something I am getting the ability to do, but there is still a lot to think about. The idea in the past has been to use a consistant naming system of the players so that the games would slot together week by week. There were some problems, especially in recent years with that as more names were added to the FIdE rating list. A shortened form of the name was designed to cope with limitations of the long gone old ChessBase format. Consistant naming conventions remains the key problem that I need to address, even with full names. There are many players with the same names in the rating list and their games would appear together, so how to differentiate different players? The identifiers in TWIC have used arbitrary numbers at the end. I'm not sure this is the best solution, but it may be the most reliable. Secondly the FIDE rating list is far from perfect. For instance the naming of Indian players is an appalling mess. It is hard enough for a foriegner to understand the subtlties of the correct order for Indian names, but it seems that the Indian Chess Federation doesn't know either and changes its mind a lot. Let us examine for instance player number 5015693. Currently given in the list as: Gopal G.N., a return to its old form, recently his name has appeared without punctuation as Geetha Narayanan Gopal which can't be right, it might be that Gopal Narayanan, Geetha is the correct final version, as used on the official site for the Olympiad not a form I would have guessed. This for a very active Grandmaster, my feeling is there is much worse below the surface (Is it Tania, Sachdev, or Sachdev, Tania? is another one with a very active player and there are a lot of unpunctuated names in the list). So even with full names I would probably have to use a master list of names of my own construction. There is a lot to be worked out but I'm starting to get the computing power to do it.

Hope you enjoy this issue.

Mark

2) Bilbao Masters Final 2010

The Bilbao Masters Final takes place October 9th-15th 2010. Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen plus two players from the Shanghai Masters compete in the four player double round robin.

Official site: http://www.bilbaofinalmasters.com/

3) Schachbundesliga 2010-11

The Schachbundesliga takes place 9th October 2010 - 10th April 2011.

Official site: http://www.schachbundesliga.de/

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr38597.aspx

4) Korchnoi - Hort Match

Viktor Korchnoi plays Vlastimil Hort in a match in the Spa Resort of Vraz in the Czech Republic. Three draws so far.

Four standard time-rate games followed by four rapid games.

Official site: http://www.lazne-vraz.cz/cs/aktualne/

5) Dutch League

The Dutch League officially started on the 25th September 2010 (one match took place a week earlier). Round 2 was on October 9th 2010 games should appear next week.

Official site: http://www.schaakbond.nl/wedstrijdschaak/knsb-competitie

Additional coverage: http://www.schakers.info

6) 4NCL Team and Individual Rapidplay Championship

The 4NCL Team and Individual Rapidplay Championship took place 9th-10th October 2010 at Harben House, near Milton Keynes. Saturday's team championship was won by Barbican I and Sunday's individual championship was won by Thomas Rendle. Some of the games were broadcast live and they appear in the games section.

Official site: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/2010_rapidplay.htm

Live games http://www.bcfservices.org.uk/livechess/4ncl/1011/rapid/index.htm

7) Karen Asrian Open

The Karen Asrian Memorial takes place 5th-14th October 2010 in Jermuk, Armenia.

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr38794.aspx

Official site: http://www.chessfed.am/index.php?Lang=2

8) Continental Class Championships

The Continental Class Championships took place at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA, October 7th-11th 2010.

Official site: http://www.continentalclass.net/

9) First Saturday October

First Saturday October tournaments take place 2nd-13th October 2010, GM, IM and FM events.

Official site: http://www.firstsaturday.hu/1009/index.htm

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr38734.aspx

10) I Oliver Gonzalez Memorial

The I Oliver Gonzalez Memorial takes place in Madrid 9th-17th October 2010. Oleg Korneev is the top seed.

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr38403.aspx

Official site: http://www.memorialolivergonzalez.com/

11) Swedish Elitserien

The Swedish Elitserien league takes place 8th October 2010 - 13th March 2011.

Details: http://larsgrahn.blogspot.com/

Official site: http://www.schack.se/

Results: http://member.schack.se/ShowTournamentServlet?id=28

Results: http://www.sjakk.no/nsf/eliteserien_index.html

12) 49th Danish League

The 49th Danish XtraCon Chess League takes place 6th November 2010 - 13th March 2011.

