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Live Coverage of Shanghai Masters (7am) and Russian Championships Higher League (7am).

TWIC Magazine: Reports, Results and Games from last week

For the Week in Chess Magazines visit http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/twic.

TWIC 825 - 30/08/2010 - 2333 games - html

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Top Stories

Shanghai Masters 2010 (Shanghai CHN)
Fri 3rd Sep 2010 - Wed 8th Sep 2010 - Official Site - Live

SuperGM (4 players 6 Rds DRR Indiv TC:90m:60m+10spm(41)) - Games in PGN: Games | Live

Shanghai Masters 2010 (1)

The Shanghai Masters takes 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 compete for two places in the Bilbao Masters final after the Olympiad.

Detailed Stories

39th Olympiad 2010 (Khantiy Mansiysk RUS)
Sun 19th Sep 2010 - Mon 4th Oct 2010 - Official Site

Men (11 Rds Olym Team TC:90m:30m+30spm(1))

Women (11 Rds Olym Team TC:90m:30m+30spm(1))

So how ready is Khanty-Mansijsk for the Olympiad? (Preparations)

The organisers say they are ready, but others are concerned. It seems that FIDE's official in charge of the Olympiad, FIDE Vice-President Israel Gelfer, is under great strain right now. He sent an abusive E-Mail to one of the representatives of the nations that support the current FIDE regime, something regarded as quite out of character for him. It is however the changes to the times of flights to the venue that is causing most concern.

Work going on during the visit of Gelfer in July.

Work going on during the visit of Gelfer in July. | http://ura.ru/content/khanti/23-07-2010/news/1052117193.html

Detailed Stories

Arctic Securities Chess Stars 2010 (Kristiansund NOR)
Sat 28th Aug 2010 - Mon 30th Aug 2010 - Official Site - Live

Arctic Stars Prelim (4 players 6 Rds DRR Indiv TC:20m+10spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Prelim

Arctic Stars 3rd-4th (2 players 2 Rds Match Indiv TC:20m+10spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games Bronze

Arctic Stars Final (2 players 2 Rds Match Indiv TC:20m+10spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Final Games

Arctic Securities Chess Stars 2010 (Final)

The Arctic Securities Chess Stars tournament took place in Kristiansund 28th-30th August 2010. Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Judit Polgar and Jon Ludvig Hammer played in the two stage event. The Double Round Robin between the four players was dominated by Anand. Time control: 20 minutes + 10 seconds a move. Carlsen beat Anand 1.5-0.5 in the final and Hammer beat Polgar to take third place.

Carlsen in action against Polgar in Round 4, there is excellent footage in the live coverage, commentary in Norwegian. I've always been a huge fan of seeing the moves being played on the board as you pick up so much. Photo ©

Carlsen in action against Polgar in Round 4, there is excellent footage in the live coverage, commentary in Norwegian. I've always been a huge fan of seeing the moves being played on the board as you pick up so much. Photo © | http://bit.ly/chessnrk

Detailed Stories

Raw World Chess Challenge 2010 (New York USA)
Fri 10th Sep 2010 - Fri 10th Sep 2010 - Official Site

RAW Chess Challenge (1 Rds Team )

RAW World Chess Challenge 2010 (Preview)

The RAW World Chess Challenge under the tag-line "CAN YOU BEAT MAGNUS CARLSEN?" takes place the Cooper Star Hotel in New York City in New York City on Friday September 10th 2010. This one day match is part of Magnus Carlsen's G-Star fashion sponsorship (their RAW brand) and represents some of the best news for chess in years. The challenge see Carlsen take on registered viewers from throughout the world, they will receive help from Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France, Hikaru Nakamura from the United States and Judit Polgar from Hungary who will suggest moves that will be voted on. The event is just one day but is similar to the hugely successful Kasparov versus the World in 1999. Kasparov will also be on hand as an Ambassador for this match.

Raw Chess World Challenge.

Raw Chess World Challenge. | http://rwcc.g-star.com/en/rawchess/

Detailed Stories

Russian Championships Higher League 2010 (Irkutsk RUS)
Wed 25th Aug 2010 - Sun 5th Sep 2010 - Official Site - Live

ch-RUS Higher League (50 players 11 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:100:50:15+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games | Live

Russian Championships Higher League 2010 (8)

The 63rd Russian Championships Higher League takes place in Irkutsk, Siberia starting 25th August 2010 (arrival) and running to September 5th . More than 50 GMs play. The top 5 qualify for the final in December. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Evgeny Tomashevsky are amongst the players (a preliminary list says: Alekseev, Riazantsev, Tomashevsky, Khismatullin, Timofeev, Siugirov, Nepomniatchi, Rublevsky, Lastin, Inarkiev, Grachev, Kokarev, I.Popov, Tseshkovsky…).

Live on the Russian Chess Federation website. 7am UK time.

FIDE Ratings September 2010 (Sept10)

The September rating list didn't see a lot of dramitic changes.

