THE WEEK IN CHESS 827 13th September 2010 by Mark Crowther

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1) Introduction

My thanks to Luiz Roberto Da Costa Jr, Luis Blasco de la Cruz, Bob Jones, Goran Urosevic, Miklos Orso, George Mirijanian and everyone else who helped with the issue.

Another major week of chess. The death of Bent Larsen in the year of the celebration of his 75th birthday was very sad news. A true chess legend, he was one of the very best players in the World from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. The Shanghai Masters had a thrilling finish with Vladimir Kramnik managing to win with black against Aronian and then beating him in a blitz playoff for the final place in Bilbao. Magnus Carlsen had a successful exhibition in New York where he beat a World Team. Garry Kasparov and Jon Crumiller beat Nigel Short and Rajko Vujatovic in an interesting exhibition where GM and amateur played alternate moves. Elsewhere there was again a lot of chess including quite a bit of team chess.

The opening ceremony of the 39th World Chess Olympiad takes place next Monday. Before that Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne meets on Wednesday and Thursday where Karpov will try and get Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's candidature for the FIDE Presidency thrown out. My prediction, we should be so lucky. Ilyumzhinov is claiming around 93 votes at the last count. I would say this. I can only surmise his supporting Federations don't know, or don't care, or don't care to know about his record in Kalmykia, of which there is more and more available information of which http://www.chessintranslation.com/2010/09/kirsan-released-into-space/ is just the smallest most recent part. These are not hand-picked artices, they're the general consensus in the Russian media, I've recently reviewed huge amounts going back years, watched his own interviews and if you know these things then you'll understand why I find it beyond belief that anyone can still vote for him. I don't have a special interest in getting Karpov elected, if this were an election between normal candidates I wouldn't necessarily be that bothered. It is the nature of his leadership now and the sheer length of time he's been in power and has the potential to go on, that so concerns me. If Karpov does win, he will have lots to prove, but he is, in my opinon, the only electable candidate of the two, and that should be obvious.

Hope you enjoy this issue.

Mark

2) Shanghai Masters 2010

The Shanghai Masters took place 3rd-8th September 2010 just prior to the Olympiad. Wang Hao, as best Chinese player (20th ranked); Alexei Shirov, as best Spanish player (9th ranked); Levon Aronian, as winner of the Final Chess Masters 2009 (5th ranked);and Vladimir Kramnik competed for two places in the Bilbao Masters final after the Olympiad. Alexei Shirov took clear first place with a run of three wins in a row settling matters for first place. Kramnik seemed out of it too when he lost to Shirov but he managed to grind out a win against Aronian in Round 5. They had a blitz playoff where Kramnik won game one, should have won game two but lost on time and then in an Armageddon (sudden death) playoff with White having 5 minutes and Black 4 he won with black on time to get the final place in Bilbao. Shirov and Kramnik will be joined by Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in Bilbao.

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

3) RAW Chess Challenge

The RAW World Chess Challenge under the tag-line "CAN YOU BEAT MAGNUS CARLSEN?" took place the Cooper Star Hotel in New York City in New York City on Friday September 10th 2010. This one day match was part of Magnus Carlsen's G-Star fashion sponsorship (their RAW brand). The challenge saw Carlsen take on registered viewers from throughout the world, they received help from Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France, Hikaru Nakamura from the United States and Judit Polgar from Hungary who suggested moves that were be voted on. The World got into early trouble and apart from choosing a bit of a flashy idea instead of a safe win Carlsen pressed his advantage pretty easily in the end. You can see a Norwegian TV report here: http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/indeks/228839/

The event was just one day but is similar to the hugely successful Kasparov versus the World in 1999. Kasparov was also on hand as an Ambassador for this match.

Official site: http://rwcc.g-star.com/en/rawchess/

4) Staunton Memorial Dinner 2010

The Staunton Memorial Dinner 2010 was a fund raiser for the Karpov FIDE Presidential Campaign. There was a so called Grandmaster Consultation game (probably there should have been another name), 1 hour per side, Nigel Short and Rajko Vujatovic played alternate moves against Garry Kasparov and Jon Crumiller. Crumiller reports that: "Rajko played e4 and I played c5, then Nigel played Nf3, Garry played e6, etc. The match conditions were that there was no consultation whatsoever. It was a wild game, the star move of the game (in my opinion) was Kasparov's ...Kh8!!" Both sides had about 6 minutes left at the end.

