THE WEEK IN CHESS 735 8th December 2008 by Mark Crowther

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1) Introduction

My thanks to Gary Suffield, Luis Blasco de la Cruz, Luiz Roberto Da Costa Jr, Adolivio Capece, Alberto Mascarenhas, Christophe Philippe, Ignacio Garcia Heras, John Henderson, Maxim Devereaux, Miklos Orso, Robert Fontaine and everyone else who helped with the issue.

Plenty of chess this week leading up to the Christmas period. Also the first really strong all-play-all in China starts in a couple of days so we have lots to look forward to. Magnus Carlsen turned 18 on 30th November and virtually his first act of official adulthood was to lay down a marker that he will not be messed around by the World Chess Federation, FIDE. I don't think it takes long for anyone outside FIDE not to become disillusioned by them, I now ration my criticism of them, its virtually pointless, things don't change because the sitting President since Campomanes (now passed on to the current President Iljumzhinov) has enough grace and favours to pass around amongst the Federations to have a perminant majority. Iljumzhinov, if I calculate correctly will actually be President for longer than Campomanes by the time he next comes up for Coronation (sorry re-election) and he still hasn't nearly got things straightened out. His only qualification for the job is that he puts money into the organisation and bails out its failure by moving events to his home town of Elista.

Carlsen's complaint is that FIDE have changed the rules to their qualification system for the world championship half way through. He has withdrawn from the FIDE Grand Prix because he feels that he was mislead about the qualification system from that. FIDE point to regulations which say basically that the players signed up to a system where they have the power to make things up as they go along (that's not the wording only the meaning). Levon Aronian followed up with a similar complaint. I loved Shirov's comment on another issue "I don’t know how many times I have said to myself that it makes no sense at all to keep getting involved in chess politics and that I should just concentrate on my work etc." I couldn't agree more but sometimes.....

My greatest feeling is that we've been round this block again and again and again and nothing ever changes.

Hope you enjoy this issue.

Mark

2) Bundesliga

Three days after the Chess Olympiad in Dresden the German "Schachbundesliga" opened its doors again for some new first-class chess encounters. The fifth, sixth and some pairings of the seventh round took place at four venues. The German champion Baden-Baden organizes his first home games this season and maintained it's leadership in the table with convincing wins. With many olympic contenders Baden-Baden is the clear favourite for the titel. In Emsdetten one of the most exciting pairings took place. The runner-up Muelheim encountered the team of Bremen who started badly in the season with some unexpected losses against lower rated teams and this continued with a 5.5-2.5 win for Muelheim. In Munich the host team failed to achieve his first points in this season against the teams of the west Solingen and Wattenscheid.

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

3) Dresden Olympiad and Congress

The Olympiad took place in Dresden 12th-25th November 2008. Armenia retained their title gained two years ago. I'm sure that the tragically early passing of Karen Asrian in June who helped them to that title two years ago will be remembered at the moment of this triumph. Israel took 2nd and the USA 3rd. The top three were seeds 9, 8 and 10. The top seeds 1-5 took places 4-8.Georgia edged out Ukraine in the women's event where the lead changed place a lot. Leaders going into the final round were Poland, they lost narrowly 2.5-1.5 and didn't even win a medal.

Official site: http://dresden2008.de - Europe-Echecs Videos - ICC Weblog https://webcast.chessclub.com/blog/ - ChessVibes videos and reports: http://www.chessvibes.com - Olympiad Chess Results.com

Vassily Ivanchuk missed drug test

Vassily Ivanchuk's failure to take a drugs test after the Olympiad could end up with a ban and a redistribution of the men's medals with potentially Hungary taking Bronze from the USA. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5048 is an account of the events. The article says Ivanchuk had an emotional meltdown after losing to Gata Kamsky and this appears on the face of it to be the reason for the missed test. I've always had the impression that Ivanchuk had some form of autism and this is likely to form his only possible defence against such charges. A two year ban would not be in the interests of the game but the impression is that the FIDE President might push for this, something mentioned by Alexei Shirov in a letter to ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5047.

FIDE state that:

Under the FIDE Anti Doping rules, the Ivanchuk case has been referred to the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel which has to meet within three months. No decision has yet been taken by any party, and GM Ivanchuk will be able to state his case to the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel.

Magnus Carlsen withdraws from FIDE Grand Prix

FIDE also announced a change to the qualification system for the next world championship cycle. I have always advocated a very simple system with a qualifier, candidates tournament and a final match or tournament, as simple as possible, less to go wrong, less to finance. FIDE instead made it complicated with the Grand Prix having qualifying places. Their motives were clear, get players to compete in the Grand Prix but with the carrot of places in the world championship at the end of it. Now they changed the formula half way through and not surprisingly players are starting to get a bit annoyed.

