Chess players may be very competitive.....

however, they are also very caring and charitable. I learned that  from Mark Crowther of The Week in Chess that GM Dusan Popovic has chronic kidney failure and is in need of a transplant. The Internet Chess Club, after hearing of Dusan Popovic's plight from GM Magnus Carlsen, proceeded to put on a fundraising simultaneous exhibition, which raised $12,000 for Dusan Popovic. World ChampionVishy Anand personally donated Dusan a sum of $750. An unknown donor has already said that they will give GM Popovic a kidney, if the funds for the surgery can be found. The surgery is scheduled to be performed Novogorsk, Russia, when 70.000 € can be obtained. G Donations can be made to Dusan at these places:


Foreign currency account of Komercijalna Banka with codes:

SWIFT code: KOBBRSBGFNS,

IBAN code: RS35205200122725837328

• Serbian dinar (RSD) account of Komercijalna Banka

908-20501-70

No : 205-1001525128000-14


INSTRUCTION FOR CUSTOMER TRANSFERS IN EUR

Intermediary Bank / Correspondent Bank

SWIFT - BIC: DRESDEFF

Name: DRESDNER BANK AG

City, County: FRANKFURT AM MAIN , GERMANY


Account with institution / Beneficiary's Bank

SWIFT - BIC: KOBBRSBGFNS

Name: KOMERCIJALNA BANKA A.D. BEOGRAD

Street: SVETOG SAVE 14

City, Country : BEOGRAD, REPUBLIC OF SERBIA


Beneficiary

IBAN / Account Number: RS35205200122725837328

Name: Dusan Popovic

Street: Teodora Pavlovica 1
City, Country : 21000 NOVI SAD , REPUBLIC OF SERBIA


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Sources:http://www.serbiachess.net/2008/dusan_popovic/dusan_popovic_eng.htm, TWIC 719

Essent Chess Tournament

The 12th annual Essent Chess Tournament  will occur from October 17 -25 2008 in Hoogeveen ,The Netherlands. The event has several sections, the top one being the Crown section. In recent years GM Judit Polgar has played in this event, however, this year I notice that WGM/IM Marie Sebag of France (elo 2529) is playing in the top section with 3 men: GM Ivan Sokolov of The Netherlands (elo 2658) , GM Ahmed Adly  of Egypt  (elo 2593) and GM Jan Smeets of The Netherlands (elo 2593). The official tournament website for this event is:  http://www.essentchess.nl/index2008.htm

Recent Performances in Chess

Here is a list of some of the most interesting recent performances in chess tournaments around the World:

1.BDO Chess tournament - GM VladimirBurmakin of the Republic of Russia won the  Premier section of the  BDO Chess tournament in  Haarlam The Netherlands with a fantastic performance of 8/9. His performance rating was 2778. GM Kevin Spraggett of Canada (who now lives in Portugal) finished second with  6.5 points. Spraggett is showing the world that a chess player can get better as he ages (he is 54 years old).   GM Zhaoqin Peng finished in fifth place with 4 points. She was the 28th highest-rated Woman chess player in the world entering the event, however her performance rating for this tournament (2402) was lower than her rating entering the tournament,so she will lose some elo points from her rating.

2.French Chess Championships- Sophie Milliet won the French Women's Chess Championship with a score of 5.5 points. The highest-rated player in the event, Almira Skripchenko finished in 4th after she lost and drew games with lower-rated players in the event.  In the Mens's event, GM Laurent Fressinet won the Men's crown on a tie-break over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Both players had finished the championship tied with 5.5 points. It is interesting to note that GM Joel Lautier was not a participant in this year's Men's championship.

3.WGM/IM Anna Zozulia of Belgium won the IM section of the  21st International Panevezys Open in Lithuania, with a score of  7.5 points. Her performance rating was 2566 which was over 200 points higher than her actual rating  (2346) entering the event. Congratulations Anna!