5) US Chess League

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

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

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

6) 11th World University Chess Championship

The 11th World University Chess Championship took place in Zuerich, Switzerland, 5th-11th September 2010. Favourite Wang Yue won the men's section with 8.5/9 two points clear of the field. Batkhuyag Munguntuul won the women's section

Official site: http://www.wucc2010.ch

WUCC 2010 is an event of the FISU: http://www.fisu.net

7) Croatian Teams

The 19th Croatian Team Championships took place in Sibenik 4th-12th September 2010. Pavel Eljanov, Vladimir Malakhov, Sergei Movsesian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vugar Gashimov, Arkadij Naiditsch, Viktor Bologan, Boris Grachev, Alexey Dreev, Sergei Tiviakov etc made it a strong event.

Liburnija from Rijeka (Naiditsch, Markus etc) won with 16 points ahead of Rijeka (Gashimov, Vachier etc).

Official Site - Results - Live

8) 7th Dato Tan Malaysia Open

The 7th IGB Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2010 took place in Kuala Lumpur 1st-7th September 2010. There was a three way tie for first on 7/9. Zhou Weiqi took first from Cao Sang and Sethuraman after a blitz playoff.

Malaysian Open 2010 (Kuala Lumpur MAS)

Wed 1st Sep 2010 - Tue 7th Sep 2010 - Official Site - Results - Live

9) Spanish Championships 2010

The Spanish Championships took place in El Sauzal, Tenerife, 4th-12th September 2010. Miguel Illescas Cordoba beat Julen Luis Arizmendi Martinez with black in the final round to win by half a point from Francisco Vallejo Pons and Javier Moreno Ruiz who drew in the final round and also Sergio Garza Marco in this 9 round swiss.

Spanish Championships 2010 (El Sauzal ESP)

Sat 4th Sep 2010 - Sun 12th Sep 2010 - Official Site - Results - Live

10) InventiChess 2010

The InventiChess 2010 tournament took place in Antwerp 3rd-11th September 2010. Georg Meier took clear first place with 6.5/9

Official site: http://www.inventichess.com/inventichess2010/

11) 3rd Sabadell Open

The 3rd Sabadell Open took place 1st-10th September 2010. Fernando Peralta won on tie-break from Anton Kovalyov after both scored 7/9.

Official site: http://www.coralcolon.net/entitat/index.php

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr33828.aspx

12) 4th Annual Battle at the Border

The 4th Annual Battle at the Border 2010 was a 6 Round Swiss which was made special by the participation of Hikaru Nakamura. GM Charbonneau, IM Hansen, IM Teplitsky, FM Jack Yoos also played. The event was won by Charbonneau who defeated Nakamura in Round 4. There is only one more game, finished after TWIC came out last week, available.

BATB Open 2010 (Lloydminster CAN)

Sat 4th Sep 2010 - Mon 6th Sep 2010 - Official Site - Results - Live

13) 6th European Union championship

The 6th European Union championship took place in Arvier (Aosta Valley) - September, 4th-12th 2010. Pawel Jaracz won on tie-break from Sabino Brunello, Evgenij Agrest, Lexy Ortega, Miguel Llanes Hurtado and Clovis Vernay after all finished on 6.5/9.

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

14) First Saturday September

First Saturday September tournaments are under way.

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

15) Poruguese Championships

Paulo Dias won the Poruguese Championships with 8/9 which took place in Amadora 4th-12th September 2010. I couldn't see any games in a very quick glance at their website: http://fpx.weebly.com/

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr37795.aspx

16) Himalayan Grand Masters Tournament

The e Himalayan Grand Masters Chess Tournament-2010 took place 8th-14th Sept. 2010, Nepal. Georgy Timoshenko took first place. I don't have any games at the moment.

1)7 Paignton Congress

This year's week-long Paignton Congress took place September 5th - 11th September 2010.

In the Premier, Keith Arkell was already assured of clear 1st place with a round to spare, but his final round draw was no mere token as he very much wished to try for a 100% 7/7, a feat he has only achieved once before at Paignton in spite of his many 1st places. His last round game against Tyson Mordue was one of the last to finish and went down to a rook and handful of pawns each. Although this is Arkell's specialist area, Mordue played correctly and it finished with no advantage to either side.

Details can be found on the chessdevon website. Games to follow.

18) Livigno Open

The Livigno Open (Sondrio, Valtellina) takes place September, 10-18 2010.