Official site: http://www.divisionsskak.dk/holdarkiv/div1011/

13) 9th Forchheim Open

The 9th Forchheim Open took place 1st-3rd October 2010. FM Harald Golda won the Open. Games are likely to follow.

Official site: http://www.schachclub-forchheim.de/aktuelles/

14) Leicester Chess Congress

The Leicester Chess Congress (H. E. Atkins Memorial) took place 1st-3rd October 2010. Mark Hebden took clear fist with 5/5.

Official site: http://www.leicesterchess.co.uk/

15) Chinese Chess League Division A

The Youngor Chinese Chess League Division A takes place April 16th - December 30th 2010 in China. 10 teams compete in the Double Round-Robin event.

Time control: 1 hour 30 minutes for the whole game with an incremental time of 30 seconds per move.

Prize: 500,000 yuan or Euro 50,000.

The first 3 rounds took place in Ningbo city.

Official website : http://ccl.sports.cn/ - http://games.sports.cn/chessorg.ccl2010/index.html

The live games broadcast : http://live.chinaqiyuan.com/chess.html

Archive of games should be here eventually: http://ccl.sports.cn/2010/news/2010-04-01/1995059.html

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr32818.aspx

Rounds 4-6 take place June 6th - June 9th 2010 in Shenzhen

Rounds 7-9 July 23rd - July 26th 2010 in Shanghai

Rounds 10-12 9th-11th Sept 2010 in Guangzhou

Rounds 13-15 in Oct. 10th-13th 2010

Round 16-18 in Dec. 28th-30th 2010 in Beijing.

Leading players: Wang Yue g CHN 2749; Wang Hao g CHN 2713; Alexander Motylev g RUS 2705; Bu Xiangzhi g CHN 2682; Zhou Jianchao g CHN 2650; Li Chao b g CHN 2613; Zhang Pengxiang g CHN 2605; Zhou Weiqi g CHN 2585; Peng Xiaominn g CHN 2581; Zhao Jun g CHN 2575; Yu Yangyi g CHN 2574; Hou Yifan g CHN 2570; Ding Liren g CHN 2564; Wen Yang g CHN 2520; Li Shilong g CHN 2514; Xu Jun g CHN 2513; Liang Chong g CHN 2502; Ju Wenjun wg CHN 2500; Xiu Deshun CHN 2493; Zhao Xue g CHN 2490; Ruan Lufei wg CHN 2479; Xu Yuhua g CHN 2478; Zhu Chen g QAT 2476; Tan Zhongyi wg CHN 2464; Wu Shaobin g SIN 2453; Lin Chen CHN 2448; Liu Qingnan m CHN 2445; Shen Yang wg CHN 2444; Huang Qian wg CHN 2439; Zhang Xiaowen wg CHN 2437; Le Thanh Tu wg VIE 2318

Gujuan Tzu Blog is http://blog.sina.com.cn/chessnews

16) US Chess League

The US Chess League takes place August 23rd - 20th November 2010.

Time Controls range from 60+30 to 90+30 depending on the start time and time zone. Games take place on ICC.

Official site: http://www.uschessleague.com/

17) Munich Open

The Munich tournament took place 25th September - 3rd October 2010. Alex Wohl took clear first place with 7.5/9.

Official site: http://schachbezirk-muenchen.de/ois10/ois.shtml

18) 7th Highlands Open

The 7th Highlands Open FIDE open, active chess, blitz tournament took place 25th September - 2nd October 2010. Mikhail M Ivanov won with 7/9.

Official site: http://www.czechtour.net/highlands-open/

19) Tatry Open

The Tatry Open took place 2nd-10th October 2010. Evgenij Piankov won with 7.5/9.

Official site: http://www.slovan-bratislava.com/

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr38666.aspx

20) World Computer Chess Championships

The World Computer Chess Championships took place 25th September - 1st October 2010. Rybka maintained its reputation at the top.

News: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Turksatranc/message/7622

Official site: http://ticc.uvt.nl/icga/cg2010results/WCCC.html

21) European Youth Championships

The European Youth Championships took place in Batumi, Georgia 20th-28th September 2010. Vasif Durarbeyli took clear first place with 8/9 in the Boys Under-18 event.