 

FIDE Women's WC Championship Rd 1 pairings

Here are the pairings for round one of the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria:

WCh-Women Nalchik (RUS), 28 viii - 18 ix 2008
Round 1 Pairings 29th-31st August 2008.
Bd No SNo NAME NAT NAME NAT
1 1-64 Xu, Yuhua CHN Solomons, Anzel RSA
2 2-63 Koneru, Humpy IND Alaa El Din, Yorsa EGY
3 3-62 Hou, Yifan CHN Khaled, Mona EGY
4 4-61 Stefanova, Antoaneta BUL Zapata, Karen PER
5 5-60 Cramling, Pia SWE Sanchez Castillo, Sarai VEN
6 6-59 Sebag, Marie FRA Gasik, Anna POL
7 7-58 Zhao, Xue CHN Zuriel, Marisa ARG
8 8-57 Kosintseva, Tatjana RUS Muminova, Nafisa UZB
9 9-56 Kosteniuk, Alexandra RUS Pourkashiyan, Atousa IRI
10 10-55 Cmilyte, Viktorija LTU Golubenko, Valentina CRO
11 11-54 Muzychuk, Anna SLO Velcheva, Maria BUL
12 12-53 Ruan, Lufei CHN Zakurdjaeva, Irina RUS
13 13-52 Zhukova, Natalia UKR Rohonyan, Katherine USA
14 14-51 Chiburdanidze, Maya GEO Nguyen, Thi Thanh An VIE
15 15-50 Hoang Thanh Trang HUN Arribas Robaina, Maritza CUB
16 16-49 Paehtz, Elisabeth GER Kadimova, Ilaha AZE
17 17-48 Ushenina, Anna UKR Le Thanh Tu VIE
18 18-47 Socko, Monika POL Foisor, Sabina-Francesca ROM
19 19-46 Krush, Irina USA Sedina, Elena ITA
20 20-45 Gaponenko, Inna UKR Zhang Jilin CHN

21-44 Javakhishvili, Lela GEO Amura, Claudia ARG
22 22-43 Harika, Dronavalli IND Nebolsina, Vera RUS
23 23-42 Kosintseva, Nadezhda RUS Mohota, Nisha IND
24 24-41 Korbut, Ekaterina RUS Gvetadze, Sopio GEO
25 25-40 Zatonskih, Anna USA Bosboom Lanchava, Tea NED
26 26-39 Shen, Yang CHN Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino GER
27 27-38 Mkrtchian, Lilit ARM Moser, Eva AUT
28 28-37 Tania, Sachdev IND Tan Zongyi CHN
29 29-36 Bojkovic, Natasa SRB Ju, Wenjun CHN
30 30-35 Rajlich, Iweta POL Mongontuul, Bathuyang MGL
31 31-34 Lomineishvili, Maia GEO Khukhashvili, Sopiko GEO
32 32-33 Khurtsidze, Nino GEO Matveeva, Svetlana RUS


The closest matches should be between players paired at the bottom of round one pairings list
According to the tournament website: "The time control shall be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move one.

Conditions of victory

3. 7. 1. For rounds 1-5, each match shall be played over two (2) games and the winner of every match shall be the first player to score 1.5 or more points. The final match, or round 6, shall be played over four (4) games and the winner of the match shall be the first player to score 2.5 or more points. A tie shall be broken according to article 3.8. The winner of the final match will be declared Women’s World Champion.


3. 8. Tie-breaks

3. 8. 1. Rounds 1-5

3. 8. 1. 1 If the scores are level after the regular games, after a new drawing of colours, two (2) tie break games shall be played. The games shall be played using the electronic clock starting with 25 minutes on the clock for each player with an addition of 10 seconds after each move.

3. 8. 1. 2 If the scores are level after the games in paragraph 3. 8. 1. 1, then, after a new drawing of colours, 2 five-minute games shall be played with the addition of 10 seconds after each move.