Official site: http://www.livignoscacchi.it - http://www.livigno.eu

19) Romanian Chess League

The Romanian Chess League took place in Baile Herculane 4th-12th September 2010. ACS de sah Apa Nova Bucuresti took first place in the men's competition. I give the games that were broadcast live.

Official site: http://www.frsah.ro/

Results Men: http://chess-results.com/tnr37739.aspx

Results: Women: http://chess-results.com/tnr37740.aspx

20) Chinese Chess League Division A

The Youngor Chinese Chess League Division A takes place April 16th - December 30th 2010 in China. 10 teams compete in the Double Round-Robin event. I've rounded up the games so far from their archive and will give them again as there are more than I've given so far.

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

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

The first 3 rounds took place in Ningbo city.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

21) LGA Premium Cup

The 7th LGA Premium Cup took place in Nuernburg 2nd-5th September 2010. Lubomir Ftacnik took first place alone on 6/7.

Official site: http://schach.lga.de/index.shtml

22) Parla Open

The 25th Parla Open took place 4th-12th September 2010. Aleksa Strikovic took clear first place. I will round up the games next week.

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr37742.aspx - Games: http://www.ajedrezenmadrid.com

23) 70th New England Open

George Mirijanian reports: The 70th New England Open took place September 4th-6th, 2010 at the Sheraton Bradley Airport Hotel in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, USA. GMs Alexander Ivanov of Newton, Massachusetts and Eugene Perelshteyn of Swampscott, Mass. tied for 1st-2nd place with scores of 5-1, including a draw with one another in the fourth round. Tying for third place and sharing the top Under 2300 prize were candidate masters Alex Fikiet and Ryan Goldenberg, both of Connecticut. Both tallied 4-2. FMs Christopher Chase and John Curdo, both of Massachusetts, tied for 4th-5th place with 3.5-2.5 tallies. Tying for the 6th-7th prize and also sharing the second Under 2300 prize with 3-3 results were FMs Nelson Castaneda and Daniel Rozovsky, both of Connecticut, FM Movses Mosisyan of Texas, U.S. Chess Federation life masters Henry "Hal" Terrie of New Hampshire and Libardo Rueda of Massachusetts, USCF candidate masters Ian Harris of Connecticut and Grant Xu of Massachusetts, and USCF-rated experts Haotian Zheng of Connecticut and James Lung of Massachusetts. The tournament drew 106 players in multiple sections, 49 of whom competed in the multi-divisional, three-day main event. FIDE arbiter F. Alexander Relyea of Bedford, New Hampshire was the chief tournament director, assisted by his wife, Nita Patel, and USCF national TD Kenneth Ballou of Framingham, Massachusetts.

24) 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011

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

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

25) Chess legend Bent Larsen has died at the age of 75

Chess legend Bent Larsen has died at the age of 75. In the memorable year of 1967 he won four first prizes in a row concluding with the Interzonal in Sousse and for this was awarded the 1st Chess Oscar. He was top board above Bobby Fischer in the 1970 USSR vs The World Match scoring 50% against World Champion Boris Spassky. He famously lost 6-0 to Fischer in the Candidates Semi-Finals in 1971 and although he enjoyed further success he never again reached the heights of before. He died after a short illness in the year when his career has been celebrated properly by the Danish Chess Union and they have produced a beautiful 64 page account of his career in Danish in PDF format. Read their Notice about the death of Bent Larsen. Whilst he is celebrated as Denmark's strongest ever player, he will be remembered by chess players everywhere.

Bent Larsen was born on the 4th March 1935 in Tilsted a small village in Jutland, Denmark and died September 9th 2010 in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he had lived for a long time. A leading player in an era dominated by the Soviets he and Bobby Fischer were the great Western hopes. Larsen learned to play at the age of 7 but by his own admission was by no means a prodigy. He burst onto the international stage with a 77% performance on top board for Denmark in the 1956 Olympiad in Moscow which earned him the Grandmaster title. This was an era when it wasn't at all easy to be a professional in the west.

He was Bobby Fischer's second in the 1959 Candidates after missing out himself in the 1958 Portoroz Interzonal where he finished a terrible 16th ("the greatest failure of my chess career - I finished as No.16. I cannot explain it"). He seemed to lose his way a bit. He calls this period "Experiments" and "Involutary Pause". In addition he says

"I had differences with the President of the Danish Chess Federation who was unwilling to send me to the Zonal Tournament, a sad affair that demonstrated the powerlessness of FIDE."