It was steady as you go at the top with Carlsen, Topalov, Anand and Aronian not playing any rated games. Aronian did move from 5 to 4 because of Kramnik's lost rating points in Dortmund. Ivanchuk and Gelfand move back into the top 10.

Sergey Zhigalko, Michael Roiz and Ivan Sokolov dropped out of the top 100. Viktor Laznicka, Luke McShane and Sebastien Feller came in.

The rating required to be in the top 100 moved up from 2639 to 2642. Michael Adams moves up to 18 from 35, Laurent Freseeinet from 40 to 27 both in part from becoming their national champions. Radoslaw Wojtaszek moved up from 75 to 42.

Full list available at: http://ratings.fide.com/

NH Chess Tournament 2010 (Amsterdam NED)
Thu 12th Aug 2010 - Sun 22nd Aug 2010 - Official Site - Results - Live

NH Tournament (10 players 10 Rds Schev Team TC:120m:30m+30spm(41)) - Games in PGN: Games

Blitz Playoff (2 players 3 Rds Match Indiv TC:3m+2spm) - Games in PGN: Playoff

NH Chess Tournament 2010 (10)

The 5th NH Chess Rising Stars vs Experience Tournament took place in Amsterdam 12th-22nd August 2010. The experienced Gelfand, Svidler, PH Nielsen, Van Wely and Ljubojevic took on the Rising Stars of Nakamura, Caruana, Wesley So, Giri and Howell.

The tournament finished with the Youth side defeating the Experience 26-24. Boris Gelfand scored 7/10 for the Experience team. Anish Giri lost his final game to allow Hikaru Nakamura to catch him on 6/10. The two had a play-off for a place in next year's Amber tournament. The blitz playoff with a time rate of 3m+2spm saw Nakamura win with a 2-0 score. It wouldn't really surprise me if Giri gets an invitation anyway.

At the closing ceremony it was confirmed that this will be the last edition of the tournament.

The leading scorers for each team Boris Gelfand and Anish Giri drew an interesting game in round 7. Photo ©

The leading scorers for each team Boris Gelfand and Anish Giri drew an interesting game in round 7. Photo © | http://www.nhchess.com/

Detailed Stories

3rd Grand Slam Masters Final Bilbao (Bilbao ESP)
Sat 9th Oct 2010 - Fri 15th Oct 2010 - Official Site

Final Masters (4 players 6 Rds DRR Indiv TC:90m:60m)

Bilbao Masters Final 2010 (Prelim)

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.

Dun Laoghaire Masters 2010 (Dun Laoghaire IRL)
Fri 20th Aug 2010 - Sun 29th Aug 2010 - Official Site

GM (10 players 9 Rds SRR Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: GM

IM (10 players 9 Rds SRR Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: IM

Dun Laoghaire Masters 2010 (9)

The Dun Laoghaire Master tournaments took place in Ireland 20th August 2010 to 29th August 2010. Two all-play-all tournaments, a GM and a Masters. The GM Group was won by Mark Hebden.

News from Alex Baburin whose newsletter Chess Today has run since 2000. You can read the latest issue with coverage of this event by downloading this zip file: Zipped file of PDF, cbv and PGN files of Chess Today 3577

Detailed Stories

Baku Open (Baku AZE)
Mon 23rd Aug 2010 - Tue 31st Aug 2010 - Official Site - Results - Live

Open (159 players 9 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games

Baku Open 2010 (9)

The Baku Open took place 23rd-31st August 2010. Gata Kamsky in spite of a loss to Rauf Mamedov secured victory alone with 7.5/9 half a point clear of the field. Games from the final round are not complete.

Additional coverage at www.ulvichess.az with Photos from the event.

Rauf Mamedov beat Gata Kamsky in Round 6. Photo ©

Rauf Mamedov beat Gata Kamsky in Round 6. Photo © | http://www.ulvichess.az

Leko -Gelfand Rapid Match 2010 (Miskolc HUN)
Wed 25th Aug 2010 - Sun 29th Aug 2010 - Official Site - Results - Live

Rapid Match (2 players 8 Rds Match Indiv TC:25m+10spm) - Games in PGN: Games

Leko vs Gelfand Rapid Match 2010 (Day 4)

Boris Gelfand beat Peter Leko 4.5-3.5 in an 8 game rapid match in Miskolc, 25th-29th August 2010. The time control was 25m + 10spm. This was the 6th such match Leko has played in Miskolc since the first one in 2005 (Adams, Karpov, Kramnik, Carlsen and Anand). Arbiter: Zsuzsa Veroci.

Leko - Gelfand. Photo ©

Leko - Gelfand. Photo © | http://www.lekogelfand.hu

2nd London Chess Classic (London ENG)
Mon 6th Dec 2010 - Wed 15th Dec 2010 - Official Site

Classic (8 players 7 Rds SRR Indiv TC:120m:60m:15m+30spm(61))

FIDE Open (9 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:120m+30m)

London Chess Classic 2010 (Preview)

The field for the 2nd London Chess Classic has been strengthened again this year with the addition of Viswanathan Anand. Returning are World Number One Magnus Carlsen, Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, US Number One Hikaru Nakamura and the top English players Michael Adams, Nigel Short, Luke McShane and David Howell.

