Alekhine's Parrot

TheParrot Says…Welcome to the archive of the weekly leader of chess events around the world.  Chessville welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on this week’s news by writing to TheParrot@Chessville.com where selected letters will be featured.

“Looking at the landscape of players, it seems that established players will dominate U.S. teams for several years. It takes extraordinary talent and determination for a Nakamura to develop; we will not see young players join him on the team until our community does more to help our young players. Outside of the Samford Fellowship and occasional gatherings organized by the Kasparov Chess Foundation, there is almost nothing we do for our young talent. There is much focus on participation, but very little on excellence. Until we shift some of that focus, we will not develop players as fast as we import them.”

This statement seems to deliberately exclude USCF itself from this list of promoters, but surely 30 employees who exist as agents to deploy USCF’s mission, must do something other than administer scholastic chess ratings? Or is that the real mission of USCF?

Last Summer the Parrot noted that of the 30,000 adult USCF members only about 12,000 of them had played even one rated game in the past 12 months. Requests for activity ratings of these 12,000 went unanswered by a shy USCF, so that an unknown amount of these 12,000 may have only played in one weekend Swiss during the entire year! Who knows?

GM Benjamin’s article says that it is hard to make money at the top in the USA, and immigrant players have dominated the prize-fund scene, but it seems just as true that the middle-ground of ‘club’ chess players are also under-motivated to participate in traditional rated chess.

While the annual intake of scholastic players-in, equals scholastic players-lost, both the numbers of overall players and their activity ratings are in decline. Overall USCF lost 10,000 memberships 2003/2004. Perhaps everyone fled to the internet as an alternative to playing legally rated games, or are players bored by long time-controls?

USCF’s challenge in 2007 will be to investigate out what future they have as a chess organization. And to look at their own role in the increasingly anemic home-base of traditional ratings, or declare themselves little more than a ratings agency for Scholastic players. But even that has competition!

USCF’s Mission Statement to expand chess in the US is largely abandoned and redundant. Is this really what USCF has been about for the past 25 years since the Fischer-boom? The organization may have capitalized on it, but what now? What about the next 25 years?

“devoted to extending the role of chess in American society”

The problem is not examining what these countries are doing right [and its not money for top players] instead its getting anyone to even look at us compared with them, as if we cared.

Chess Press Worldwide

Chessville Wants Writers:  Contribute to ChessVignettes, Chessville Vignettes is an edited Chessville reader's column. Send 500-700 words of player biography or anecdote to Vignettes@chessville.com and we may feature your contribution in a future column, plus your name as contributor, and add it to the Vignettes archive.  A Chessville editor may edit the text and/or provide any necessary graphics, including copyright-free photographs and national flag of the player.

ACP Wants Writers: A new forum has been introduced to the ACP website http://www.chess-players.org/eng/index.html who also state that their poll of members about Draw Offers will be published ‘soon’.  Well, they said that on Dec 6^th, and seem to be drawing it out…

The Hastings Congress is taking place 28th December 2006 - 7 January 2007. Among participants there are Gagunashvili Merab g GEO 2611, Ikonnikov Vyacheslav g RUS 2587, Hebden Mark g ENG 2545, Tahirov Farhad g AZE 2545, Neverov Valeriy g UKR 2538, Gofshtein Zvulon g ISR 2509, Pavlovic Milos g SCG 2507, Pert Nicholas g ENG 2502.

Live games are available, although technical problems prevented round 1 broadcasts, says the official site www.hastingschess.org.uk though there seem to be problems with round 2 as well.

The XVI Pamplona tournament is taking place 21st-29th December 2006. Participants: Morozevich Alexander g RUS 2747, Shirov Alexei g ESP 2720, Jakovenko Dmitry g RUS 2671, Korneev Oleg g RUS 2657, Wojtaszek Radoslaw g POL 2630, Illescas Cordoba Miguel g ESP 2620, Laznicka Viktor g CZE 2596, Bauer Christian g FRA 2585.