From the Autumn of 1961 to Autumn 1963 he did his military service. Although he doesn't have a good word to say about the service it seems he did become physically fit at this time which helped his career. He played a couple of events including most importantly finishing second in the 1963 Halle zonal tournament.

Calling it "A Big Jump Forward" in his game collection he was not favourite for the Amsterdam Interzonal of 1964 but he nevertheless tied for first place and became a Candidate for the first time. Finally Larsen's career as a leading player was up and running. The following year he beat Boris Ivkov 5.5-2.5 in the first round of the Candidates before being eliminated by Mikhai Tal in a thrilling match 4.5-5.5.

He finished third in the 2nd Piatigorsky Cup in 1966 beating Bobby Fischer in the first half in a game that ended very abruptly ("I do not know what Fischer overlooked, but it must have been something very simple"). He also beat reigning World Champion Tigran Petrosian in both their games.

The following year he started a great run. 5 consecutive first places at Havana, Winnipeg, Palma de Mallorca and the Sousse Interzonal in 1967 and Monte Carlo in 1968 earned him legendary status. He won the first Chess Oscar for his performances in 1967. In addition to his five straight wins he also won the Capablanca Memorial in Havana in 1967.

In 1968 Larsen beat Lajos Portisch in the quarter-finals of the Candidates before losing to the eventual champion Boris Spassky in the Semi-Finals.

He followed this period with the excellent and influential book "Larsen's Select Games of Chess" in 1969. Larsen was an excellent writer although by no means all of this material appeared in English. In addition to his games collection ZOOM 001 Bent Larsen with Steffen Zeuthen was an interesting idea around different ways of using the Gruenfeld pawn structures with either colour. His Skak Skole was published as "Bent Larsen's Good Move Guide" one of my favourite little books on chess.

Most importantly, when analyzing openings are not what is true in books, but what is wrong. - Bent Larsen

This international success limited his success at home but he did find time to win the Danish title 6 times. ChessMetrics measure's him as the 50th best player of all time based on his 3 year peak (January 1969 - December 1971).

In 1969 he won the Palma de Mallorca International. Beat Mikhail Tal in a playoff 4.5-2.5 in a Candidates playoff of some sort.

This peak included top board for the World in their match against the USSR in Yugoslavia. Larsen refused to play if he didn't have top board and Bobby Fischer gave way, Fischer hadn't played for some time in the run up to 1970. Larsen lost a famous 1.b3 game against Spassky but drew 1.5-1.5 with him and beat his reserve Leonid Stein in the remaining game.

The following Palma Mallorca Interzonal was won magnificently by Bobby Fischer but Larsen inflicted his only loss and finished in joint second place three and a half points behind.

Larsen then defeated Ulhmann 5.5-3.5 in the Candidates Quarter-Finals and hope was high he could compete with Fischer who had beaten Taimanov 6-0. However the match which took place in Denver at altitude and in severe heat (40 degrees) was a disaster for him. Larsen suffered from high blood pressure in the match and after a couple of great games which he lost at the start he refused to play safe to preserve his reputation but instead threw caution to the wind to try and get back and was also beaten 6-0.

Whilst it would be completely wrong to suggest that Larsen's career as a leading chess player was over after this beating, it is certainly the case that he was never taken seriously as one of the very best in the World. Before the match he was top 5 in the World but in the next few years this status dropped to solid top 10. He didn't drop away immediately 1972 he won Teeside and Hastings. In 1973 he won the Manila International but in the Leningrad Zonal he was a distant 5th= a long way behind Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi who went on to dominate the 1970s. Larsen himself said that it was probably this failure that convinced him he was no longer in with a chance of being World Chess Champion.

1976 was a good year with Larsen winning the Biel Interzonal but he lost to Lajos Portisch in the first round of the Candidates 6.5-3.5 the following year. He didn't reach the Candidates again and his final Interzonal appearance was in 1982 when he finished 7th a couple of points off qualification in the Las Palmas Interzonal.

He was still something of a force in the Niksic tournament of 1983 which was dominated by the new star in chess Garry Kasparov, who won with with 11 points, Larsen finish in 2nd two points behind. As he entered his 50s his play fell away and his openings became more off-beat. He did manage the occasional good performance, but they were increasingly rare.

He was first married to a lady named Lizzie in the early 1960s. He met an Argentine lawyer named Laura Beatriz Benedini in 1982 and they married. They settled in Buenos Aires. He did not have any children although Laura did have two daughters.