Official site: http://www.euro2010.ge

Results: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr38342.aspx

22) Sants Open

Mindaugas Genutis sends an additional game from the Sants Open.

23) 10th Winterthurer Schachwoche

The 10th Winterthurer Schachwoche takes place 9th-16th October 2010.

Official site: http://schachwoche.org/

24) Forthcoming Events and Links

Vasylyshyn Memorial

The Vasylyshyn Memorial Chess Festival takes place in Lviv, Ukraine November 23rd - December 1st 2010. Men's and women's events.

For more details: http://www.grandcoach.com/en/students/11/blog/31/

Men's event tournament director GM Yuri Vovk (English, Ukrainian, Russian languages ) via: e-mail:wolfisthegreatestpredator@gmail.com mobile phone:+380 673912027 skype:Imperator15chess ICC: Imperator15 Playchess: JohnConnor

Women's tournament director IM Vladimir Grabinsky (English, Ukrainian, Russian languages) via: e-mail:perfectchess@ukr.net mobile phone:+380 977471673 skype: perfectchess ICC: grandcoach

Final list of players in the GM event so far: GM round robin: Oleksienko, Mikhailo g UKR 2559; Vysochin Spartak g UKR 2550; Vovk, Andrey g UKR 2540; Fedoseev Vladimir m RUS 2477;Petr, Martin m CZE 2468; Smith, Axel m SWE 2445; Bernadskiy, Vitaliy m UKR 2430; Semcesen Daniel m SWE 2416; Grabliauskas, Virginijus m LTU 2404; Polivanov Anatoliy m UKR 2388.

List of players in the IM event so far (9 of 10 players): Grekh, Andrey m UKR 2373; Nester, Ihor m UKR 2340; Duzhakov, Ilya f RUS 2336; Tsyhanchuk, Stanislav f BLR 2328; Orzechowski, Jacek POL 2283; Vovk, Ilja f EST 2267; Vetoshko, Volodymyr UKR 2211; Terletsky, Oleg UKR 2170; Leinov, Roman BLR 2162;

List of players in the WGM event so far (7 of 10 players): Hryhorenko, Nataliya wm UKR 2344; Soloviova, Liza wg UKR 2315; Matseyko, Katerina wg UKR 2243; Chulivska, Vita wm UKR 2215; Gasik, Anna wf POL 2203; Cherednichenko, Elena wf UKR 2147; Chlost, Marlena wf POL 2146;

ARCO Open

32nd Arco Open takes place 16th-24th October 2010.

Official site: http://www.arcoworldchess.com/

Lichtenrader Autumn

The Lichtenrader Autumn tournament takes place in Berlin 16th-24th October 2010.

Official site: http://sw-lichtenrade.de/LichtenraderHerbst.html

Chigorin Memorial

The Chigorin Memorial takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia, October 26th to November 5th 2010 and will consist of a rapid and a classic tournament. Details and regulations at: http://www.totalchess.spb.ru/

73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011

The 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011 takes place Friday 14th to Sunday, January 30th, 2011, in the traditional "De Moriaan" venue in Wijk aan Zee. The event which has taken place since 1938 will carry a new name, that of Tata Steel, they bought Corus a number of years ago.

Confirmed players are: World Number One Magnus Carlsen (last year's winner), reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand and his predecessor Vladimir Kramnik. The composition of the A-Group is expected to be finalised shortly after the conclusion of the Olympiad in early October with the remaining groups to follow after that. The start for the registration for the amateur groups is on November 1, 2010. The official website will change to http://www.tatasteelchess.com/ (not yet active probably from October the old Official Site is currently the one to look at)

London Chess Classic 2010

Viswanathan Anand will become the first reigning world chess champion to play in a major tournament in London since Anatoly Karpov in 1984 when he joins the eight-player field for the second London Chess Classic, which runs from 8-15 December 2010 at the Olympia Conference Centre.

Alongside him will be World Number one Magnus Carlsen, former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, US number one Hikaru Nakamura and the top four English players Michael Adams, Nigel Short, Luke McShane and David Howell.