Henrik Carlsen's father published the following on his blog (http://blog.magnuschess.com/1228428457_magnus_withdraws_from.html):

We have just informed FIDE by e-mail that Magnus withdraws from the Grand Prix series due to the dramatic change to these regulations approved by the General Assembly. (According to the regulations the final decision on changes to the regulations is the responsibility of the FPB - and not the General Assembly - but we have been informed by several FIDE executives that the Presidential Board will endorse the GA decision shortly if necessary.)

Magnus is simply not motivated to continue the GP series with the dramatically changed conditions approved in Dresden, and the uncertainty related to any future changes that may be decided by FIDE.

On November 27th we sent the following e-mail letter to the FIDE office;

"Dear Sirs, The purpose of this e-mail is to comment upon the recent news about FIDE changing the Regulations for the 2008 -2009 Grand Prix cycle and to request your comments to our questions pertaining to this change. Chess as a sport, chess as an attraction to sponsors, the situation of top chess players in general and the Chess World Championship cycle, are in our opinion best and only served by a system which is transparent, fair and predictable. Despite a less than impressive FIDE track record over the past 15 years, the implementation of the Grand Prix 2008 - 2009 did seem to offer such a system. To our surprise and disbelief we have been informed that the FIDE General Assembly has supported a proposed change of the Regulations of the ongoing cycle to the detriment of the Grand Prix players. The planned match of the winner of the Grand Prix and World Cup winners will be replaced with two spots available from each event into an 8-player world championship qualification tournament or 8-player candidate match cycle, and that this will be decided on the next Presidential Board meeting. We are currently considering alternative measures in response to this highly significant change, which includes legal action and the withdrawal from the cycle.

Below please find some questions which you will hopefully respond to in order to shed some light on the current and future rights of players taking part in FIDE events. Is it your understanding, that § 1.4 in the "Regulations for the 2008 - 2009 Grand Prix", in the middle of the cycle, gives the FIDE Presidential Board the right to change the regulations in a way clearly detrimental to the players as represented by the stipulations described in § 2 in these same regulations and also in the "Players Undertaking"? - If the answer is no, how do you explain the planned change, and how do you justify the harm inherent to the Grand Prix winner? - If the answer is yes, do you agree that the agreement in effect between the players and FIDE is highly biased with regard to rights, in the sense that the players have no real rights whatsoever (that cannot be set aside by the FIDE Presidential Board) while having to stick to the conditions agreed to in the Players Undertaking and also additional adjustments made by the FIDE Presidential Board? And if so, do you consider this a viable policy for future agreements between FIDE and world championship cycle participants? Lastly we would like to mention that our criticism of the latest change of regulations is not directed at the change itself. Long term this may be a viable alternative to the current match planned between the Grand Prix and World Cup winners. But changing the rules dramatically in the middle of a cycle is simply unacceptable, and this is something that should be rather obvious to anyone involved in business or high level sports competitions.

We look forward to your urgent response to these questions."

The following response was received this morning;

"Dear Mr Carlsen, Thank you once again for your letter. The main point of the changes is that instead of qualifying one player from the Grand-Prix for the next stage (semi-final match against the winner of the World Cup), now two players (possibly three in case there is no player to be qualified by rating) will qualify for an 8-player semi-final tournament. This change has been based on article 17.3 of the regulations and it is necessary as sponsors from Qatar and Montreaux have withdrew from organising two legs of the Grand-Prix (an unforeseen situation), which puts in danger the system if it leaves the Grand Prix with less than 6 legs and no clear winner. Because of this uncertain situation, and by giving more qualification spots, FIDE is trying to solve this problem and in the meanwhile is searching to secure, if possible, alternative sponsorship for the remaining GP legs and cycle. As the Grand-Prix has just started this year with two events completed out of six, no player has yet a clear advantage for first place and we feel that all players are benefited as now two or three places (instead of one) are giving qualification.

Kindly also note that the agreements between the players and FIDE are of course not biased at all. The player's undertaking refers to the Regulations for the 2008-2009 FIDE Grand Prix which can be amended according to its wording (Art. 1.4). In addition as already said, there are clearly objective and important reasons to amend these regulations in order to save the whole cycle.

We are really expecting your understanding and we are looking forward to even more exciting chess by Magnus.

Best regards, George Mastrokoukos FIDE - World Chess Federation "

We do find the response highly unsatisfactory. To mention one thing, it is hard to understand how diminishing the value of the Grand Prix series can be interpreted as a way of saving the ongoing cycle.

Having withdrawn from the Grand Prix series Magnus does not have to spend more time and energy on the uncertainty involved, and may fortunately now concentrate on playing several well organised and interesting top level events elsewhere. In the first half of 2009 he has agreed to play some Grand Slam events as well as some great rapid events, starting with a rapid tournament in Gjøvik, Norway January 2nd - 5th and the Corus A from January 16th onwards.