MORO WINS by a whole point! Final standings:
1 Morozevich - 6.0
2 Jakovenko - 5.0
3 Shirov - 4.5
4 Bauer - 4.0
5 Wojtaszek - 3.0
6 Illescas - 2.5
7 Laznicka - 2.0
8 Korneev - 1.0

 Official site: www.chesspamplona.com

A report from the Indian newspaper, The Hindu, exposes more Chess-CHEATING:

The All India Chess Federation has slapped a ten-year ban on Umakant Sharma, a chess player from Southern Railway, for using a Bluetooth device during a FIDE-rated tournament in Delhi and gaining unfair advantage through it. At the meeting, the AICF Treasurer, Bharat Singh Chauhan, exhibited the device to the members. This is the first time that the Federation has taken such a severe action against a player in the country. The Federation Secretary, D.V. Sundar, said Sharma and another player D.P. Singh, an International Master have been under the scanner ever since it was noticed that the two had risen phenomenally in their Elo rating – from 1930 to 2484 in the case of Sharma and from 2350 to 2500 for Singh – in the space of just one and half years. "Not even Viswanathan Anand has progressed with such speed," said Mr. Sundar.

It was the week before Christmas
And all through the house
Nothing was stirring
Not even a bad-bishop.

In the traditional quiet week before a major holiday, chess organizers are preparing for after-Christmas tournaments, and also resolving on what to do and not to do in 2007…

What forwards us, what ails us?

After awarding $10,000 to an individual for fundraising purposes, some USCF executive board members have again come under pressure for requiring no performance measurements of how award monies should be deployed. The board was criticised by current board member and ex-USCF president Marinello in its own forum. This current scandal follows close on an award for a much larger sum, $50,000, for a magazine and web-makeover earlier this year, which was also without any bidding process, and by all accounts, without even a written plan.

Now the organisation is under heavy fire by forum members whose membership monies are being ‘awarded’ and even by delegates asking if it is prudent to make awards of money without any bidding process, and with little or no performancaqnce criteria?

I think this is a clear call about what ails us.

Chess Press Worldwide

Susan Polgar, an aspirant for the Fide Presidency, wrote at her own blog site on what ails us – in an article titled Chess Governance - Time to change?

“One of the things I would like to fight hard against is corruption in chess. Chess is a major sport with 40-45 million people (according to CBS and other sources) who know how to play the game in the United States and 700 million around the world. More than 160 countries are members of FIDE.

And yet, the same small group of people keep controlling various national organizations as well as FIDE year after year. It would not be bad if they have a vision, ability, experience and passion to run these organizations. The problem is things are getting worse, not better.

The FIDE system of 1 nation 1 vote does not work because of corruption. It is not difficult to buy or exchange votes. Players and fans are screaming about changes but the same thing happens in every election. Practically nothing has changed.

The USCF system got a little better with OMOV (One man one vote) but there are still plenty of flaws. There are no sound provisions for removing officers who violate the code of conducts on a timely basis. There are still too much bureaucracy and inefficiency which hinder the welfare and growth of chess.”

The grandmaster then addressed what forwards us?

“What about other countries? What system do you have and which is the best election system to ensure that the best most qualified people will have a chance to help chess? What is your take?”

CBS NEWS in Canada makes a strong link with chess and democracy, and reports Chess giant Kasparov leads anti-Putin rally

“Ahead of the rare rally, authorities pulled hundreds of opposition activists off buses and trains and detained them along with scores of others, in many cases without explanation, organizers claimed.”

CNN also carried reports on this unusual opposition rally.

The Parrot supposes that since Russia is so currently and historically influential on the world chess scene, calls for addressing corruption by such people as Susan Polgar, to the effect that democracy is for sale in chess, does not bode well for Kasparov’s address to the same issues in Russian government.

If you can’t fix our game of chess, then we might have even smaller expectation of fixing much more complex things in society.

"When you are so corrupt and used to living beyond the law, you are used to getting what you want," Kasparov said at the rally.

While Kasparov literally addresses the task of what ails his country, ours is to do so in chess, no? Since we can have little effect on international politics – but we can and should respond to S. Polgar’s call to clean up what ails us in our own game, since who else will?

The St. Petersburg based company Shahcom has announced that it will provide live broadcasts of the First ACP World Rapid Cup in Odessa from January 4th to 8th 2007.

