THE WEEK IN CHESS 737 22nd December 2008 by Mark Crowther

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1) Introduction

My thanks to Andrej Znidarcic, Jan Mazuch, Indrek Turu, Luiz Roberto De Costa Jr, Nebojsa Baralic, Miklos Orso, Pavel Makevich, Robert Fontaine and everyone else who helped with the issue.

Another big week of chess. The Pearl Spring tournament concluded with Veselin Topalov confirming his world number one status with a convincing win in the end as he did his usual trick of picking up speed towards the end. The FIDE Grand Prix in Elista has just gone past it's half way point. Alexander Grischuk leads with 5.5/8. The Pamplona chess festival started today and the Torre Memorial concluded yesterday. Plenty of stuff to keep us going over the holidays period. Have a great Christmas!

Hope you enjoy this issue.

Mark

2) Pearl Spring

The Pearl Spring Super GM Tournament took place 10th - 22nd December 2008 in Nanjing, China. Six-player double round robin event. Veselin Topalov had a big victory with a score of 7/10 a point and a half clear of Levon Aronian. Bu Xiangzhi was in contention for a long time but fell away with losses to Svidler and Ivanchuk in the final three rounds and finished in 3rd with 5/10.

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

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

Round 6. Veselin Topalov beat Levon Aronian after a lively semi-slav where he obtained a winning advantage, blew most, if not all of it and then had to win it all over again. Peter Svidler and Vassily Ivanchuk drew a dynamic Sicilian. Bu Xiangzhi defeated Sergei Movsesian in a Slav Defence after a decisive breakthrough on the 7th rank.

Round 7. Bu Xiangzhi and Veselin Topalov drew their round 7 clash in a Semi-Slav. The game was level even after Bu Xiangzhi netted the exchange but this changed and Topalov was under real pressure for some time before the game equalised. My feeling is that Bu missed a chance somewhere. Levon Aronian defeated Vassily Ivanchuk with black in an English Opening. The major piece ending offered black some possibilities to draw a pawn down but Aronian outplayed Ivanchuk. Peter Svidler won his first game of the event playing the Caro Kann as black against Sergei Movsesian. A very tricky game followed with Movsesian having a rook against Svidler's bishop and running pawn. Tactics turned out to be on Svidler's side and the passed b-pawn remained to the end of the game when it proved to be decisive.

Round 8. Veselin Topalov got a big advantage from the Sicilian Four Knights opening against Vassily Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk bailed into an ending a pawn down and a really hopeless position. Peter Svidler played d4 against Bu Xiangzhi and got a small advantage which he nursed through to a decisive endgame advantage. Levon Aronian got nothing from the opening against Sergei Movsesian and a draw resulted.

Round 9. Veselin Topalov won with black against Peter Svidler to win the tournament. The opening was a Caro-Kann Advanced vatiation in which black got an early initiative and Svidler just couldn't hold on. Sergei Movsesian bailed out into perpetual check against Vassily Ivanchuk after an interesting Bb5+ Ruy Lopez. Bu Xiangzhi vs Levon Aronian was a Slav that also ended in perpetual.

Round 10. Veselin Topalov confirmed his tournament win with a fairly dull draw in an Exchange Slav against Sergei Movsesian in the final round. Levon Aronian seemed to get quite a bit of pressure from an English Four Knights against Peter Svidler. This may have been something of an illusion as pieces and pawns disappeared for a sterile position in the end. Vassily Ivanchuk bamboozled Bu Xiangzhi in a Petroff Defence and emerged with a great position from the opening. Ivanchuk made the best of a good situation and quickly carved open Bu's king in a heavy piece middle game.

3) FIDE Grand Prix Elista

The latest Grand Prix tournament takes place in Elista 13th-29th December 2008. There have been a number of withdrawals due to FIDE's change of regulations but the event is still a very reasonable category 19. There is play on Christmas day!

Official site: http://elista2008.fide.com/

4) 8th Amplico AIG Life Rapid Warsaw

The 8th Amplico AIG Life Rapid took place in Warsaw 20th-21st December 2008. Radoslaw Wojtaszek won the event with 11.5/13. Time control g15m+10s per move and in the playoff 5 minutes for white and 4 minutes for black for a game, with an increment of 1 second per move.