Henrik Carlsen, Lommedalen, December 4th, 2008

Levon Aronian also complains

Carlsen wasn't the only one not happy: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5059 sees Levon Aronian also unhappy.

Last week I went into a big rant about FIDE and deleted most of it. Its pointless these guys have been around for years, make the same errors and are still practically bullet proof in the FIDE General Assembly. The only way the players will get things changed is if they all band together and that always seems unlikely. But we see the new generation of players have their planning again affected by FIDE's inability to keep a cycle together without changing things.

There's also plenty at: http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/

4) Slovenian Team Championship

The Slovenian Team Championship takes place in Murska Sobota 6th-14th December 2008. Predrag Nikolic, Andrei Volokitin, Ivan Ivanisevic and Alexander Beliavsky are amongst the stronger players. A couple of rounds have taken place so far.

Official site: http://www.sah-zveza.si/rez/0812/si08lgdm/

5) 4NCL

The 4NCL takes place 4th October 2008 - 4th May 2009. Rounds 3-4 took place 6th-7th December 2008 in the Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island. Next round 17th-18th January 2009. Games not yet available.

Official site: http://www.4ncl.co.uk

Fixtures 2008-9

Rounds 1 and 2: 4th/5th October 2008 De Vere Venues, Sunningdale Divisions 1-2

Rounds 3-4: 6th/7th December 2008 Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island Divisions 1-3

Rounds 5-6: 17th/18th January 2009 De Vere Venues, Sunningdale Divisions 1-2

Rounds 7-8: 21st/22nd March 2009 Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island Divisions 1-3

Rounds 9-11: 2nd-4th May 2009 De Vere Venues, Staverton Park Divisions 1-2

6) 68th Italian Championship

The 68th Italian Championship takes place 3rd December - 14th December 2008. The tournament will consist of 12 players in a round robin at the 4 star Park Hotel San Michele in Martina Franca. Games will be played on DGT boards, and viewable live at the Italian Chess Federation´s web site. The players are: GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Michele Godena, GM Carlos Garcia Palermo, IM Luca Shytaj, IM Sabino Brunello, IM Fabio Bruno, IM Denis Rombaldoni, IM Pierluigi Piscopo, IM Daniel Contin, FM Daniyyl Dvirnyy, FM Daniele Genocchio, and Alessio Valsecchi.

Official federation site:  http://www.federscacchi.it/

7) 12th Zenica Tournament

The 12th Zenica tournament takes place 29th November - 6th December 2008. Emir Dizdarevic won with 7/9.

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

8) US Chess League

The 2008 season of the US Chess League finished on December 6th 2008. Dallas Destiny edged out a close match only after tie-breakers against Boston Blitz.

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

9) Brasilia Scheveningen

A Scheveningen system tournament organised by the Axbra Chess Club took place in Brasilia (Brazil) 24th-29th November, 2008 with 2GMs and 1 IM against 3 local players. The foreign players dominated.

Official site: http://www.axbra.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=53 and games: http://www.clubedexadrez.com.br/download/2poupex_08/2poupex_08.htm

10) 21st Belgrade Trophy

The 21st Belgrade Trophy took place in Obrenovac (near Belgrade). The Belgrade Open, Belgrade Trophy, or International Belgrade Open Chess Championship took place November 27th - December 5th, 2008. Organisers: Belgrade Chess Federation and Obrenovac City. Srdjan Cvetkovic won on tie-break from Jon Viktor Gunnarsson and Dejan Antic after all finished on 7.5/9.

Official site: http://www.beochess.org.yu/2008/trofej_beograda2008/english_bgopen2008.html

11) Czech Coal Chess Match

The Czech Coal Chess Match took place in Marianske Lazne and features a Snowdrops vs Old-hands Scheveningen tournament with Anatoly Karpov. The experienced team won 17.5 - 14.5 against the Snowdrops women's team.

Official site: http://www.praguechess.cz/index.php

12) Sisak International

International chess tournament SISAK 2008 (CRO) took place in Sisak (CRO) 29th November - 6 December 2008. Goran Antunac and Jan Banas won with 6.5/9.

Official site: http://www.sahdrustvosisak.info/Sisak2008/

13) Open "Mediterranean 2017" Rijeka

The Open "Mediterranean 2017" Rijeka (CRO) took place 29th November - 6th December 2008. Ivan Saric won the event with 7/9.

Details: http://www.mediteran2013.com/en/default.asp

14) VII Benidorm International Chess Festival

The VII Festival Internacional de Ajedrez takes place in Benidorm, Spain 28th November - 8th December 2008. Vassily Ivanchuk took first place by half a point from Alexei Shirov who beat him in one of their individual games. Games section is missing half the games.

