This mighty annual open is underway in Philadelphia. There's a strong Indian contingent in Philly this year, along with the usual host of strong nationals and internationals questing for the giant first prize. $40,000 is the given top, but that's...
June 2006 Archives
Tiviakov brings home the Dutch championship and Rublevsky took clear first at the Aerosvit-Foros event. The cynical Grischuk disgraced himself by taking a short draw with white against teammate Rublevsky in the final round. (Of Rublevsky's last four games there...
Continue reading Tourney Updates.
The 11th and final round is today in Ukraine after six draws in the 10th round left the standings unchanged. Sergey Rublevsky leads with an impressive seven points. He has black against Grischuk in the final round and Ivanchuk is...
Continue reading Aerosvit-Foros Concludes.
A busy weekend kept me from covering this event, a rapid double round-robin played Sunday and Monday here in New York. It was held at the New York Athletic Club, which hosted the two X3D sponsored Kasparov matches against Junior...
Continue reading NY Mayor's Cup.
If only so people will STOP SENDING THIS TO ME, ESPN.com has an article on "chessboxing" all over its homepage right now. This was started as a sort of performance art concept by a nutty Dutchman. We did various items...
Continue reading ESPN Chessboxing.
Before boiling off into the usual gasses of idiocy, there were some interesting comments to a recent thread about chess as hobby, sport, profession, and waste of time. There are too many famous and pithy quotes in the "what is...
Continue reading Chess and You.
Bologan leads with 4/5 after beating Harikrishna today in another sloppy game. The Indian #3 played an ill-advised exchange sac and couldn't back it up. The other decisive game was also very messy. Rublevsky seems to have recovered his game,...
Continue reading Aerosvit-Foros 06 - r5.
I've been perusing various event sites lately, looking at bad ideas and concocting new ones. Am I the last person to notice Short giving Anand two FIDE KO titles in his capsule bio at the San Luis site? (New Delhi...
Continue reading Defunct Errors Dept.
The Ukrainian supertournament at the Foros spa is in Yalta producing some odd games of mostly fighting chess. Credit the thermal waters or the strange time control? The official site has analysis and more from former colleague GM Mikhail Golubev....
Continue reading Aerosvit-Foros 06 - r3.
Stumbled upon this subvariation while preparing the latest White Belt. White to move and not resign. Great stuff. Almost as good as the Cambiasso goal in Argentina's 6-0 demolition of Serbia & Montenegro. (Hendriks-Spanton, Hastings Masters 2006 with 11..Kh8 instead...
Continue reading Chessboard Humor.
Holy stealth supertournament, Batman! Where did the Aerosvit tournament at the Foros spa in Crimea, Yalta, Ukraine come from? Ponomariov, Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Shirov, and eight other top players including young Ukrainian Olympians Karjakin and Volokitin. It's a 12-player round-robin and...
Trust the Armenian news services to point out that "Armenian Grand Master Varouzhan Hakobyan became the winner of the chess international tournament in San Marino together with Vadim Milov from Switzerland." The report does confess later that Akobian, as we...
Continue reading Once an Armenian....
If you don't know the name Brian Luo, remember it. The eight-year-old champ from Wisconsin came to San Diego to see the US Championship last March. During the closing ceremony, several competitors took turns playing blitz with him, including Gregory...
Continue reading Pics 07 - Olympiad 2012.
In MoC #210 I dogged the Hungarian Olympiad team pretty bad for taking four prearranged draws against Armenia in the last round in Turin. They passed up a (slim) chance at a medal for a 2-2 score without playing and...
Continue reading Mitigation Dept..
Long Washington Post article on the increasing use of "smart pills" by students and others looking to improve concentration and memory. Are chessplayers taking these things? Would that be wrong if there aren't negative side-effects? Other items on this topic...
Continue reading More Smarter Pills.
Spanish nine year old Jaime Santos Latasa beat GM Paco Vallejo in a 12-player simul in León. All the players were in the 7-10 age group. The same kid beat Magnus Carlsen in a simul last year, although that required...
Continue reading Tot Beats Vallejo.
superfreaky points us to a new long and interesting interview with Vladimir Kramnik, originally for the Spanish Peon de Rey magazine, now in English on his website. Lots of bases covered, from the Olympiad to his recent woes to his...
Continue reading Kramnik Interview.
The León rapid tournament is underway. Anand barely survived Bruzon in the first match, eliminating him in a blitz game in a match that took eight games. (Four rapid and then tiebreaks.) The Cuban is no pushover, but Anand's rough...
Continue reading León Roars.
Included in the Mechanics Chess Club's newsletter, given complete with minor grammar and spelling changes only. My own long Olympiad item will be up at ChessBase in a bit (up now) and I wanted to link back to this nice...
Continue reading O Captain! My Captain!.
I'm feeling much better, thanks. Getting well just in time to resume debauchery for my birthday. I've been spending my chess time on a long Olympiad / election column to run at ChessBase, but some bits of it have been...
Continue reading Swing of Things.
Now when will my monitor stop sloshing around? Back from three days of fishing in Baja California Sur, Mexico, same place as last year, a bit later in the year. Not as successful a trip but at least this time...
Continue reading Estoy de Vuelta.
This is it, the final round! Board pairings are here. Live games will be here. Women's live games here....
Continue reading Turin Olympiad 2006 r13.
Board pairings here. Live games will be here....
Continue reading Turin Olympiad 2006 r12.
An article by David Levy on the topic is up on Chessbase. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov won 96 votes; Bessel Kok won 54....
Continue reading Kirsan Ilyumzhinov Reelected as President of FIDE.
Mig's gone fishin'. Ms. Sterious here to fill in with links and such. Round 11 team pairings here. Board pairings here. Kamsky and Kramnik are on board one of USA-Russia. Live games will be here. Women's live games here. Any...
Continue reading Turin Olympiad 2006 r11.
Just tossing up a quick FIDE presidential election item for you pundits before bailing out for a bit. Kirsan's side is claiming over 80 votes but word in the back rooms of Turin say it's not out of the question...
Continue reading Election Handicapping.
It's never to early to start making silly lists! Best games and worst games (by a player who should know better) so far? Aleksandrov already has the worst move award wrapped up, who's contending for second prize? Aronian's demolition of...
Continue reading Turin 06 Best and Worst.