Official site: http://www.poloniachess.pl/amplico2008/

5) Carlos Torre Memorial

The XXI Carlos Torre Memorial took place in Merida, Yucutan, Mexico 13th-22nd December 2008. The event consists of a Swiss system event which then split off to a knockout with those leading the swiss after 6 rounds going on to play the stars starting on December 17th. Alexander Onischuk won the event by defeating Yuniesky Quezada Perez 1.5-0,5 in the final. The documentation went a bit flakey towards the end so I don't know who won the open section.

Official site: http://www.carlostorre.org.mx/inicio2008.htm

6) 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/

7) Groningen Chess Festival

The annual Groningen Chess Festival takes place December 21st-30th 2008. It will be held in the renowned Harmoniegebouw, closely related to the 1946 Staunton tournament won by Botwinnik. In several groups players of all strengths will compete with some strong Dutch and international contenders playing in the top group. The 45th edition of the Groningen Chess Festival will also feature a match between two young Dutch grandmasters. Groningen based law student Jan Werle, who became EC champion in October, will face this year's Dutch champion Jan Smeets. Both players were members of the Dutch team that competed at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden. Games will be played between 25th and 29th December. Rapid games will decide the outcome of the match on December 30th 2008 if required. Hans Boehm and former Dutch champion Gert Ligterink will provide live commentary during the match. The Groningen Chess Festival is organised by the Stichting Schaakstad Groningen.

Official site: http://www.schaakstadgroningen.nl/index.php/festival-2008

8) Indian National A Championships

The 46th Indian National A Championship for men takes place in Mangalore 17th-30th December 2008.

The 35th Indian National A Championship for women takes place in New Delhi 18th-28th December 2008.

I've taken the standings from the games. The moves from the round 1 women's games are missing.

Various websites cover the event: http://www.karnatakachess.com/ - http://www.indianchessfed.org/ with results of the men's (but not as far as I can see women's): http://chess-results.com/tnr18097.aspx and games at: http://monroi.com/

9) Brazilian Championship

75th Brazilian Championship took place in Porto Alegre, capital of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul 7th-16th December, 2008. Andre Diamante took clear first place with 8/11 ahead of top seeds GMs Giovanni Vescovi, Rafael Leitao, Gilberto Milos and Alexandr Fier.

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

10) 4N Cuatro Naciones

The 4N Cuatro Naciones took place in Donostia-San Sebastian 19th-20th December 2008. Cataluna won the event with 7.5 points a point clear of Argentina.

Official site: http://www.xake.net/1%20Inicio.htm and Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr18142.aspx?datatyp=&lan=1

11) III Open Palma de Mallorca

The III Open Palma de Mallorca took place 6th-14th December 2008. Stewart Haslinger finished with 7.5/9. Games from rounds 8-9 are still not yet available.

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

12) XVIII Magistral Elgoibar

The XVIII Magistral Elgoibar took place 12th-19th December 2008. Oleg Korneev and Azer Mirzoev finished on 6.5/9. The games section packed in after 5 rounds, I do have a partial round 8 also.

Official site

13) 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. Games from round 9 now available.

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

14) Milan

The Crespi Memorial organized by Societa Scacchistica Milanese (founded in 1881) took place in Milano, Italy December 6th-13th 2008. Karen Movsziszian took clear first place with 7.5/9. Games from the first five rounds only are available.

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

15) First Saturday

The First Saturday tournaments took place in Hungary 6th-16th December 2008. Zlatko Ilincic took clear first in the GM Group with 8/12.

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

16) Coulsdon Christmas International

The Coulsdon Chess Fellowship organised an IM tournament 15th-19th December 2008. Yang-Fan Zhou and Rawle Allicock both scored their 1st IM norms.

Official site: http://www.ccfworld.com/Chess/index.htm

17) 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. Couldn't find any games so far.