Official site: http://www.ajedrezbali.com/ - Videos: http://www.europe-echecs.com

15) 77th Ukrainian Championships

The 77th Ukrainian Championships take place 1st-10th December 2008.

Official site: http://www.ukrchess.org.ua/turnir/ukr08mf_Poltava/index.html

16) Brazilian Championship

75th Brazilian Championship takes place in Porto Alegre, capital of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul 7th-16th December, 2008. 12 players (round robin tournament) with top seed GMs Giovanni Vescovi, Rafael Leitao, Gilberto Milos and Alexandr Fier.

Official site: http://www.fgx.org.br/

17) Mecking vs Flores Match

There was a match between Henrique Mecking and Diego Flores in Brasilia, Brazil (4th-6th, December 2008). Mecking won the blitz match 3-1, Flores the classic games match 1.5-0.5. Games from the classical match are available.

4th Dec - 4 blitz games with 5 minutes per player 5th Dec - 1st classic game - 90 minutes + 30 seconds/moves 6th Dec - 2nd classic game - 90 minutes + 30 seconds/moves

18) Championship of Israel

34th Israel Chess Championship takes place November 30th - December 12th, 2008 at the MadaTech chess club in Haifa, Israel. PlayE4 a new online site sponsors and is contributing the 1st prize 10,000 ILS (about $2,570). PlayE4 is also providing a broadcast platform for the most highlights of the chess championship, allowing chess fans to watch the games live, online, and for free. Website: http://www.playe4.com/

I don't have details of the event or standings. Its a swiss open and 5 games are available each day live. The live coverage is very hard to find but I got games for rounds 1-5.

19) Scaccomatto Open

Adolivio Capece reports: IM Daniele Vocaturo, 18 years old, from Roma, won the master group in the tournament "Scaccomatto 2008" in Turin with 7/9. Another great victory of the young italian IM. Unfortunately he had not the chance to met 3 GMs and so he cannot made his second GM norm. He got the first norm some weeks ago winning the strong Open "Rhode" in Sautron (France). Secon place for Milan Mrdja from Croatia, 6.5. Third place ex aequo for GM Alexander Dgebuadze (Belgio), GM Imre Hera (Hungary), the italian IM Giulio Borgo and the outsider wgm Cristina Foisor (Rumenia) 6 points. I don't have the games as yet.

Official site: http://www.scacchisticatorinese.it

20) Milan

Milano, Italy, organized by Societa Scacchistica Milanese (founded in 1881) Master group: December 6th-13th 2008.

Web site: http://www.scacchisticamilanese.it

21) Greek Championship

The Greek Championship takes place 30th November - 12th December 2008.

Official site: http://www.chessfed.gr/

22) Corus Fields all settled 2009

The 71st Corus Chess tournament takes place Friday, January 16th to Sunday, February 1st, 2009 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov are the favourites for the event in the absence of world champion Viswanathan Anand, challenger Vladimir Kramnik and World Number one Veselin Topalov. This shake up of the field with these three regular missing has really freshened things up and should make for exciting chess, in the usual way they do things they'll probably be all back next year.

Five players will make their debut in the A-group: the young Dutch grandmasters Jan Smeets and Daniel Stellwagen, the sensational Wang Yue from China, who climbed up to the 11th place on the latest world ranking list, the winner of Grandmastergroup B in 2008, Sergei Movsesian, and Leinier Dominguez from Cuba (ranked 21st on the FIDE October rating list).

Grandmastergroup B is stronger than ever, with an average rating of 2631. Remarkable names in this group include former World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan) former world championship challenger Nigel Short and former World Championship Candidate Henrique Mecking (Brazil).

In Grandmastergroup C former top player Oleg Romanishin (Ukraine) is one of the 14 participants. Romanishin won the recently held Cultural Village Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Young GM Eduardo Iturrizaga (Venezuela) qualified early November by winning the ICC Online Qualifier, while Manuel Bosboom (The Netherlands) and Frank Holzke (Germany) gained their places in the C-group by winning the two highest amateur events (nine-rounds-all-play-all) in January 2008. Besides, two more names are remarkable: the two Junior World Champions Abhijeet Gupta (boys under 20) and Dronavalli Harika (girls under 20) will participate. Harika and Gupta both represent India.

As from January 2009, the rate of play in Grandmaster groups A, B and C will change. The rate of play will be: 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour, followed by 15 minutes with 30 seconds per move increment to finish the game.

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

23) First Saturday

The First Saturday tournaments take place in Hungary 6th-16th December 2008.

Official site: http://www.firstsaturday.hu/

24) 12th OIBM

Maxim Devereaux sends corrections and additions to a couple of games from the 12th OIBM in Bad Wiessee, Germany.

