THE WEEK IN CHESS 756 4th May 2009 by Mark Crowther

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1) Introduction

My thanks to Adolivio Capece, Luis Blasco de la Cruz, Luiz Roberto Da Costa Jr, Anders Hansen, Christian Clin, Antti Parkkinen, Dave Clayton, Dirk Austin, Jan Mazuch, Emmanuel Variniac, Gerard Demuydt, Ian Wilkinson, Jon Speelman, Bela Lengyel, George Mirijanian, Miklos Orso, Piet Boonen, Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh, Rohan Waithe, Thomas Henrich, Yuri Zimmerman and everyone else who helped with the issue.

Levon Aronian took clear first place at the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Nalchik after a final round win against Peter Leko, the pair were joint leaders going into the final round. Elsewhere there has been a lot of team chess as well as open tournaments. Sad news from Prague with the death of Miroslav Filip, anyone who was a two time Candidate from that era deserves a lot of respect.

Hope you enjoy this issue.

Mark

2) 4th FIDE Grand Prix Tournament in Nalchik

The FIDE Grand Prix Series Tournament took place in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia 14th-29th April 2009. Levon Aronian took clear first place by a point after beating his co-leader in the final round. Peter Leko and Vladimir Akopian finished in joint 2nd place. Alexander Grischuk and Etienne Bacrot were a further half point behind. The total prize-fund was 162,000 Euros.

Official website: http://www.nalchik2009.fide.com

3) French League Top 16

The French Team Championship (TOP 16) took place in Mulhouse (group A) and Chalons-en-Champagne (group B) 30th April - 3rd May 2009. The Poule Haute and Basse take place 28th-31st May 2009. The top 4 teams in each group take forward the three results against each other and play off against the teams from the other group to produce a final winner.

Official site: http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Equipes.aspx

4) 4NCL

The 4NCL took place 4th October 2008 - 4th May 2009. Rounds 9-11 took place 2nd-4th May 2009 in the De Vere Venues in Staverton near Daventry. Games from the live coverage are available, there are more which should be available next week along with details of the final tables.

Official site: http://www.4ncl.co.uk - Live coverage: http://www.bcfservices.org.uk/livechess/4ncl/0809/index.htm

5) Hungarian Team Championship 2008-9

The Hungarian Team Championships took place 26th October - 18th April 2009. Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai Tungsram Sakk-Klub (Shirov 1 game, Polgar 2 games, Balogh, Beliavsky, Markus etc) took first place.

Official site: http://www.chess.hu/hu/bajnoksagok.php

6) IV Campeonato de Espana de Selecciones Autonomicas

The IV Campeonato de Espana de Selecciones Autonomicas took place 30th April - 3rd May 2009 in Villava, Navarra. Cataluna (Illescas, Lopez Martinez, Narciso Dublan, Oms Pallisse etc) took first place from Aragon (Llorente Zaro). Games from rounds 5 and 6 not yet available.

Official site: http://www.fnajedrez.com/index.php/competiciones-oficiales/cto-espana.html

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr21519.aspx

7) Torch Real Estate Cup

The Chinese team competition the Torch Real Estate Cup started in Chengdu China on 4th May 2009. I don't have dates, venues or details as the official site won't google translate for me. Last year the first 8 rounds were in May and the conclusion was in October. 5 games from the 1st round are available.

Live games: http://live.chinaqiyuan.com/chess/tfd.htm

Official site: http://chess.sport.org.cn/

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr21650.aspx

8) 11th Dubai Open

The 11th Dubai Open Chess Championship for the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup took place 25th April - 5th May 2009. Tigran Kotanjian, Dmitry Bocharov and Ashot Anastasian finished on 7/9.

Official site: http://www.dubaichess.ae/

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr21390.aspx

9) XXII Benidorm Open

The 22nd Benidorm Open took place 24th April - 3rd May 2009, 10 round swiss. Eduardo Iturrizaga edged out Robert Kempinski and Julen Luis Arizmendi Martinez on tie-break after they all finished on 8/10.

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

10) VI Magistral Hebraica

The VI Magistral Hebraica took place in Sao Paulo 20th-28th April 2009. Gilberto Milos and Alexandr Fier finished on 6.5/9 although the results below are unofficial as I haven't seen an official final table.