For more information and to buy tickets to The London Chess Classic, please go to www.londonchessclassic.com Tickets will go on sale in July.

The London Chess Classic doesn't just feature the World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand and the World Number one Magnus Carlsen and a strong field of English and foreign stars. There are a large number of side events for amateur and professional alike. There are two simuls with chess legend Viktor Korchnoi, the very popular daily blitz tournaments, weekend and rapidplays. Finally, and definitely not least, there is the FIDE rated open which last year was won by Jon Ludvig Hammer with a first prize of £2500. This year you can play the full schedule 8th-15th December or the busy person's 11th-15th December.

The Entry form is now available.

DOWNLOAD PDF Entry form

See body of this article for links to tickets and downloads and a grid of the schedule of the events.

53rd Reggio Emilia 2010

The 53rd "Torneo di Capodanno", takes place December 28th 2010 - January 6th 2011. Venue hotel Astoria Mercure in Reggio Emilia. Games start at 2.30 pm. Free day: Jan 01, 2011 - Press conference December 28th, morning.

Bansko Grand Chess Open

The Bansko Grand Chess Open 12th-19th December 2010, Bansko - Bulgaria.

Details: http://www.bansko.chessdom.com

Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2011

The 2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival takes place at the Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar, from Monday 24 January to Thursday 3 February 2011. The new primary sponsors, Tradewise Insurance Company Ltd, have enabled the prize fund to be increased to £126,000, with £17,500 going to the winner of the Gibraltar Masters, £10,000 to the top woman scorer and two extra rating prizes (of £2,000 and £1,000) being awarded to each of two further rating bands (2000-2099 and under 2000) in the Masters. The tournament will be powered by previous primary sponsors Gibtelecom.

Official site: http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com

Pearl Spring Masters Nanjing 2010

The Pearl Spring Masters (I'm assuming the sponsor remains the same) takes place in Nanjing 18th-30th October 2010. ChessDom reports that the field has been finalised and that it should be just about the strongest of the year with Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Vugar Gashimov, Wang Yue and Etienne Bacrot. 6 players 10 Round Double Round Robin.

Official site: http://www.chess-pearlspring.com/

Gibraltar Masters

Official site: http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/

Tal Memorial 2010

The likely dates for the Tal Memorial are 4th-13th November 2010. As yet there seem to be no details at all as to the composition of the field. I would welcome any news as to any early indications of the players and confirmation of the dates.

X Benidorm Chess Festival 2010

The X Benidorm Chess Festival takes place 3rd-12th December 2010.

Official site: http://www.ajedrezenelbali.com

XL Rilton Cup 2010-11

The XL Rilton Cup takes place in Stockholm, Sweden 27th December 2010 - 5th January 2211.

Details: http://www.rilton.se

PDF Invitation: http://www.rilton.se/1011/inbjudan_eng/XL_RILTON_CUP_eng.pdf

4th Rijeka open chess tournament "Mediterranean 2017"

The 4th Rijeka open chess tournament "Mediterranean 2017" takes place 13th-20th November 2010 in the city of Rijeka, located at the North-west part of the Croatian coast of the Adriatic sea.

The president of the Republic of Croatia, Ivo Josipovic, has accepted to be a sponsor of this chess event while the County primorsko-goranska and the City of Rijeka are the co-sponsors.

Details: http://www.mediteran2017.com/en/home/About_the_tournament/Application

IX Festival Internacional de Ajedrez Benidorm 2010

The IX Festival Internacional de Ajedrez Benidorm 2010 takes place 3rd-12th December 2010.

Further details: http://www.ajedrezenelbali.com

Entries: info@ajedrezenelbali.com

Information: festivaldebenidorm@gmail.com

Mobile: 0034-615547567

14th Unive Tournament

The 14th Unive Tournament takes place in Hoogeveen, Netherlands Fri 22nd - Sat 30th Oct 2010.

The 4 player double round robin sees Alexei Shirov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri and Sergei Tiviakov compete.

There is an open alongside for which entry is invited on the official site. Both events don't have a rest day in order to accommodate travel to Bulgaria for the European Club Cup.