25) Kaikoura International

The 2008 South Island Championship was played in Kaikoura, South Island of New Zealand 8th-11th November 2008. Murray Chandler, Darryl Johansen and Stephen Solomon finished with 7/9. Apparently Chao Qi is an unrated New Zealander. Also Roger Nokes scored 6 not 6.5 as stated last week. My thanks to Helen Milligan who keeps http://www.newzealandchess.co.nz really rather nicely.

Crosstable and results :- http://www.newzealandchess.co.nz/results.html photos at http://www.nzchessevents.myphotoalbum.com

26) Copa PDV Sur

The Torneo Internacional Copa PDV Sur takes place in Buenos Aires - Club Argentino de Ajedrez - 30th November - 11th December 2008.

Dates: 1st Round: 30.11.2008 2nd Round: 01.12.2008 3rd Round: 02.12.2008 4th Round: 03.12.2008 5th Round: 04.12.2008 6th Round: 07.12.2008 7th Round: 08.12.2008 8tn Round: 10.12.2008 9th Round: 11.12.2008

Official site: http://www.argentinodeajedrez.com.ar/index.htm

27) Forthcoming Events and Links

7th Nancy Chess Festival

The 7th International Chess Festival takes place in Nancy (France) 16th-22nd February 2009. It will be a category 13 with average elo over 2550 (with january-elo). With the indian number 3 Pentala Harikrishna, the french number 5 Christian Bauer, the young hope of Germany Georg Meier, and the numbers 2 and 3 under-20 in France : Edouard and Feller (born in 1990 and 1991)...

Players: GM Harikrishna, P 2659 India GM Tregubov, Pavel 2646 Russia GM Krasenkow, Michal 2624 Poland GM Bauer, Christian 2592 France GM Meier, Georg 2558 Germany IM Edouard, Romain 2531 France GM Feller, Sebastien 2526 France IM Gozzoli, Yannick 2503 France IM Brunner, Nicolas 2415 France IM Nezar, Mustapha 2399 France

The all Festival includes 14 closed tournaments (10 players each) for all levels of players. Web (in french and english) : http://echecs54.free.fr/

11th Hotel Hilton Basle

The 11th Hotel Hilton Basle chess meeting The Swiss Chess Tour 2009 traditional start in the Hilton Basle from January 1-4. Three tournaments, main tournament will be 1st Memorial Ivan Nemet. GM Ivan Nemet pass away December 16, 2007. Prizes: 1.500/1.200/800/600/500/400/2x300/2x250 CHF. Special prizes, 200 CHF for best Lady, junior (89-92) and schoolboy (1993). Enter fee 140 CHF; FM and juniors 70 CHF; GM & IM free. At the door 20 CHF. The other tournaments Amateur Open and Senior Open. Amateur Open (under 2000 rating) Prizes: 700/500/400/3x300/4x200 CHF. Enter fee: 120 CHF (junior 60). Senior Open 5 rounds: Prizes: 500/400/300/2x200 CHF. Enter fee: 100 CHF. Application at the door for all groups 20 CHF. Time-control for all tournaments 7 rounds, 2 hours for 40 moves + 30 minutes each. Closing dinner 70 CHF.

Open desk for registration at January 1st at 12; Round 1 start at 5 p.m. in all groups.

More information and registration: Robert Spoerri tel. +41+62+9654-650, fax +41+62+9654-651 E-mail info@beochess.ch Further information: http://www.beochess.ch

Grand Slam Masters Final

The 2nd edition of the Grand Slam Masters Final will be played in Bilbao, September 2-15th 2009. The winners of Corus-Wijk aan Zee, Ciudad de Linares and Mtel Masters-Sofia tournaments will qualify directly for the Masters Final in Bilbao, where the first edition (played at a central square, inside a glass cube) was a very big success last September.

More details on the 2009 tournament (number of players, system of play, etc) will be announced at the end of the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The Grand Slam is in negotiations to include one more high level tournament in the 2009 circuit.

Grand Slam Chess Association (GSCA)

Dresden, 23 November 2008

Gibtelecom Chess Festival ICC Qualifier

The Internet Chess Club (ICC), in conjunction with the Gibtelecom Chess Festival, are again offering ICC members a unique opportunity to win a round trip ticket, hotel room, breakfast and an automatic seat to the exclusive 7th Gibtelecom Chess Festival, running January 27 to February 5 2009 at the Caleta Hotel, one of Gibraltar's best hotels.

The winner will be joined by many of the world's leading Grandmasters, in what is hailed by many as one of the best chess events in the world! This Blitz Tournament Qualifier is open only to full ICC members.

