Still alive, just been swamped this week. Lots of news to catch up on, individual items forthcoming. My interview with Max Dlugy will be up at ChessBase in a day or so.
The field is almost set for the US Championship and there is a lot of news. The event collided with the FIDE women's world championship and a deal is in the works to enable players to participate in both. It will involve splitting the top women out of the main championship field after four rounds.
Corus 2006 starts tomorrow with its usual all-star field. Kasparov's predictions won't hit print in New In Chess for a few weeks, but Topalov isn't his pick for first. (Due to the pressure of playing as #1. He's a target now.) He's quite favorable about Aronian's chances.
Cheating allegations continue to fly around. Some are related to US Championship spots and are under review. Others are of the old-fashioned cash variety. All are reprehensible if true. Details as they become available.
Noteworthy GM norms here and there. Dirt favorite Pascal Charbonneau of CANADA (!) got his final GM norm in Chicago. 12-year-old Negi of India got a GM norm in Hastings. Eeek.
FIDE announced regulations for ad hoc world championship challenge matches.
Has anything else fallen through the cracks?
Cananda?
Yah, thanks. I was distracted by a Canadian winning something.
Mig, can you elaborate on the cheating allegations? Cheating where and by whom?
How many GMs does Canada have?
I'll be posting individual items for each of those things in turn over the next day or two.
The cheating stuff is sensitive and flammable and I don't want to disturb ongoing investigations or slander anyone (yet!). But if the parties involved, and authorities involved, get cold feet and try to bury everything I'll definitely tell all I know. Sadly, people keep sending me things on background instead of taking action.
Five GMs, now six. Biyiasas left for the US in the late 70's; Yanofsky passed away.
Congrats to Charbonneau. Having achieved the requisite three norms, I trust/hope that his rating is now high enough to qualify for the GM title (it was given as 2495 going in to the tourney).
Topalov isn't Kasparov's pick for first because he "used up all his luck" in San Luis.
"Yah, thanks. I was distracted by a Canadian winning something."
Stay the heck away from Hockey, then. You'll be disoriented for life watching us lay the smack down on the rest of the world :)
I don't believe, despite all the press, that Negi got a GM norm in Hastings. He had a 2568 performance, but according to the FIDE title regulations I read, he needs a 2600 performance for a norm. I think the mistake occurs, because once you have the 3 norms, you also need a rating over 2500.
Can anybody explain how he got his norm?
The rules on the required ratings are very counterintuitive. The rating can occur at any time, even during a single game in the middle of an event that is never published. So when someone is very close to a rating level, such as IM Charbonneau, it may be that he made it over the edge in one game, all he needs.
With regard to the performance rating for Negi, I haven't looked, but again you only need the performance rating for the exact games that will be counted for the norm, not necessarily the entire event.
http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=B0101
Also, and again I've no idea if this applies, a rating floor isused for titled oponents, rather than their published rating if it is lower than the floor.
So it can be quite complex to evaluate just from press reports.
regards,
duif
About the GM norm with a performance under 2600, it is fairly common. Remember that for a GM norm, there is a 2250 rating floor (if you play in the 1st round someone rated 1600, it gets raised to 2250 for norm purposes). There is a limit of 2 players raised to the floor, but it is enough to skew the performance quite a bit.