There will be many events alongside this major tournament.

World Number One Magnus Carlsen in last year's Classic against Vladimir Kramnik who he beat in a good game. Photo © John Saunders

World Number One Magnus Carlsen in last year's Classic against Vladimir Kramnik who he beat in a good game. Photo © John Saunders | www.londonchessclassic.com

Detailed Stories

Chess Classic Mainz 2010 (Mainz GER)
Fri 6th Aug 2010 - Sun 8th Aug 2010 - Official Site - Live

Grenke Rapid WCh (701 players 11 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:20m+5spm) - Games in PGN: Games

17th Chess Classic Mainz 2010 (Day 2)

The 17th Chess Classic Mainz took place 6th-8th August 2010. The festival has suffered from the general economic slowdown with the Grenke Rapid World Championship Open taking the lead along with simuls by World Champions Viswanathan Anand and Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Aronian, Grischuk Shirov, Movsesian, Kamsky, Kasimdzhanov, Bologan, Inarkiev, Bareev and Zvjaginsev played the main open tournament. Gata Kamsky took clear first place with 10/11, he started with 9/9 before draws with Gashimov and Grischuk saw him home. Vugar Gashimov, defending champion Levon Aronian and Evgeny Bareev were half a point further back.

The stage for the Mainz Chess Classic during the final Round. Photo ©

The stage for the Mainz Chess Classic during the final Round. Photo © | http://www.chesstigers.de

Detailed Stories

Pearl Spring Super GM 2010 (Nanjing CHN)
Mon 18th Oct 2010 - Sat 30th Oct 2010 - Official Site

Pearl Spring (6 players 10 Rds DRR Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1))

Pearl Spring Masters Nanjing 2010 (Prelim)

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.

Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2011 (Caleta ENG)
Mon 24th Jan 2011 - Thu 3rd Feb 2011 - Official Site

Gibraltar Masters (10 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:100:50:15+30spm(1))

Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2011 (Entry)

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.

Tal Memorial 2010 (Moscow RUS)
Thu 4th Nov 2010 - Sat 13th Nov 2010 - Official Site

Tal Mem (10 players 9 Rds SRR Indiv TC:120m:60m:15m+30spm(61))

Tal Memorial 2010 (Info Needed)

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.

Spanish Teams Honor 2010 (Sestao ESP)
Mon 23rd Aug 2010 - Sat 28th Aug 2010 - Official Site - Results - Live

TCh-ESP Honor 2010 (102 players 6 Rds SwissKO Team TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games

Spanish Teams Honor Division 2010 (Concluded)

The Spanish Chess Championships CECLUB Honor Division took place in Sestao, Vizcaya, 23rd-28th August 2010. 6 Rounds: 10 teams. First 4 rounds a Swiss, Final 2 Rounds settled the final placings. Kasparov Marcote took clear first place by beating Linex Magic 4.5-1.5 in the final. Hosts Setao Naturgas took 3rd place. There was a rapid playoff won by Gros XT to settle 5th place.

The rather messy format has come in for a lot of criticism with round 4 seeing a lot of quick draws, some agreed before play. It seems very likely there will be a change next year.

Shirov, Ponomariov, Caruana, Gashinov, Vallejo, Bacrot, Kasimdzhanov, Navara, Laznicka, Almasi, Harikrishna, Dreev, Krasenkow, Bruzon, Nakamura, Vachier, Short were amongst the high profile players.

Shirov and Ponomariov in action for Linex-Magic. Photo ©

Shirov and Ponomariov in action for Linex-Magic. Photo © | http://www.feda.org

World Chess Championship 2010 (Sofia BUL)
Sat 24th Apr 2010 - Thu 13th May 2010 - Official Site - ChessDom - EE Vids - ChessVibes - CB Giri Notes - Ian Rogers Crikey and The Hindu - Chess Mind - Shipov Notes

World Championship (2 players 12 Rds Match Indiv TC:120m:60m:15m+30spm(61)) - Games in PGN: Games

World Chess Championship 2010. Anand vs Topalov (12)

The World Chess Championship took place in Sofia, Bulgaria Saturday 24th April to 11th May 2010. Viswanathan Anand won a very hard fought match 6.5-5.5 against his challenger Veselin Topalov to retain his title. In the final game Topalov's quest for complications led to trouble and he couldn't recover from a bad blunder.

This page contains all the stories, results, games and videos from the match.

Anand with his winners laurels at the closing ceremony. Photo © Chessdom who have full coverage of the match.

Anand with his winners laurels at the closing ceremony. Photo © Chessdom who have full coverage of the match. | http://www.chessdom.com

Detailed Stories

Malcolm Pein Articles

Wrangle over the Fischer Estate (Estate)

Malcolm Pein reports on the increasingly tiresome legacy of Bobby Fischer who quite predictably left his affairs in a tangled mess on his death.

Bobby Fischer (Estate)

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