There will be two qualifiers to the knockout finals. You can play in as many qualifiers as you like. All qualifiers will have 11 rounds, swiss pairings. The games are rated in the Blitz category. Qualifier 1: 8:00am EST - Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 Qualifier 2: 6:00pm EST - Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 Finals: 1;00pm EST - Sunday, Dec 14, 2008

Austrian Team Championship

The Austrian team championship started in St Veit 7th-9th November 2008, the 11 round competition has further rounds 22nd-25th January and 19th-22nd March 2009. Players in the first three rounds included: Sergei Movsesian, Hikaru Nakamura, Emil Sutovsky, Jan Gustafsson and Alexander Beliavsky.

Official site: http://www.chess.at/ and results: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr12353.aspx?art=2&lan=1&m=-1

Nanjing Super GM

There is a Super GM Tournament in Nanjing, China taking place place 10th - 22nd December 2008. Six-player double round robin event.

Players: Veselin Topalov g BUL 2791; Vassily Ivanchuk g UKR 2786; Levon Aronian g ARM 2757; Movsesian Sergei g 2732 SVK; Peter Svidler g 2727; Bu Xiangzhi g CHN 2714.

It will be the strongest tournament ever held in China (at least by Elo average, 2751.6, making it a category 21 tournament)

The Nanjing tournament will become super one like Wijk aan Zee, Sofia, and Linares.

Further info: http://www.64ge.net/ and Gujuan Tzu's Chessnews Blog: http://blog.sina.com.cn/chessnews

Hastings Chess Congress

The Hastings Chess Congress takes place 28th December 2008 - 5th January 2009. Contact: Con Power at: conpowr@ol.com

Currently leading entries for the HASTINGS MASTERS BERG Emanuel, SWE, gm 2623, HOWELL David, ENG, gm 2593, NEVEROV Valeriy, UKR, gm (current Hastings Masters Champion) 2571, JONES Gawain, ENG, gm 2548, CONQUEST Stuart, ENG, gm (current British Champion) 2526, PAVLOVIC Milos, UKR, gm 2524, GORDON Stephen, ENG, im 2521, HEBDEN Mark, ENG, gm 2515, GORMALLY Daniel, ENG, gm 2514, HASLINGER Stewart, ENG, gm 2506, WILLIAMS Simon, ENG, 2494, BERNAL MORO Luis Javier, ESP, im 2451, GREET Andrew, ENG, im 2440, HUNT Adam, ENG, im 2431, HOUSKA Jovanka, ENG, wgm 2399, BATES Richard, ENG, im 2387

Further details: http://www.hastingschess.org.uk

Chess Study

Dr Robert Howard is making a study of rated chess players.

The full article: http://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/fidestudy/results

If you would like to participate, please go to this website: http://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/fidestudy/

For any queries, please contact Dr Robert Howard, University of New South Wales, on rwh@unsw.edu.au

18th Pamplona International

18th Pamplona International consists of a invitational Grandmaster tournament, and an open 9 round tournament. Both tournaments take place from 22nd December - 29th December 2008.

The invitational Grandmaster tournament is an eight-player round robin. Players are: GM Sasikiran, Krishnan (2694, IND), GM Roiz, Michael (2677,ISR), GM Malakhov, Vladimir (2675, RUS), GM Vallejo, Pons Francisco (2664,ESP), GM Caruana, Fabiano (2640,ITA), GM Delchev, Aleksander (2632,BUL), GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian (2616,RUS), and GM Salgado Lopez, Ivan (2556,ESP).

Official website: http://www.chesspamplona.com/

Jose Marca Memorial

The III Open Internacional ITT Jose Marca Memorial takes place in 10th-18th Lima January 2009. Grandmasters Sergey Tiviakov, Julio Granda, Bartolomiej Macieja and Emilo Cordova compete.

Official site: http://www.peruchess.org

Bundesliga

The second Bundesliga weekend took place 25th-26th October 2008.

The Schachbundesliga season 2008/09 runs 3rd-5th October and runs until March 2009. 16 Teams compete with team rosters of 16-18 players but only eight play each weekend. There will be live coverage of all the games.

Dates: 4th-5th October 2008 25th-26th October 2008 29th-30th November 2008 12th-14th December 2008 (Here the official seventh round will be played. Although some will be played at other times) 31st January 2008 - 1st February 2009. 28th February - 1st March 2009. 28th-29th March 2009.

Official site of the Schachbundesliga (http://www.schachbundesliga.de/index.aspx) Further information (in German) and the entrance site for the live coverage: http://www.schachbundesliga.de/index.aspx

European Youth U-16 winners Texas Scholarships

The University of Texas at Dallas (USA) has offered scholarships to the winners of the U-16 European Youth Chess Championships since 2007. The agreement with the European Chess Union has been extended for another three years. The total value of the scholarships during this five-year period will be approximately 1 million USD, said James A. Stallings, Director of the UTD chess program.

Interview on the ECU website: http://www.europechess.org/home518.aspx?art=ft

Gjovik International Festival 2008-9

The Gjovik International Chess Festival 2008-9 takes place 29th December - 7th January 2009.