Participants are: Alexander Morozevich (Russia), Peter Leko (Hungary), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Alexei Shirov (Spain), Etien Bacrot (France), Sergey Rublevsky (Russia), Evgeny Bareev (Russia), Arkadij Naiditsch (Germany), Pentala Harikrishna (India), Ivan Sokolov (The Netherlands), Viorel Bologan (Moldova), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Farrukh Amonatov (Tadjikistan).

Details: www.chess-players.org.

Topalov and his manager speak strongly about corruption in FIDE, supported by Russian KGB, or FSB as it is now called.  GM Topalov said in a press statement "the Kremlin will never admit they poisoned that Russian spy, which seems obvious, or that Kramnik cheated."  Topalov added that he felt in physical danger and will not go back to Kalmykia again.  Then added his thought that President Ilyumzhinov was not personally responsible for what transpired, he was acting on orders.

Whereas rivals for the Fide election have now teamed up to form a company: FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Bessel Kok announced after a meeting in Prague, 21 December 2006, a Memorandum Of Understanding agreeing on the formal launch of a company called Global Chess BV. Capitalised by an initial 4.5 million Euro and supplemented by an additional 5.5 million Euro for future ventures.

Perhaps the reader will decide if this forwards us or ails us?  Why Bessel Kok would associate with what is almost universally held to be a FIDE ripe with corruption, lacking confidence of players and sponsors, is unknown.  Money alone?

In other ACP news 2 items were announced:

Not only did we manage to find a sponsor for the ACP Masters, but we also reached a few goals on the chess-political scene.  For instance, the ACP will have his own representative in the World Chess Championship Committee and will, therefore, be taking an active part in all questions concerning the World Championship Regulations.

You will soon find on our website www.chess-players.org a poll on draw offers.  This topic has been discussed intensively in the last few years.  The chess public is often hard to please, and some tournament organizers have decided to adopt some measures to fight against short draws.  Your opinion is important to us.  It will help us to determine which direction to follow in this matter.  The questionnaire is almost ready and will be released soon.

European Individual Championships 2007
The 8th European Individual Championships for Men and Women will be held in Dresden in April 2007. Whilst open to all, these tournaments will be amongst the most prestigious events in next year’s calendar, and will be qualification events for the next World Cup (for men) or the next World Championship (for women) reports the British Chess Federation.

India beat China in Asian Championship.

Reporting on the event was scarce, and possibly drowned by 30 other sports but as a chess summary India drew with Kazakhstan in the final round to tally 22.5 points for the gold, a full 5 points ahead of China who beat Bangladesh 2:1 for 17.5 points and the silver medal. Iran shocked Qatar 3:0 to jump to third place with 16.5 points and grab the bronze medal.  It was a heartbreaking loss for the host who were running third going into the last round.  Said FIDE.  Otherwise there is not much more coverage, but lots of ceremonial pictures.  Official site: http://www.doha-2006.com/index.aspx

Further IN:  Joining me will be Dr. Mikhail Korenman, NM Randy Bauer and FM Paul Truong. Said Susan Polgar last week about her bid for the USCF executive board.  Paul Troung was recently interviewed by Chessville about his career in chess, and the future of the game in an extensive 20 Questions session.

This week the Parrot spoke with Randy Bauer, and discussed a variety of issues, including his own role in calling for more responsibility at USCF and regular performance evaluations for everyone. We then turned to discussing Susan Polgar:

The Parrot wrote:  "… the thing with S. Polgar is that she loves the game.  She is devoted to it, and needs no other qualifications at all!  Whereas the rest of the candidates need to state their cases, et ca.  People admit this of Polgar since she demonstrates it beyond any personal intriguing or benefit.  It has been something missing from American chess, a sort of immigrant-purity factor, that simply loves the game regardless of how others behave - and this, by all accounts, is completely winning."

Randy Bauer responded:  "It's very true. When I was elected the last time, Susan sought me out, and we had a conversation that lasted at least 30 minutes (keep in mind we had never met before) about a variety of chess topics -- she is very passionate about building chess in this country, and it was obvious to me that she would provide the energy, drive, determination, etc., to get it done. You're right that we should focus on results, and she has delivered.