Official site: http://www.comunic.com.br/xadrez/

11) 8th Annual Heroes Day

The 8th Annual Heroes Day International Chess Tournament took place in Bridgetown, Barbados on April 27th - May 3rd, 2009. Alexander Shabalov won the event with 7.5/9.

Websites: http://www.barbados.org/chess/ - http://www.fideamerica.com/index.php and http://chessdrum.net/

12) China's 2010 World Cup Qualification

China's 2010 World Cup Qualification events for Men and Women took place 17th - 28th April 2009 in Beijing. 12 men competed for 2 places and Zhou Jianchao and Wang Hao finished level on 7/11. 12 women played for 4 places Ruan Lufei and Shen Yang made 7.5/11, Huang Qian and Ju Wenjun made 7. Wang Yue, Ni Hua, Bu Xiangzhi, Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue and Xu Yuhua are already qualified by rating. (Info: China Chess Association). I'm hoping a game file turns up.

News: http://blog.sina.com.cn/chessnews

Official site: http://chess.sport.org.cn/

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr21467.aspx - http://chess-results.com/tnr21468.aspx

13) Dutch Juniors

The Junior Championships of the Netherlands took place in Venlo, in the southeast of the Netherlands. There were separate groups for the ages U21, U17 and U15, and per age-group there is a general group and a group for girls only. Robin Van Kampen won the event with 7/9.

Piet Boonen reports: Robin Van Kampen new junior champion of the Netherlands

On May 2nd, the Dutch junior championships U21 ended in an exiting finish. Three players were in front before the last round, topseed Robin Swinkels and two 14 year old youngsters, Benjamin Bok and Robin Van Kampen. All had 6 points, and it was clear that the championship would go to one of them, although Christov Kleijn, trailing by half a point, still had theoretical chances.

In the final round, Robin Swinkels quickly lost to Roi Miedema. Christov Kleijn defeated Marijn Otte and kept his chances alive, but by then Robin Van Kampen was winning, although he had to navigate around the perpetual checks which his opponent, Lody Kuling, tried to build in. He managed to do this successfully, and took the lead. In the meantime, Benjamin Bok saw his chances diminish. In his game against Lars Ootes, he ended up in an inferior endgame, and although he tried very hard, he lost his game.

Robin Van Kampen therefore became the new junior champion of the Netherlands, and at an age of 14, he is one of the youngest champions ever. Only one player before him become champion at the age of 14, Jan Timman in 1966. I believe Timman was a month younger when he became champion, but it is clear that with Van Kampen and Bok a new generation is emerging, which holds great promises for the future of Dutch chess.

In the Women U21 Leonore Braggaar became the new champion, after defeating Pauline Van Nies 2-0 in the playoffs. Both ladies ended, together with Lisa Hortensius, on 6,5 points. As there is a new rule this year, limiting the players for a playoff to two, Lisa Hortensius ended as third. The games of the playoff were not registered, due to the fact that the organisation ordered the playoff to be played in a secluded room, and left no time to build up a digital board there, and neither provided assistance in annotating these games.

In the other groups, Hugo Ten Hertog became champion U17, Evie Warmelink champion Women U17, Roger Meng champion U15 and Diana Dalemans champion Women U15.

Official site: http://www.lisb.nl/nkjeugd/ [in Dutch]

14) First Saturday May

The First Saturday tournaments take place 2nd-15th May in Budapest. No GM group this month, just an IM and two FM sections.

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

15) 5th Thessaloniki Games Festival

The 5th Thessaloniki Games Festival took place 26th April - 4th May 2009. Giorgi Bagaturov and Baris Esen finished on 7/9 in the Thessaloniki Open. Games from the final round not yet available.

There was the World Schools Championships (covered in detail on the official site and chessdom site) and World Amateur Championship where Stefan Parlog beat Euclides Roberto Ferreira in the final round to claim the Championship.

Official site: http://gamesfestival.chessdom.com/ and http://www.gamesfestival.com/

16) III Cerrado Manises

The III Cerrado Manises takes place in Manises - Valencia (Spain) 20th April - 10th May 2009.

Official site: http://www.escuelavalencianadeajedrez.com/ - Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr21095.aspx

17) Ostravsky Konik Festival

The Ostravsky Konik Festival takes place 1st-10th May 2009. GM tournament and FIDE opens.

Official site: http://www.ostravskykonik.cz/

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr21618.aspx

18) Azerbaijan vs the World

Azerbaijan will play a world team in Baku as part of the "President's Cup" 7th-9th May 2009. The players will have 25 minutes per game.