Magnus Carlsen, Peter Svidler, Hikaru Nakamura (USA) and Simen Agdestein play in a Super rapid tournament January 2nd-5th 2009.

The tournament has a similar format to the Mainz Classic, with a double round tournament followed by final and bronze final games. The Norwegian audience will be eager to see Magnus Carlsen on home-gound again, as he hasn't played in Norway during 2008.

The rapid contest is part of a chess festival with a big and varied program, held on occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Gjovik chess club. The festival starts on December 29th, and the main tournament is a 9 round GM-Swiss open to players with a rating abov 2100. Reigning European champion Sergei Tiviakov (NL) 2686 is the highest rated player of the preliminary list of participants. There is also a parallell group open for all players rated below 2100.

Official site: http://www.gjovikfestival.sjakkweb.no

27th Elba Island Festival

The 27th International Chess Festival of Elba Island "Luigi Amalfi", takes place at the Hotel Lacona 10th-17th May 2009.

Details: http://www.tuscanhotels.it/en/cmsx.asp?IDPg=23

25th Bermuda Open

The 25th Bermuda Open takes place 30th January - 1st February 2008 at the luxurious Fairmont Southampton Resort on the South Shore with private tennis courts, golf course, beach, walking trails,  ferry into Hamilton for duty-free shopping 5 round Swiss. Register & pay on site.  For info contact Nigel Freeman at cadilly@northrock.bm or Carol Jarecki at carolj10280@yahoo.com  

Icelandic Team Championship

Icelandic Team Champ 1st div first half took place 3rd-5th October 2008. The 2nd set of games are March 21st-22nd March 2009 if I understand the website correctly. A small number of games are available.

Official site: http://www.skaksamband.is/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5982&Itemid=499# and results: http://chess-results.com/tnr16443.aspx?tnr=16443&art=16&lan=2&flag=30&m=-1

Doeberl Cup and Sydney International 2009

The 2009 Doeberl Cup is in Canberra 9th-13th April 2009. See http://www.doeberlcup.com.au/

The 2009 Sydney International Open takes place 15th-19th April 2009. See http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/index.cfm?site=open

Free entry to GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs.

Free accommodation for selected GMs and WGMs.

For further information, please contact Brian Jones info@chessaustralia.com.au

Czech Litomysl Chess Christmas

Czech Chess Christmas 2008 Litomysl (CZE) 26.12.2008-2.1.2009

10th christmas chess FIDE tournament, swiss system of 9 round, rate of game 2 x 1,5h + 30s/move, prize fund 64.000 CZK (1st prize 20.000 CZK = 750 EUR), 10 financial prizes redeemable by drawings, special conditions for IM, WGM and GM, New Year’s Eve programme.

Contact: Proclient s.r.o., Jaroslav Fuksik, Svedska 3, 772 00 Olomouc, mobile: +420 608 364 664, e-mail: a64@proclient.cz, web: http://www.a64.cz/tournaments/litomysl2008/

Leon Open

The city of Leon open takes place 26th-28th December 2008.

Details: http://www.openmundialdeleon.com

So - Torre Match 2009

14-year-old Wesley So and 56-year-old Eugene Torre play a 12 game match starting February 10, 2009 at the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City. Two games each will be played in Quezon City, Davao and Iloilo, and if the match remains undecided, the protagonists will return to Quezon City and finish the match. A knockout game will be played if the duel ends up 6-6. The winner will take home P600,000 while the loser will earn P400,000.Another P100,000 goes to the winner of each provincial leg while the loser will get P50,000.

VI Transcarpathian Rapidtournament Chess Decyk

VI Transcarpathian Rapidtournament "Chess Decyk" Ukraine, Uzhgorod, 28-29.08.2008

Organizers of tournament: Chess Federation of Uzhgorod Organizational committee: B. Borshosh, A. Samoylenko, V. Prokopishin Place: Ukraine, Uzhgorod, Pub-museum "Deca u notaria", Gagarin street, 98 Also Traditional Beer blitz-tournament will take place in Pub-museum "Deca u notaria"! Phone: +380503723900, +380503179153, (+3803122) 2-25-87 E-mail: chessfeduzh@rambler.ru Details: http://www.chessfeduzh.narod.ru

2nd Berkeley Masters

The 2008 Berkeley Masters takes place December 14th-23rd 2008 in Berkeley, California, finishing two days before the start of the North American Open in Las Vegas. It is a 10 round swiss, open to players rated fide 2200+. Space in the tournament and conditions for some Grandmasters are available on a first-come first-serve basis. Prize fund $5000 US. Info at http://dotq.org/chess

Hungarian Chess Tournaments July 2008 - March 2009

1. 19th-28th of July 2008 KECSKEMET, IM-FM Berger tmt, org: Dr.Erdelyi, Tamas, e-mail: postmaster@caissa.t-online.hu Website: http://www.caissachessbooks.hu Usually also in the second half of the month IM tmt-s in Kecskemet. 100 km South-East from Budapest.

