During my normal daily perusal of random university student papers online, I came across this one that might be of interest. (Actually, thanks to a tall, dark correspondent who prefers to remain blameless.) The Oil-for-Food scandal is rocking the world right now, so why not the chess world?
October 2005 Archives
Ukrainian genius/lunatic Vassily Ivanchuk sets what must be some sort of record by being listed as a participant in four tournaments on the TWIC homepage at the same time.
As I mentioned in the comments the other day, the ACP has finally made a statement about FIDE's rule changes, published as a reply to Gata Kamsky's open letter. The changes in format from semifinal and final matches to a San Luis-style tournament came as a surprise to them too, which is no surprise.
Hello everyone! It is rather discouraging to see the current state of chess in the United States. It is sad how ever since the golden days of Fischer the US has failed to produce any "superstar" chess players.
The first round of the 2005 World Team Championship is on Tuesday, November 1 in Beer Sheva, Israel. It's a powerful field and Russia and Ukraine have sent top-level teams including Svidler, Morozevich, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, and Karjakin.
Well, somebody should. US #1 Gata Kamsky has written an open letter about FIDE's recent last-minute changes to the 2005-07 championship cycle.
Topalov has been well received and heartily hailed in his homeland. This article from the Bulgarian news service - always with charming translations - says Ilyumzhinov has posited Bulgaria as a possible host to the 2007 world championship tournament.
I've long suspected that FIDE has weapons of match destruction and now we have more evidence. At the start of May this year FIDE shocked us all by announcing a classical world championship cycle. After the putative success of the San Luis world championship event, however, FIDE has lost interest in world championship matches.
I updated the US Championship site with some interesting news. Rating seeds, new qualifiers, new dates, format twist.
Garry Kasparov's latest New In Chess column (#7/2005) is themed on young players. He touches on the Needleman affair, Nakamura's Qh5 repertoire, and the dearth of young Russian talent. Meanwhile, in a recent issue of Black Belt, long before Kasparov's remarks, Hikaru took his punishment like a man before annotating his win over Mamedyarov.
Nothing surprising, just thought we should have a new thread now that I've posted these brief comments by Kramnik at ChessBase responding to Topalov putting the smackdown on a unification match.
Lots of interesting stuff in the comments to yesterday's item on Topalov's comments. Included was a link to this tidbit from the Russian news service Interfax. These little things are often out of context and spurious, but as it reads, it's confusing and/or bad.
...that Kramnik has no right to play a world championship match. Topalov seems to be whistling a tune quite different from the one sung by his manager Danailov last week.
Or bits and bobs if you prefer. A brace of little items to play catch-up on that wacky chess thing this blog is supposed to be about. Julio Granda, Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen, Veselin Topalov...
If you're interested in being rich and famous, send in your photo wearing/holding some of our spiffy ChessNinja.com swag. That way you'll have some cool stuff and I'll have a list of people who may someday be rich and famous.
Sorry to all who have been receiving errors, especially with the comments. Been upgrade nightmares around here. Bear with, please.
More from my dozens of gigabytes of 99% unpublished chess photos. (You can find the others by using the search with 'pics'.) You should be able to recognize all of the players in this photo from the 2002 Prague Eurotel rapid tournament VIP room.
This interview in Russian at 64 with Topalov's longtime manager Silvio Danailov makes many positive noises about a potential Topalov-Kramnik match. (A match with Kasparov is mentioned in the same breath as also being "interesting" to Topalov.)
I awarded him the title a week ago, but now it's official. The 30-year-old Bulgarian GM is guaranteed clear first place with a round to spare.
Hey, remember Karabakh? Of course you do. It's the category 17 with Ivanchuk, Aronian, and Nakamura taking place in Armenia right now. The final round has shaped up to be an exciting one, albeit with some complicating factors.
r11 pairings: Adams-Topalov, Anand-Kasimdzhanov, Svidler-Morozevich, Polgar-Leko. Been too busy to keep up around here. Topalov still cruising far about the atmosphere. He even eschewed a draw against Morozevich yesterday before missing a win.
r10 pairings: Topalov-Morozevich, Kasimdzhanov-Polgar, Leko-Svidler, Adams-Anand. Topalov still leads by two full points after nine rounds. Morozevich has won three in a row and could make things interesting.
r9 pairings: Anand-Topalov, Polgar-Adams, Svidler-Kasimdzhanov, Morozevich-Leko. Going into the ninth round Topalov leads by two points over Svidler with 7/8.
January 13-29, Wijk aan Zee. Official site. A powerhouse group as always. Only current top tenners not there are Svidler and Polgar. A Group: Topalov, Anand, Leko, Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Bacrot, Aronian, Adams, Gelfand, Tiviakov, Sokolov, Kamsky, Karjakin, van Wely.
Mart�n writes in to point out that the local San Luis newspaper I linked to earlier is occasionally printing many of the players' comments from the press conferences. Excerpts and tidbits follow.
With some overheated fans comparing Veselin Topalov to Kasparov, Fischer, and Thor, the new FIDE champion downplayed such talk himself after his draw with Leko in round eight.
r8 pairings: Topalov-Leko 1-0 (saves me time filling it later), Adams-Svidler, Anand-Polgar, Kasimdzhanov-Morozevich. After round seven, the halfway point, Topalov still leads by two full points, an unassailable lead unless A) Peter Svidler starts playing like Topalov has been playing and B) Topalov is hit by a train.
But not of FIDE. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has resigned as president of the Russian republic of Kalmykia.
r7 pairings: Topalov-Kasimdzhanov, Leko-Adams, Svidler-Polgar, Morozevich-Anand. Topalov leads by two full points after winning yet again in round six. He is amazing. The organizers should give him the trophy now.
r6 pairings/results: Polgar-Topalov, Anand-Svidler, Adams-Morozevich, Kasimdzhanov-Leko. Links to other coverage. After beating his closest rival Topalov is now a preposterous 1.5 points ahead of the field after five rounds. The other standings are irrelevant and will be until Topalov loses a game. +4 wins this tournament.
You don't have to pronounce it, just check it out. Black Belt contributor (and US Champion) Hikaru Nakamura is playing in a powerful invitational in Armenia Oct 1-11.
Pairings: Svidler-Topalov, Polgar-Morozevich, Adams-Kasimdzhanov, Anand-Leko. Topalov leads with an amazing 3.5/4, Svidler is a half-point behind. That makes today's game between them a biggie.
Argentina's largest newspaper, Clarín, has been running daily reports of moderate depth on the San Luis world championship. But just about every day they have also run an accompanying color piece.
The 2005 US Scrabble championship is on TV right now. Caissa wept.
So, did I miss anything? Yow, this tournament is wild and crazy. No short draws yesterday; no draws at all! Fighting spirit combined with some uneven play has resulted in an entertaining high-tension bloodbath.
Pairings: Kasimdzhanov-Anand, Topalov-Adams, Leko-Polgar, Morozevich-Svidler. Anand and Topalov lead on +2. Results, games, pics, and Short comments on round 3 at ChessBase.