The Scheveningen event will see the Azerbaijan team of : Teimour Radjabov (5), Vugar Gashimov (16), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (20), Gadir Guseinov (65) take on The World: Vishwanathan Anand (India, 2), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 4), Alexey Shirov (Spain, 13) and Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine, 23).

Azerbaijan's team is currently ranked 5th in the world behind Russia, China, Ukraine and Israel in terms of the average rating of its top ten players.

I don't have an official website currently.

19) 1st Caen Masters

The 1st Caen Masters took place 28th March - 3rd April 2009. Romain Picard won the event with 6/9.

Official site: http://bno-echecs.fr/

20) II La Vega Chess Open

The II La Vega Chess Open took place 20th-24th April 2009, in La Vega, Dominican Republic. Julio Becerra Rivero won with 7.5/9. No games available.

Photo report: http://www.chessbase.com/espanola/newsdetail2.asp?id=7066

21) 2nd Mumbai Mayors Cup

The 2nd Mumbai Mayors Cup International Open Chess Tournament takes place May 1st-9th 2009.

Alexander Areshchenko, Abhijeet Gupta and Andrei Deviatkin are on 5/5. Round 2 has a lot of transmission errors. Almost all the names were backwards in the game file. No standings available either.

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

Live coverage: http://www.monroi.com/watch/?tnm_id=1251

22) Italian Team Championships

The Italian Team Championships took place in Senigallia 30th April - 3rd May 2009. Obiettivo Risarcimento won the event with 11/14 points starting with a loss and a draw before winning their remaining matches. Kiril Georgiev, Alfonso Romero Holmes, Fabio Bellini, Sabino Brunello who scored 7/7 for a 3099 performance were in the winning team. Pesaro finished a point behind with a team of IM Denis Rombaldoni, IM Axel Delorme, IM Axel Rombaldoni, M. Ragonesi. There was a women's event alongside.

23) 7th Brussel International Rapid

The 7th Brussel International Rapid Chess tournament took place 2nd-3rd May 2009 in Brussels. 11 rounds, 25 minutes. 6 GMs participate : - Ulf Andersson - Predrag Nikolic (winner 2008) - Ivan Sokolov (winner 2007) - Ralf Akesson - Alexandre Dgebuadze - Alexei Barsov (winner 2006)

Ivan Sokolov won again this year. I don't have further details yet.

Official site: http://www.creb.be

24) III Open Internacional Hotel D. Luis

Open Hotel D. Luis - Coimbra - Portugal

The III Open Internacional Hotel D. Luis took place 30th April - 3rd May 2009. Vladimir Talla, Alberto Andres Gonzalez and Kevin Spraggett had 4/4. Final results not yet available. No games available.

Official site: http://www.xadrez64.com/

25) Argentine Championships

The Championships of Argentina 2009 take place in April and May. Semifinals: 30th April - 6th May, 2009 in La Plata. Final: 9th-20th May, 2009 in La Plata. Place: Club Espanol de la Plata.

Official site: http://www.ajedrez.com.ar/

26) Lluis Muratet Memorial

The Lluis Muratet Memorial Primavera 2009 took place 1st-3rd May 2009 in Banyoles - (Girona - Spain). Rapid tournament with Korchnoi as a guest.

Official site: http://escacsbanyoles.cat/

27) 9th Znojmo Open

The 9th International Chess Festival Znojmo Open 2009, took place 30th April - 3rd May 2009 in the town of Znojmo (the Czech Republic). Events included a FIDE open with 7 rounds won by Yrij Vorobyov and the Znojmo Queen - Open Women’s Czech Championship in Active Chess won by Jana Jackova. Games may follow.

More detailed information at http://www.czechtour.net/znojmo-open/

28) 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup

The 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup will be organised by the Pivdenny Bank in Odessa, Ukraine on 22nd-24th May 2009. As usual, it will be a KO tournament with 16 participants. In accordance with the ACP rules, 13 of 16 spots are given to the players who qualified from the ACP Tour 2007/08. The total prize fund will be USD $57,000. The winner receives USD $10,000. Viktor Korchnoi has been invited as a commentator for the spectators. According to the tournament director, WGM Masha Klinova, as of 27th April the following 13 Grandmasters have confirmed their participation: Jakovenko (2753), Grischuk (2748), Movsesian (2747), Gashimov (2730), Bacrot (2728), Svidler (2726), Naiditsch (2700), Eljanov (2693), Efimenko (2682), Najer (2669), Karpov (2644), Tregubov (2628) and Drozdovskij (2603).