3. 8. 1. 3. If the score is still level, the players shall play one decisive sudden death game. The player, who wins the drawing of lots, may choose the colour. White shall receive 6 minutes, Black shall receive 5 minutes, without any addition. The winner qualifies for the next round. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces qualifies for the next round.


The prize fund for the Championship is $450,ooo (United States Dollars).

. 9. 1. Prize list
1st round 32 losers x 3.750 = 120.000
2nd round 16 losers x 5.500 = 88.000
3rd round 8 losers x 8.000 = 64.000
4th round 4 losers x 12.000 = 48.000
5th round 2 losers x 20.000 = 40.000
6th round 1 loser x 30.000 = 30.000
Women’s World Champion = 60.000

TOTAL: 450.000 USD
The official tournament website for the championship is http://nalchik2008.fide.com

9th Montreal International Chess Tournament

The 9th annual Montreal International Chess Tournament is underway. The participants in this event are GM Hikaru Nakamura of the USA (elo 2623), GM Yuri Shulman of the USA (elo 2610)GM Varuzhan Akobian of the USA (elo 2610), GM Sebastien Maze of France (elo 2553),GM Mark Bluvshtein of Canada (elo 2548), GM Anton Kovalvov of Canada (elo 2548), GM Igor Nataf of France (elo 2534), GM GM Pascal Charbonneau of Canada (elo 2499), IM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon of Canada (elo 2486) and IM Igor Zugic of Canada (elo 2457). After 3 rounds of play Nakamura and Charbonneau lead with 2.5 points.Shulman and Akobian have 2 points,Bluvshtein and Nataf have 1.5 points,Maze and Kovalyiv have 1 point and Zugic has 1/2 point. The official tournament website for this event is: http://perso.b2b2c.ca/lesechecauquebec/tim2008.htm

Chess Grand Slam

Six of the top players in Professional chess are participating in an event called the "Chess Grand Slam". This tournament is being played in Bilbao, Spain from September 1st-13th, 2008. According to Mark Crowther at website: " The first three participants are the winners of Corus 2008, Morelia - Linares 2008, and Mtel Masters 2008 - GM Levon Aronian, GM Viswanathan Anand, and GM Vassily Ivanchuk. Invitations have been sent also to the second place players - GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Veselin Topalov and finally to Teimour Radjabov." (The Week in Chess 719). The official tournament website for this tournament is http://www.bilbaofinalmasters.com The format of this event is a double-round robin Games will be covered live at the official tournament website.. The time control is : 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and another 60 minutes to finish the game. Players are not allowed to offer a draw to an opponent directly:only the main referee can decide whether a game is to end in a draw for one of the three following reasons: triple repetition of the position, continuous check o theoretically drawn positions. The main referee will be advised on his decision by the GMs José Luis Fernández and Javier Moreno. In addition, a unique scoring system is being used in the tournament:

The final classification will be determined according to the following criteria:

1.- Players will earn 3 points for winning a match, 1 point for drawing and 0 points for losing.

2.- If the players end in a draw for the first place, the winner will be determined by a blitz chess play-off to take place immediately after the last round. It will consist of two four-minute games per player and a three-second increment by move made, alternating colours, being the colours for the first match decided by draw. Should the tie persist, players will play a match (“tie-break”), 5 minutes for the white and 4 minutes for the black, winning the tournament the back one in case of a draw. The colours for this game will be decided by draw. Should there be more than two drawn players fighting for the first place, the conditions specified in section 9.3 will be applied to determine the two players that will play-off.

3.- In case of equal number of points for third to sixth places, the following method will be applied:

• Traditional scoring. Players get one point for each game won and 0.5 points for each game in draw.
• Particular result (based on traditional scoring).
• Koya system (based on traditional scoring).
• Sonneborn-Berger (based on traditional scoring)

This event should be very interesting to watch, and of course hopefully chess fans hope all the players are in top form so the event is very competitive and provides us with some great games to observe and play through.