Round 8 Standings: 6 / 8: GM Giorgi Kacheishivili 5.5 / 8: GM Zviad Izoria, IM Irina Krush 5 / 8: GM Josh Friedel 4.5 / 8: GM Dashzegve Sharavdorj, FM Daniel Rensch, WIM Iryna Zenyuk 4 / 8: GM Vinay Bhat, IM Lev Milman, IM Justin Sarkar, FM Marc Esserman 3.5 / 8: GM Jesse Kraai, IM David Pruess, FM Daniel Naroditsky 3 / 8: IM Sandor Kustar, FM Dale Haessel 2.5 / 8: FM Bela Evans

18) Yuri Kulaga Memorial

The Yuri Kulaga Memorial took place 6th-14th December 2008, Minsk, Belarus. Evgeniy Podolchenko took clear first place with 7.5/9. No games available.

Final Ranking: http://bychess.com/news/turnir-pamjati-yu-v-kulagi-pobediteli

19) 15th Croatian Open

The 15th Croatian Open took place in Zadar 14th-20th December 2008. Sinisal Drazic won with 6.5/9 half a point clear of the field.

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

20) Helio da Motta Filho Cup

The Helio da Motta Filho Cup takes place in Rio de Janeiro 9th-17th December 2008. Dan Cramling and Leandro Perdomo finished on 7.5/9. Games from rounds 3, 8 and 9 are missing.

Official site: http://www16.brinkster.com/rjalex/

21) Campeonato Paulista do Interior

The Festival Natalino de Xadrez 2008 IRT- Campeonato Paulista do Interior took place in Santos-SP 19th-21st December 2008. Everaldo Matsuura won on tie-break with 4.5/6.

Details: http://www.fpx.com.br/

22) Albin Planinec 1944-2008

Albin Planinec born 18th April 1944 died 20th December 2008. The Slovenian Grandmaster took first place in the Vidmar memorial Ljubljana 1969 and won a famous game against Vaganian with black at Hastings 1974/75...

News: http://www.sah-zveza.si

23) Nikola Karaklajic 1926-2008

Nebojsa Baralic reports: Belgrade Chess Union is saddened to inform the chess public that International Master Nikola Karaklajic passed away on 16th December in Belgrade, at the age of 83. Nikola Karaklajic was born on 24th February 1926 in Belgrade. He learned how to play chess at the beginning of the elementary school, but only after the second World War he started entering in tournaments and quickly showed great talent. Besides chess, his passion was music and he also studied English and French at the Belgrade University.

He was one of the most important figures in Yugoslavian and Serbian chess. Player, writer, trainer, organizer, arbiter, journalist, chess ambassador - it is not easy to sum all of his achievements. Yugoslav Semifinal Championship in 1950 brought him the title of national master. FIDE recognized him as an International Master in 1955. His most important tournament results: San Benedito del Tronto 1953 - 3rd, Krinica 1956 - 2-4th, Bognor Ridges 1958 - 1-3rd, 1959 and 1960 - 3rd, 1962, 1962 and 1966 - 1st, San Benedito del Tronto 1958 - 1st, Singapore 1968 - 1st, Belgrade 1969 -1st, Smederevska Palanka 1971 - 2nd, Chicago 1973 - 2-3rd, Casablanca 1973 1-4th, London 1976 1-4th, Athens 1977 - 3rd, Belgrade 1977 1-2nd, Venice 1981 - 1st, Dubai 1984 -1st, 1986 - 1-2nd, Bela Crkva 1987 - 2-4th, Biel veterans 1987 - 1st, Alger 1990 - 2nd, La Valeta 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1996 - 1st.

He participated in ten Yugoslav Championships, which is a remarkable success on its own, having in mind difficult qualification process. He became Yugoslav Champion on 1955 in Novi Sad, at one of the strongest championships ever. In one of his recent columns he recalled how he shuddered during the last round game against great Svetozar Gligoric. In 1956 Moscow Chess Olympiad he won a silver medal with Yugoslav team, collecting 6/9 points on the 4th board. Next year he won another team silver at the 1st European Team Championship in Wien and Baden. After the college, he worked as Editor in the Music department of Radio Belgrade from 1957 till 1982. He was the first to take a record of "Beatles" from England to a communist country and play it over the state radio. This started a dramatic change in Yugoslav music. His radio show "On Sunday Evening" was extremely popular, our parents still speak of it with great respect.