The official tournament website (in Russian) is the chess site of the Pivdenny Bank, http://worldcup.pivdenny.com.

29) Italian Senior Championship

The Italian Senior Championship took place in Arvier (Aosta Valley) April 24th - May 2nd 2009. 48 players (new record for participation). News: Adolvio Capece.

The winner is Carlo Barlocco from Legnano (near Milan) owing to the best tie-break on Giusepppe laco from Gorizia (champion 2008). Third Renato Tribuiani from Roma. Antonio Pipitone from Parma was the oldest player: 83 years old.

Women: the winner is Maria Rosa Centofante from Varese (see 'podio femminile')

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

30) Rhode Island State Championship

George Mirijanian reports: The Rhode Island State Championship took place 2nd-3rd May 2009 at Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. GM Alexander Ivanov, 53, of Newton, Massachusetts, and IM David Vigorito, 38, of Somerville, Mass. tied for first place with scores of 4.5-0.5, including a draw with one another in the third round. Finishing as runner-up with a 3.5-1.5 tally and gaining the state championship title as the highest-scoring resident was U.S. Chess Federation-rated expert David Harris, 55, of Providence. Other top scorers included experts Ben Bentrup of Middletown, Rhode Island, and Carlos Avalos of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, both of whom tallied 3-2. The tournament was held in three sections and drew 41 players. Frank Vogel III directed, with assistance from Eric Berkey, for the sponsoring Rhode island Chess Association.

31) Miroslav Filip 1928-2009

Two times World Championship Candidate Miroslav Filip has died. Born October 27th, 1928 in Prague - April 27th, 2009 in Prague.

IM title 1953, GM in 1955. Filip represented Czechoslovakia in 12 consecutive Chess olympiads from Helsinki 1952 to Nice 1974, playing 194 games with the overall result (+62 =104 -28).

In 1955 Filip was 7th in the Goteborg Interzonal, qualifying for the Amsterdam Candidates Tournament in 1956. He finished eighth out ten players. In 1962 Filip he qualified in fifth place (from 23 players) at the Stockholm Interzonal. This qualified him for the Candidates tournament in Curaçao, where he finished equal 7th with Tal who didn't play the final cycle. Filip won Czech Championship three times: in 1950 at Gottwaldov, in 1952 at Tatranska Lomnica, and in 1954 in Prague. A two time Candidate in that era was a very special achievement.

Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miroslav_Filip. ChessBase obituary by Ray Keene at: http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5400

32) Forthcoming Events and Links

Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament

The Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament 2009 takes place 3rd - 7th June 2009.

For 17 years in a row the tournament has been played in Malmo, Sweden and this time will be no different. The tournament will be played at the classical Hipp Theater in central Malmo, for the twelfth time. This year, the tournament has a new format, with only six players playing five rounds.

Tournament Schedule Round 1 3 June 14.00-21.00 CET Round 2 4 June 14.00-21.00 CET Round 3 5 June 14.00-21.00 CET Round 4 6 June 14.00-21.00 CET Round 5 7 June 12.00-19.00 CET

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

III La Laguna Open

The III La Laguna Open takes place 4th-10th May 2009. Julio Granda Zuniga and Vladimir Epishin are the top seeds.

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

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr21480.aspx

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.

Chess Classic Mainz

The Chess Classic Mainz takes place 27th July - 2nd August 2009 in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz.

The world championships in rapid chess and Chess960 will be staged in a tried and trusted double round robin format with four players, after which the players battle it out in mini-matches to determine the top spot. The players for the main events have already been contracted.

The GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship sees the World Chess Champion and Chess Classic serial winner Vishy Anand will try to defend his title for the 11th time in a row. He faces Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Arkadij Naiditsch.

Other events include the gigantic ORDIX rapid chess Open, the FiNet Ches960 Open, the open tournaments for U14 talents, the 40 board simultaneous exhibition with Levon Aronian, the Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship, etc., etc.

Full details: http://www.chesstigers.de

XXXV Sitges Open

The XXXV Open Internacional d'Escacs "Vila de Sitges" takes place 22nd-30th July 2009.