Ivanchuk wins Tal Memorial 2008

Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk won the 2008 edition of the Tal Memorial Chess Tournament. Ivanchuk scored 3 wins and 6 draws for a performance rating of 2861 to finish the nine-round tournament with 6 points.Congratulations Vassily! Due to his performance, Ivanchuk is rated second-highest rated chess player in the world by Hans Arild Runde at his website: http://chess.liverating.org/ Runde's idea is to give chess fans an idea of which players are provisionally- rated over 2700 (as the players wait to gain official recognition by the FIDE on the FIDE Ratings list published four times a year).

Nana Dzagnidze gains a GM Norm

According to the official tournament website, at the Acropolis 2008 International Chess Tournament, WGM/IM Nana Dzagnidze of the Republic of Georgia, gained a male GM norm with her performance in the tournament. Dzagnidze scored 6.5 points in the event, to finish third on tie-break. The event was won by Israel GM Ilya Smirin 7 points on a tie-break over GM Mircea Parligras. WGM/IM Elina Danielian of Armenia finished in fifth place with 6.5 points.The official tournament website for this event is http://www.chessfed.gr/acropolis2008/

Meet Harika, Junior World Champion

The title of this blog entry, is also the title of an article about Harika Dronavalli who won the title at the recently completed World Junior Girls Under 17 Chess Championship. The article can be read by going to the chessbase website: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4858

World Youth Under 16 Olympiad

The World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad ends today in Mersin, Turkey. The event ran from August 17th-24 (10 rounds). Tthe official tournament website is at http://wyco2008.tsf.org.tr/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/lang,en/ India won the event over the republic of Russia. Both had finished the competition tied, and India won on a better tie-break. The Russians had two Women on their team, WFM Anastasia Bodnaruk and WGM Varvara Repina.

Jessie Gilbert Celebration International

The British Chess Magazine website (http://www.bcmchess.co.uk/) indicates that the Jessie Gilbert Celebration International Chess Tournament is presently being played in Surrey, England. The tournament runs from August 16th-25 2008 .The 10 round FIDE Rated Event is being played to commemorate the life of WIM Jesse Gilbert who lost her life two years ago (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Gilbert). The official website for this tournament is at: http://www.ccfworld.com/Chess/Results/2008-08-25_JessieGilbertInternational.htm

FIDE Women's World Chess Championships

Hi again, I was offline for a while but I am back. It is nice that I could be back online in-time to watch the FIDE Women's World Chess Championships. This year's championship is being held in Nalchik, Russia from
August 28th-September 18th . Nalchik (See a map at http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/map/Russia/Nalchik/2565.html ), is situated near the republic of Georgia. The seriousness of the situation in the area has caused 6 of the Republic of Georgia Women chess players to send a letter to FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, regarding their concerns about holding the event in Nalchik. The letter can be read at: http://nalchik2008.fide.com/news/?lang=eng&id=18

Ilyumzhinov indicates in a letter (see: http://nalchik2008.fide.com/news/?lang=eng&id=20) that: "As a response of the Georgian Chess Federation I would like to note that there are not any grounds for such a change" (in venue). The President of the European Chess Union responded to the Georgian Women's concerns in this manner: (see http://nalchik2008.fide.com/news/?lang=eng&id=17).

The official tournament website for the Championships is at http://nalchik2008.fide.com/information/?lang=eng

GM Humpy Koneru of India is the highest-rated player in the championships, with an elo of 2622. Second-highest-rated is WGM Hou Yifan of China (elo 2557). A complete list of all the participants can be viewed at http://nalchik2008.fide.com/players/?lang=eng Let us hope that the chess is entertaining. And most of all let us hope that nothing of a political or military nature happens during the Championship which could cause anyone of the participants, administrative staff, coaches,seconds, and spectators to be injured or killed during the Championships.