2. 2nd-14th of August, FIRST SATURDAY Budapest GM-IM-FM, GM-IM-FM round robins (BERGER), 9-13 games, GM-IM norm possibilities in Budapest, venue: Hungarian Chess Federation, Falk Miksa Str.10. 2nd floor. Organisation: Nagy Laszlo, FIDE International Chess Organizer /NL/, E-mail: firstsat@hu.inter.net Website: http://www.firstsaturday.hu Phone-fax: +(361)-2632859, cellphone: +(36)-30-230-1914. From 12:00 a.m. until midnight - Central European Time = GMT+1.

3.16th-25th of August, IM-FM tmt, Kecskemet, org: Erdelyi

4.6th-18th of September GM-IM-FM First Saturday Budapest, org Nagy L,

5.20th -29th September IM-FM tmt Kecskemet, org Erdelyi

6.4th-16th of October, GM-IM-FM tmt, First Saturday Budapest, org.Nagy L.

7.18th-30th of October, SAKKAKADEMIA, GM-IM closed, org: WGM Csonkics, Tunde, info: firstsat@hu.inter.net

8.18th-27th of October IM-FM tmt Kecskemet, org Erdelyi.

9.1st-13th of November GM-IM-FM First Saturday Budapest, org Nagy L.

10. 15th-23rd of November, Kecskemet, IM dr.Erdelyi.

11.14th-22nd of November Tenkes Kupa Open, Harkany, 300 km South-West from Budapest, 9 round Swiss, org: Ambrus Lajos, mobile: 36-30-851-4224 e-mail: info@baranyasakk.hu www.baranyasakk.hu

12.6th-18th of December GM-IM-FM tmt, First Saturday Budapest, org Nagy L.

13.27th of Dec - 5th of January IM-FM tmt Kecskemet, org: Erdelyi.

14.9th-17th of January, EVADNYITO Open 9 rounds Swiss, Budapest, org: IA FAZEKAS, info: firstsat@hu.inter.net

15.23rd of January - 2nd of February, BALASSAGYARMAT WINTER, GM-IM closed, 100 km North from Budapest, Org: Nagy Laszlo, info: firstsat@hu.inter.net

16.7th-19th of February, FIRST SATURDAY GM-IM-FM Budapest - org: Nagy Laszlo, www.firstsaturday.hu - info: firstsat@hu.inter.net

17.7th-19th of March, First Saturday, Budapest, GM-IM-FM, org Nagy L.

18.20th-28th of March, 25th BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL 9 rounds Swiss Open, org: Nagy L. - e-mail: firstsat@hu.inter.net

2nd Queenstown Chess Classic 2009

Queenstown Chess Classic takes place in Queenstown, South Island of New Zealand 15th-24th January 2009.

This will be the second such event, the first was held in Jan 2006.

The Tournament promoter is GM Murray Chandler. Over $50,000 (NZ) is being offered in prizes with additional prizes in the Rapid and Blitz events being held on January 25th-26th 2009.

Full details: http://www.queenstownchess.com

GM Boris Alterman's Chess Lessons

GM Boris Alterman has a blog with free chess lessons on it.

Website: http://chesslessons.wordpress.com/

FIDE Grand Prix Events

The line ups for the FIDE Grand Prix events have been announced. The top four players in the world, along with players such as Morozevich and Shirov are missing. It seems that in the case of Kramnik and Topalov that they believe that the event doesn't have big enough prize money (according to quotes in Chess Today). All this was more or less known beforehand. However the players who have signed up make this a very attractive and interesting series of events. The grand prix is organised by Global Chess which is headed by Bessel Kok.

Details: http://www.fide.com/news.asp?id=1607

Event 1 April 20th - May 6th 2008, Baku, Azerbaijan
Event 2 July 30th - August 15th 2008, Sochi, Russia
Event 3 December 13th - 29th, 2008, Doha, Qatar
Event 4 April 14th - 28th, 2009, Montreux, Switzerland
Event 5 August 8th - 24th, 2009, Elista, Russia
Event 6 December 7th - 23rd, 2009, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

Etienne Bacrot's Website

Etienne Bacrot has a website at: http://www.chess22.fr/ with his analysis and news. Very worth while, especially when he's playing.

ICC and FICS client for mobile phones

Mats Luthman has written a program that connects to ICC and FICS, compatable with many modern mobile phones. I've been looking for something like this for a while for watching live tournaments if I'm out and about. Its a nice free solution, you can also play but I haven't tried that.

Website: http://www.luthman.nu/Mobi/Mobi.html