The newest US Rating Lists show 3 US GMs above 2700:  Gata Kamsky 2752, Alex Onishuk 2712, and Hikaru Nakamura 2707.  Top listed women players are [above 2400 points]: Susan Polgar 2597, Anna Zatonskih 2492, Irina Krush 2449 and Rusudan Goletiani 2411.

Chess Press Worldwide

Interestingly Marie Woolf, Political Editor Reports in the Independent newspaper in the UK says that chess is second only to football [soccer to you Yanks] in the UK.  “Chess is played by more than four million people in Britain and is second only to football in popularity.”  Though confounds her report with conflating it with sport and the Olympics, which I think are unlikely reasons for its popularity as a ‘sport’ and her interest all to do with money, being in the UK, national lottery funds.  “Tony Blair has been lobbied by scores of advocates, including Russian grandmaster Gary Kasparov, and a Parliamentary motion was put down demanding British chessplayers in international tournaments be given government funding.” She said.

The reader might think that without the money or the Olympics Britain’s interest in chess would not be worth mentioning.

Kasparov had been invited to the television program "Christiansen", but then uninvited because of ‘technical problems’ exclaimed Kasparov, who did not think the excuse credible because 48 hours repair time seemed adequate ‘for a major German TV station’.

Kasparov’s reactions in Russian and German can be viewed on the web at this site, which also includes some archival material of a younger GM.

In the United States the United Press reports on democracy in Russia: “Senators from both parties South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham and Delaware Democrat Joe Biden urged the Bush administration to stand up to Putin.”

Chess News: EDUCATION

Help Wanted! If you would like contribute your knowledge and experience in support of a PhD thesis in chess, write to the Parrot.

Last week many of you did so – those of you with severe disabilities, and also those of you who have organized chess for disadvantaged people. Much thanks! It is moving to witness this level of contribution  which helps substantiate the feeling that this is truly a world game, owned by all its players.

It is not well said in English, so you must suffer the Parrot’s Gaelic!

            Ged chuir iad thu ‘n tràth-s
            Chladh na leachainn fuidh ‘n làr
            Chaoidh cha dealaich mo ghràdh
            ‘s mo spèis riut.

World Championship Challenge: Mr. Danailov, manager of GM Topalov and President of Kaissa chess management EOOD, has thrown down the gauntlet for a rematch with World Champion Kramnik, citing FIDE’s own rules of engagement, which oblige the challenger to come up with the prize fund, which he has done with $1,000,000 to the winner and $500,000 to the loser. It remains to be seen if this will even be accepted by FIDE as a legally upheld challenge, or how any match can take place within the next 6 months, since both players’ schedules are full – January is fully taken up with Wijk aan Zee for both of them, and Topalov is at Linares most of February.

The 2007 World Chess Championship is due to take place in Mexico City in September and World Champion Kramnik has stated simultaneously with receiving the Topalov challenge that he will attend it.  It is unknown what he is doing in the mean-time, or if any other challengers have come up with a prize fund and made other challenges [any 2700-rated player may issue a challenge.]

The Super-Final of Championship of Russia taking place in Moscow 3rd-15th December 2006.

What do readers think – Should Chessville ask GM Topalov and his manager Mr. Danailov for an interview?

Final standings:
1 Alekseev - 7.5
2 Jakovenko - 7.5
3 Inarkiev - 7.0
4 Svidler - 6.0
5 Rublevsky - 5.5
6 Khairullin - 5.5
7 Tomashevsky - 5.5
8 Grigoriants - 5.0
9 Nepomniachtchi - 5.0
10 Khismatullin - 5.0
11 Vitiugov - 3.5
12 Najer - 2.5

Evgeny Alekseev from Saint-Petersburg is the Champion of Russia-2006.  Our congratulations to 21 y.o. compatriot!  Evgeny Alekseev beat Dmitry Jakovenko 1.5:0.5 in a rapid playoff (15 min.+10 sec.)

Remarkably for modern chess, in the later rounds Black was outscoring White!  This analysis follows wins with both colors for the past 6 rounds.