Official site: http://www.casinoprado.cat/open.html

Details: http://chess-results.com/tnr20620.aspx?lan=2

"King's Gambit" in Lipetsk

There will be an international chess festival called "King's Gambit" in Lipetsk, Russia, between June 22nd (arrival day) and July 3rd, 2009. The festival consists of two round-robin tournaments (one with GM norm and one with IM norm) and an open for FIDE rating. Opening ceremony: 2.30 p.m. on July 23, 1st round at 3 p.m. Festival director: Zimmerman, Yuri . Tel.: +7-4742-720064, or +7-919-255-9764. E-mail: zimmerman@lipetsk.ru."

US Championships

The 2009 US Chess Championship takes place in St Louis, United States, May 7th-17th 2009. 24 players compete including: Varuzhan Akobiana, Julio Becerra Rivero, Joel Benjamin, Michael Brooks, Larry Christiansen, Jaan Ehlvest, Josh Friedel, Boris Gulko, Robert Hess, Tyler Hughes, Ildar Ibragimov, Gregory Kaidanov, Gata Kamsky, Melik Khachiyan, Irina Krush, Charles Lawton, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Onischuk, Ray Robson, Enrico Sevillano, Alexander Shabalov, Yury Shulman and Anna Zatonskih.

The women's championship takes place 2nd-12th October 2009 at the same venue.

Live coverage at the St Louis Chess Club website, TWIC, ICC and ChessBase.

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

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

Reno Far West Open

The Far West Open Chess Tournament took place April 10th-12th 2009 in Reno Nevada. Sergey Kudrin edged out Enrico Sevillano and Gergerly Antal who finished on 5/6. Games should follow.

Official site: http://www.renochess.org/fwo/index.html

32nd Taminco Gent Open

The 32nd Taminco Open International Chess Tournament Gent (Belgium) takes place 18th-22nd July 2009, 9 rounds Swiss, two hours KO chess, prize money 8400 euro for 400 participants. This traditional open tournament takes place near the center of the medieval town of Gent in the week of the famous annual Gent festivities. Email: open2009@kgsrl.be

Information and registration: http://www.kgsrl.be

Info Gent annual festivities: http://www.gentsefeesten.be/

Dutch Teams

The Dutch Team Championship takes place 27th September 2008 - 10th May 2009. Round 8 was on 18th April 2009. The final round 9 is on 10th May 2009. HSG (Van Wely, Nikolic, Stellwagen, Seirawan, L'Ami etc ) are already champions.

Great coverage at: http://www.schakers.info/ and also the http://www.schaakbond.nl/wedstrijdschaak/knsb-competitie/

Voronezh-2009

The 13th "Voronezh-2009" traditional chess festival takes place 10th-21st June 2009.

Details: http://www.relex.ru/~xuser/voronezh_open

13th Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament 2009

The 13th Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament takes place August 1st-8th 2009 in Vlissingen, Netherlands.

Official site: http://www.hztoernooi.nl and contact e-mail: hgroffen@zeelandnet.nl.

Canadian Open

The Canadian Open takes place in Edmonton, Alberta Canada July 11th-19th 2009. Alexei Shirov adn Michael Adams are among the early entrants.

Details: http://monroi.com/2009-canadian-open-chess-championship-home.html

San Sebastian GM

There is a tournament in San Sebastian July 6th-16th 2009.

Prizes in Euros: 1.- 9.000 2.- 6.000 3.- 4.000 4.- 3.500 5.- 3.000 6.- 2.500 7.- 2.000 8.- 1.500 9.- 1.000 10.- 500

There will be also a B tournament (cat. XI), C tournament (cat. VIII), and D tournament (female players). The games will be played in the same hall that held the historic tournament in 1911 won by Capablanca and the organisers are hoping for a special event to commemorate the centenary. News David Llada. Website to be announced.

Dortmund

The Dortmund Chess Meeting takes place 2nd-12th July 2009. Players: Kramnik, Leko, Carlsen, Jakovenko, Bacrot, and Naiditsch play.

Details: http://www.chess-international.de/?p=429

Brno Chess Festival

The Duras Chess Club organises the Brno Chess Festival in the Czech Republic. The GM Brno, IM Tespo Engineering and IM Dopravni stavby tournaments take place 26th June - 5th July 2009. Open tournaments start on the 27th June 2009.