Besides English and French, Nikola spoke perfect Russian, German and Italian, which allowed him to easily communicate with people all over the world. He was a longtime coach in chess club "Partizan" and various junior camps in Yugoslavia and abroad. He captained UAE chess team in two Olympiads, Singapore team in 1968-1974 Olympiads and Malta team in 1992-1994 Olympiads. During the 1986 Dubai Olympiad he acted as Chief of the protocol.

He was Chief Arbiter of the 1992 rematch between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. Chess Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Libya on 1976-1977. Author of the highly acclaimed book "Da Te Pitam", published by Chess Informant and translated to Arabic. He wrote columns in numerous newspaper, magazines and specialised chess editions - his last article in daily newspaper Danas appeared two days ago under the title "Weak Points". Until the very last day he was actively participating in tournaments. He played at the recent 21st Belgrade Trophy and his last games were on Saturday at Petar Trifunovic Memorial. He was one of the key figures behind the successful efforts to officially introduce chess curriculum in elementary schools in Serbia.

Serbia Chess Federation / Belgrade Chess Federation Nebojsa Baralic, International Arbiter

24) Europe-Echecs 50th Anniversary

Europe-Echecs is about to celebrate it's 50th Anniversary. Founded in 1959 they have a special interview and article on their website.

Article and video

25) Forthcoming Events and Links

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

51st Reggio Emilia Tournament

The 51st Reggio Emilia Tournament takes place 27th December 2008 - 4th January 2009. Zoltan Almasi will defend the trophy won last year in a category 14 tournament. Two strong young italian IMs , Ronchetti and Shytaj will try their chances for a GM norm. This year also a B tournament , category 5, for the IM norm will take place:

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

Prague and Marienbad Open

The 8th International Chess Festival PRAGUE OPEN 2009, takes place 9th-16th January 2009 in the capital of the Czech Republic, has been prolonged without extra fee for the late entering till 4.1. 2009. On the date 18.12. 2008. 89 players were registered to the main FIDE open with the possibility to fulfil IM norm (out of which 5 GM, 1 WGM and 15 IM) and 53 players were registered to the side FIDE open. More detailed information should be found on http://www.czechtour.net/prague-open/.

8th International Chess Festival MARIENBAD OPEN 2009 will be held 17.-25.1. 2009 in Marienbad (the second biggest spa town in the Czech Republic). Within the frame of the festival there will be 1 closed GM tournament, 2 closed IM tournaments, FIDE open, active chess and blitz tournament. Regulatios should be found on http://www.czechtour.net/marienbad-open/).

Current list of applications for both events is available on http://www.czechtour.net/news/.

Paul Keres Memorial Rapid

The 19th International Rapid Chess Tournament of Paul Keres Memorial, takes place in 9th-11th January 2009.

Website: http://www.maleliit.ee/tabelid/2009/keres/. There's a pdf file with regulations on this link http://www.maleliit.ee/download/2009/kereseng.pdf

Ivanchuk - Leko Match

Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Leko will play a 6 game rapid match in Mukachevo , Ukraine 3rd-5th January 2009. Time control: (6 rounds, 25 min + 10 sec per move).

Schedule: * January 2 2009: o 18:00 - official open ceremony * January 3 2009: o 15:30 - 1-st round o 17:00 - 2-nd round * January 4 2009: o 15:30 - 3-d round o 17:00 - 4-th round * January 5 2009: o 15:30 - 5-d round o 17:00 - 6-th round o 19:00 - official close ceremony

According to google with the offical site: http://www.ivanchukleko2009.com and http://chess32x64.org/ (Ukrainian language) had problems with trojans, but this has been definitively fixed now.

Luis Scalise

Luis Scalise's chess pages have moved to: http://scalise.fortunecity.com/

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/

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 event@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

The 7th edition of Gibraltar's Gibtelecom Chess Festival takes place from Tuesday 27 January to Thursday 5 February 2009 at the Caleta Hotel. Details: http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/gib2009/index.html

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

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

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

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.

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

Bundesliga

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

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, Elista, Russia (Doha, Qatar withdrew)
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