Round 5 W-0 B-2
Round 6 W-0 B-1
Round 7 W-1 B-3
Round 8 W-1 B-2
Round 9 W-2 B-1
Round 10 W-0 B-4

The Women Super-Final of Championship of Russia took place in Gorodets (Nizhegorodsky region) November 29th - December 12th.  Ekaterina Korbut became the Champion of Russia-2006.  Alexandra Kosteniuk left the event because of illness.

Final standings:
1 Korbut - 8
2 Tairova - 7.5
3 Kosintseva T. - 7.5
4 Kosintseva N. - 7.5
5 Kovalevskaya - 7
6 Galliamova - 6
7 Shadrina - 5.5
8 Zaiatz - 4.5
9 Matveeva - 3.5
10 Bodnaruk - 3.5
11 Gunina - 2.5
12 Komiagina - 2.5

Official site for both Superfinals was: www.russiachess.org which is v e r y s l o w .  .   .    .      .

European Individual Championships 2007
The 8th European Individual Championships for Men and Women will be held in Dresden in April 2007. Whilst open to all, these tournaments will be amongst the most prestigious events in next year’s calendar, and will be qualification events for the next World Cup (for men) or the next World Championship (for women) reports the British Chess Federation..

In Memoriam: David Ionovich Bronstein

FIDE regrets to announce the death of Grandmaster David Bronstein in Minsk, Belarus on 5 December 2006.

David Ionovich Bronstein was born 19 February 1924 in Bila Tserkva, near Kyiv, Ukraine.

The Champion of Ukraine (1939), of Moscow (1946), of USSR (1948 and 1949). The winner of the first Interzonal tournament (1948) and the first Candidates Tournament in Budapest (1950).

He drew the challenge match for the title of world champion by a score of 12-12 with Mikhail Botvinnik, the reigning champion (1951).

He represented USSR at the Olympiads of 1952, 1954, 1956 and 1958, winning board prizes at each of them.

"Beauty is the most important aspect of chess...
We are passing our knowledge and our understanding of beauty
to the next generations, and thus life goes on for ever."
said David Bronstein.
 

Fighting talk from http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2006/12/i-will-run-for-2007-uscf-executive.html:

IN: “I have made my decision. I WILL run for the 2007 USCF Executive Board.  I love chess and I cannot stand what some chess politicians have done to US Chess and the USCF.  We HAVE to do better!

With four open seats, the future of the USCF depends on the upcoming Executive Board election. Many members want a new and improved USCF and are fed up with politics as usual. The level of animosity between the chess politicians is incomprehensible.”

–  Susan Polgar, wrote earlier this week.

Further IN: Joining me will be Dr. Mikhail Korenman, NM Randy Bauer and FM Paul Truong.  I fully expect that some of the chess politicians will make as much noises as possible to derail our efforts.  Some will do everything they can to protect their pseudo power.

The Parrot will appraise all four candidates in a subsequent report which will, by all accounts, radically re-orient US chess prospects and its organization.

OUT: "In light of the recent findings of the USCF Ethics Committee regarding games I played in the early 1990s I feel that it is in the best interest of both USCF and the chess community that I resign my position as a member of the USCF Executive Board as well as FIDE Zonal President and all FIDE Committees and Commissions. ..." - Robert B. Tanner

Chess Press Worldwide

David Bronstein wrote a number of chess books and articles. Many of them like the Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953, The Modern Chess Self Tutor, 200 Open Games became bestsellers.  No one wrote such a universally acknowledged brilliant tournament report as Zurich ’53, and this is now, as it has been, the unchanged opinion of the world’s chess press, since its publication.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice passed all his examinations, and successfully passed them to other generations of chess players around the world.  Obituaries focusing on his contributions to chess have appeared in the quality press all round the world.

Gary Kasparov commented on some Russian games recently, and frankly, seemed a bit impatient with the young kids now playing.  “'How was it possible not to sacrifice the exchange?” He asks.  But commentators and critics don’t make the news Mr. Kasparov, unless they are exceptional, helpful and can answer their own questions!  Players get to be interviewed on the Sports channel, since chess after all is not really a spectator sport.