Applications and details contact Rudolf Moulis: e-mail: moulis@kroknet.cz , phone +420 548 522 186, mobile phone: +420 607 900 656

Further info at: http://www.skduras.cz/cz/propozice.html and http://www.skduras.cz/cz/brnensky-sachovy-festival-2009.html

World Open

The World Open Chess Tournament takes place June 29th - July 5th 2009 in Philadelphia.

Details: http://www.chesstour.com/wo09.htm and http://monroi.com/2009-world-open-chess-tournament-home.html

British Championships

The 96th British Chess Championships take place 26th July - 8th August 2009 in Torquay.

Official site: http://www.britishchess09.com/

Zone 2.3 Guayaquil Ecuador

Zone 2.3 takes place in Guayaquil Ecuador 10th-21st May 2009.

Details: http://www.ajedrezenecuador.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=443

Asian Individual Open

The Asian Individual Open and Women’s Chess Championship in Subic Bay, Philippines from May 12th-24th 2009. No official site.

14th Pannonia - Nitrokemia Cup

The 14th Pannonia - Nitrokemia Cup takes place in Balatonalmadi, 29th July - 2nd August, 2009.

Group A: International Open Tournament for FIDE ratings. Group B: International Open Tournament for FIDE ratings, for players under 2000 ELO System used: 7 Rounds Swiss without age limit for both Groups Venue: The air-conditioned Conference Hall of Pannonia Cultural Centre & Library Address: Balatonalmadi, Városház Square 6. Organiser: Recreation Association of Vorosbereny Time Limit: Group A: 90-90 minutes + 30sec after each move Group B: 120-120 minutes for all moves

Details: http://fancsyimi.fw.hu. Entries and further information IM Fancsy Imre E-mail: almadikupa@freemail.hu

M-Tel Masters

The 5th M-Tel Masters takes place in Sofia 12th-23rd May 2009 (rest day 18th May).

The Category XXI event sees Veselin Topalov, Magnus Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk, Wang Yue, Leinier Dominguez Perez and Alexei Shirov play in a double round robin format. The games will be played in a glass pavilion on the square in front of the National Theatre Ivan Vazov.

The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves per player and 60 minutes per player till the end of the game. The maximum period for a single game is 5 hours. "Sofia rules" will again be used. They are that: Opponents cannot communicate during the games and cannot offer a draw. Proposals for a draw can be made only through the Chief Arbiter in three cases: triple repetition, eternal chess and theoretical draw position. When making the decisions the Chief Arbiter will be consulted by Zurab Azmaiparashvili, Vice President of FIDE.

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

14th International Stuttgart Championship

The 14th "International Stuttgart Championship" in Germany takes place 21th-24th May 2009. Contact Michael Meier e-mail: info@stuttgarter-stadtmeisterschaft.de

For further information on the event: http://www.stuttgarter-stadtmeisterschaft.de

20th International Chess and Games Festival Czech Open

The 20th International Chess and Games Festival Czech Open 2009 takes place 16th July - 2 August 2009 in Pardubice (the Czech Republic). There are more than 100 tournaments in chess and other games, eg. European Youth Chess Teams Championship, ISCU Children Clubs Chess Championship and European Amateurs Championship in Chess.

More detailed information: http://www.czechopen.net/news/index.php. the festival website will be ready at the end of April.

6th Summer Catalan Chess Circuit

The 6th Summer Catalan Chess Circuit takes place May - September every year as part of the Catalan Chess Circuit, which is composed of 28 International Tournaments, and held in Spain, extended beyond Catalonia.

In 2009 there will be 14 Opens with traditional time control to be played over 9-10 days, as well as 14 Opens in Rapid Chess, played over 1-2 days (see Tournament Calendar).

During 120 days of tournaments, around 22.000 chess games will be played with selected ones broadcast.

Approximately 3,000 players from more than 30 different countries. The prize fund will reach 175.000 euros.

Apart from the traditional tournament prizes, the Catalan Chess Federation establishes a special classification composed of player´s results in each Circuit tournament, based on which players will be able to claim such special Circuit Prizes as General Final Standings, Prizes by Categories, Specific Prizes for best Catalan Players.

Prizegiving Ceremony will be held at Fiesta Catalana (Catalan Chess Party), on September, 27th, 2009

For more information please contact the Catalonia Chess Federation on federacio@escacs.cat or visit the official website: http://escacs.cat/circuit2009/torneigs.html