(4 players 6 Rds DRR Indiv TC: 90m:30m+30spm(1))

Official Site

European Individual Senior Championship 2011

The European Individual Senior Championship 2011 has been awarded by the ECU to Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy 10th-20th April 2010.

Official site: http://www.scacchivda.com

Chinese Events 2010

Gujuan Tzu sends new of events in China in 2010. At the moment if you don't grab the games live they have a tendency to disappear (although http://ccl.sports.cn/2010/news/2010-04-01/1995059.html does now seem to have the early rounds of the Chinese League). It would be nice to find one spot where the Chinese Federation archives all their games.

1. The 2nd Chess King and Queen Matches in 29 August-3 Sept. 2010 in Jiangzhou, China. Live games: http://live.chinaqiyuan.com/chess.html

2. Chinese League A Round 10-12 in 9-12 Sept. 2010 in Guangzhou, China. Live Games: http://live.chinaqiyuan.com/chess.html

3. Chinese League A Round 13-15 in 10-13 October 2010 in Hangzhou, China. Live Games: http://live.chinaqiyuan.com/chess.html

4. The 3rd Nanjing Super Chess Tournament in 18-28 October 2010 in Nanjing, China. 6 players, Official site: http://www.chess-pearlspring.com/www/chess_pk/2009/cn/index.htm

5. The second half of Bilbao Final Masters in 10-16 October 2010 in Shanghai, China. Official site: http://www.bilbaofinalmasters.com/

6. Chinese League A Round 16-18 in 28-30 December 2010 in Beijing, China. Live Games: http://live.chinaqiyuan.com/chess.html

Gujuan Tzu Website: http://blog.sina.com.cn/chessnews

World Chess Tour Events

Tournaments, simuls and classes in Moscow.

Contact: Contact: Igor Glek, International Grandmaster, FIDE Trainer, Deputy Chairman of the RSUPES&T Chess Chair E-mail: worldchesstour@gmail.com Russia: (7)903-5593052, (Germany/World): (49)152-04014194

Web-site: http://www.chess-events.org

Swiss Team Championships 2010

The Nationalliga A of Switzerland takes place 14th February - 7th November 2010. Round 2 games not yet available.

Dates: Round 1 (2010.02.14), Round 2 (2010.03.21), Round 3 (2010.04.25), Round 4 (2010.06.13), Round 5 (2010.06.27), Round 6 (2010.08.28), Round 7 (2010.08.29), Round 8 (2010.11.06) and Round 9 (2010.11.07).

Details

Czech Tour 2010-11

The 10th International Chess Festivals Series Czech Tour 2010-11 has the following preliminary list. (Subject to small changes.)

7th HIGHLANDS OPEN - Zdar nad Sazavou (FIDE open, active chess, blitz tournament). 25th September - 2nd October 2010.

11th LIBEREC OPEN (FIDE open, active chess, blitz tournament). 23rd-30th October 2010.

1st BRNO OPEN (FIDE open, active chess, blitz tournament). 14th-20th November 2010

4th SOUTH BOHEMIA OPEN - Cesky Krumlov (FIDE open, active chess, blitz tournament). 21st-27th November 2010.

2nd PILSNER OPEN (FIDE open, active chess, blitz tournament).4th-11th December 2010.

10th PRAGUE OPEN (2 FIDE opens, one of them with IM norm, active chess, blitz tournament). 7th-14th January 2011.

10th MARIENBAD OPEN (FIDE open, closed GM and IM tournaments, active chess, blitz tournament). 15th-22nd January 2011.

2nd NOVY BOR OPEN (FIDE open, active chess, blitz tournament). 12th-19th February 2011.

More detailed information: AVE-KONTAKT s.r.o., Sukova 1556, 530 02 Pardubice, Czech Republic tel./fax + 420 466 535 200, mobile phone + 420 608 203 007 e-mail: j.mazuch@avekont.cz

http://www.czechtour.net

Historical Elo Ratings

http://www.shakki.net/history/elotop.htm has a list of historical top ten FIDE lists. The text is in Finnish but is understandable anyhow.