Photographic credits Misha Savinov

On Tuesday 21st March 2006 contracts were signed between Brighton University and English Chess Federation to house the National Chess Library in University Centre Hastings.  Representing the University were Margaret Wallis Head of Co-ordination and Development and Sarah Eatwell Information Services Manager, signing for English Chess Federation were President Gerry Walsh and Manager Cynthia Gurney.

Chess News: EDUCATION

Help Wanted!  If you have some practical experience with unsighted players or players with significant other disabilities, and would like to contribute your knowledge and experience in support of a PhD thesis in chess, contact TheParrot who will then connect you with the doctoral candidate.  Some “in vivo” studies are contemplated, and also chess players willing to conduct and report on-going contributing research are welcomed to make contact.  This research is also being generously supported by Grandmasters around the world, and leading chess software and hardware companies.  Cognitive psychologists are especially invited to make contact, even more so if they are familiar with the work of Adrian de Groot and/or Howard Gardner as well as in gender differentiated studies!

Game 1: Saturday 25.11.2006 Kramnik - DEEP FRITZ 1/2
Game 2: Monday 27.11.2006 DEEP FRITZ - Kramnik 1-0
Game 3: Wednesday 29.11.2006 Kramnik - DEEP FRITZ 1/2
Game 4: Friday 01.12.2006 DEEP FRITZ - Kramnik 1/2
Game 5: Sunday 03.12.2006 Kramnik - DEEP FRITZ 1/2
Game 6: Tuesday 05.12.2006 DEEP FRITZ - Kramnik 1-0

Official site: www.rag.de/microsite_chess_com/

Unnoticed in the meanwhile was world #11 Radjabov, who lost to Deep Junior in Florence.  At least no one said it was a fighting draw, or could think of any hype at all, and the event seems to have been universally ignored since no one could think of any reason to stay awake.

The SuperFinal of Championship of Russia taking place in Moscow 3rd-15th December 2006.

Round 5 standings
1 Jakovenko - 3.5
2-7 Svidler, Khairullin, Alekseev, Nepomniachtchi, Inarkiev, Grigoriants - 3.0
8 Rublevsky - 3.5
6-9 Khismatullin, Tomashevsky - 2.0
11 Najer, Vitiugov - 1.0

Interestingly, White has won 7 games, and black 6. Alekseev and Inarkview have both won two games. Tomashevsky, Najer and Vitiugov have not yet scored a whole point.

The Women SuperFinal of Championship of Russia takes place in Gorodets (Nizhegorodsky region) November 29th - December 12th.

Round7 standings
1-2 Kosintseva T., Tairova - 5.5
3 Korbut - 5.0
4-5 Kosintseva N., Galliamova - 4.5
6-7 Shadrina, Kovalevskaya - 4.0
8-10 Zaiatz, Bodnaruk, Matveeva - 2.0
11-12 Komiagina, Gunina - 1.5

As comparison, many more of the women’s games are decisive; White has won 20 games, and black 10.  Making 30 from 40 decisive results from the women, but 13 from 30 for the men.  The problem of excessive draws in chess seems to be a gender problem!

Official site for both Superfinals is: www.russiachess.org

In what was unquestionably the most exciting match in USCL history, the San Francisco Mechanics won the league title in the tiebreak after the score was tied at two in regulation. An IM has to beat a GM to bring it home... Read the whole story at the official site: www.uschessleague.com

Chess Press Worldwide

And Chessville makes the news. In response to the announcement about the Fide Presidency and Susan Polgar, GM Ray Keene OBE, a practiced Fide-watcher, said:

“I would be very supportive if Susan Polgar would openly declare her candidacy and start working for it now.”

Ex Chess Life Editor Larry Parr writes from Kuala Lumpar:

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will remain FIDE president as long as he wishes to use the organization.  Another eight to 12 years looks likely.  Susan Polgar would be a snap-of-the-fingers choice over the real-life gangsters now in power.  But to win, she would have to employ bribery and, in truth, become a crook herself. The necessary deal-making and vote buying (banning mobile phone cameras from the voting booths next time won't work; there will be a new ploy) must doom reform before it begins.