He was an advocate of psychology in chess which for him was first and foremost the ability to surprise he was especially good at putting weaker player under pressure and this led to him outpacing many of his Soviet opponents who were more cirumspect against weaker opposition. He also stressed the need to be physically fit. He said that he recognised some of the traits of his play in that of Nigel Short these days.

In his book Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors Volume IV he says that Larsen contributed little to modern opening theory except in the case of the "Improved Meran Variation" or Wade Variation. In conversation with Anand he said that the current World Champion observed that in preparing it in 1991 most of the Modern treatment of the Meran came from Larsen's ideas.

Larsen had diabetes in later years which limited his appearances.

Further at: http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/bent-larsen-dies-at-75/, http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6664 and http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/2010/9/10/bent-larsen-1935-2010.html

Bent Larsen Wikipedia Entry

Interview in Russian which can be read via google translate: http://www.chehovchess.ru/lib/lek/4-rus.htm

26) 39th Chess Olympiad

The 39th Chess Olympiad takes place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia 21st September (Round 1) - 3rd October (11th Round) 2010.

Official site: http://www.ugra-chess.ru/eng/index.htm

27) Forthcoming Events and Links

London Chess Classic 2010

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

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

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

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

The Entry form is now available.

DOWNLOAD PDF Entry form

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

53rd Reggio Emilia 2010

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

4ncl Team and Individual Rapidplay Championship

The 4ncl Team and Individual Rapidplay Championship on takes place 9th-10th October 2010 at Harben House, Milton Keynes. Saturday - team championship Saturday - individual championship

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

Bansko Grand Chess Open

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

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

Izmir Open

Izmir International Open Chess Tournament which was supposed to take place 28th August - 5th September 2010 has been postponed after it clashed with

Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2011

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

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

Bilbao Masters Final 2010

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

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

Pearl Spring Masters Nanjing 2010

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

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

Gibraltar Masters

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

Tal Memorial 2010

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

Shanghai and Bilbao Masters

The Shanghai and Bilbao Masters takes place in two stages. The First stage is in Shanghai September 3rd-8th 2010. The Final in Bilbao, October 9th-15th 2010.

The four players who will participate in the first stage in Shanghai are: Wang Hao, as best Chinese player (20th ranked); Alexei Shirov, as best Spanish player (9th ranked); Levon Aronian, as winner of the Final Chess Masters 2009 (5th ranked);and Vladimir Kramnik, as fourth ranked in the world ranking (4th ranked).

The top two qualified in Shanghai will play in Bilbao along with Magnus Carlsen, winner of the tournaments of Wijk aan Zee, Nankin and Bazna, and current number one of the world (1st ranked) and Viswanathan Anand, current World Champion (3rd ranked). Among the best players of the world, only Veselin Topalov (winner of Linares and number 2 of the world) will miss the Final, due to personal reasons.

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

X Benidorm Chess Festival 2010

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

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

Vasylyshyn Memorial

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

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

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

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

Players in the GM event so far: GM round robin : Oleksienko, Mikhailo g UKR 2548 Vovk, Andrey g UKR 2522 Petr, Martin m CZE 2511 Semcesen, Daniel m SWE 2420 Smith, Axel m SWE 2416 Bernadskiy, Vitaliy m UKR 2414 Grabliauskas, Virginijus m LTU 2404

XL Rilton Cup 2010-11

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

Details: http://www.rilton.se

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

4th Rijeka open chess tournament "Mediterranean 2017"

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

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

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

IX Festival Internacional de Ajedrez Benidorm 2010

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

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

Entries: info@ajedrezenelbali.com

Information: festivaldebenidorm@gmail.com

Mobile: 0034-615547567

14th Unive Tournament

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

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

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

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

Official Site

European Individual Senior Championship 2011

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

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

Chinese Events 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

World Chess Tour Events

Tournaments, simuls and classes in Moscow.

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

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

Swiss Team Championships 2010

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

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

Details

Hungarian Tournaments March - October 2010

1.21st-29th August, CAISSA Kecskemet, GM+IM+rating, org: Erdelyi

2.4th-16th Sept, FIRST SATURDAY GM+IM+rating Budapest, org: Nagy L

3.17th-25th Sept CAISSA Kecskemet IM+rating, org: Erdelyi.

Czech Tour 2010-11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.czechtour.net

Historical Elo Ratings

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