     Chess waxes a bit on the fringes and wanes in the mainstream.  There is now a single world champion, but he presides over a radically depreciated world title for a game that Garry Kasparov and others believe is in danger of becoming a lost art when compared with the play two decades earlier.  The intellectual and cultural cachet that inflated our media balloon has been punctured.

     How do we reinflate our status?  By repairing FIDE eight, 12 or possibly 16 years hence?  By then, the chess world that we knew will be a decayed carcass. 

     The Polgar candidacy?  Susan will waste her time and drag herself down.  So will Paul Truong.  A new world chess organization is needed.  Period.

Larry Parr

Drugs anyone? A continuation of how chess is perceived by mainstream media: National Public Radio has an audio file http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6559226&sc=emaf

Which looks at new drug–testing efforts by Fide aimed at the Asian games.

The Morning Edition radio-progam, November 30, 2006  ·  The latest target of doping tests: chess players.  Next month's Asian Games will see the debut of chess as a featured sport, and drug testing for competitors.  The World Chess Federation hopes that, by raising international standards, chess will someday be an Olympic sport.  The top official in the chess world admits he isn't sure how drugs might enhance a player's performance.  But what's an Olympic sport without drug testing?

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

The XLI Capablanca Memorial took  place 19th-30th November 2006.

Final standings:

1 Ivanchuk - 6.5
2 Bareev - 6.0
3 Miton - 5.0
4 Dominguez - 4.5
5 Bruzon - 4.0
6 Nogueiras - 4.0

Official site: www.inder.co.cu/capablanca/

Kramnik v Fritzzzzzzzz

In a preamble chat with a correspondent, we agreed that Kramnik v Computer was as sleepy a match up as could be devised, and the Parrot said he thought the boring level of chess was similar to what happened between Kasparov v “Deep6”, but here is the current world champion overlooking mate in 1, which I think he did once before against Fritz [in Bahrain?]

Apart from the zzzzzzzz-factor, this isn't like chess at all, and rather than just ignore reporting these games, The Parrot would prefer to ignore reporting two computers, at least computers have an honest zzzzzzzz-factor.  But I frankly have run out of zzzzz’s to comment on the following, which even a million dollar prizzzzzzze doezzzzzn’t …

<snore>

[Event "Kramnik - Deep Fritz"]
[Site "Bonn, Germany"]
[Date "2006.11.27"]
[White "Deep_Fritz(C)"]
[Black "Kramnik(GM)"]
[Opening "QGA: 3.e4"]
[ECO "D20"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 b5 4. a4 c6 5. Nc3 b4 6. Na2 Nf6 7. e5 Nd5 8. Bxc4 e6 9. Nf3 a5 10. Bg5 Qb6 11. Nc1 Ba6 12. Qe2 h6 13. Be3 Bxc4 14. Qxc4 Nd7 15. Nb3 Be7 16. Rc1 O-O 17. O-O Rfc8 18. Qe2 c5 19. Nfd2 Qc6 20. Qh5 Qxa4 21. Nxc5 Nxc5 22. dxc5 Nxe3 23. fxe3 Bxc5 24. Qxf7+ Kh8 25. Qf3 Rf8 26. Qe4 Qd7 27. Nb3 Bb6 28. Rfd1 Qf7 29. Rf1 Qa7 30. Rxf8+ Rxf8 31. Nd4 a4 32. Nxe6 Bxe3+ 33. Kh1 Bxc1 34. Nxf8 Qe3 35. Qh7#

Following the leaders in Round 7 are on 2^nd board, GM Neelotpal Das and IM M.R. Venkatesh was a Sicilian Sveshnikov. The higher rated GM Neelotpal Das sacrificed his Rook for a Knight. However, the compensation was not sufficient. Venkatesh strengthened the grip on the game by creating a dangerous passed pawn on ‘b’ file. This tied up the defense of white and two Rooks of black created multiple threats. White resigned on move 55 when faced with heavy material loss.

On the 3^rd board, GM Sandipan Chanda edged out the more experienced veteran GM Dibyendu Barua in a French Defense opening in a hard fought 60 moves to remain in close heels of the leader. He is occupying the sole 2^nd spot with 6/7 points.

Three players with a score of 5.5/7, GM Abhijit Kunte, IM Himanshu Sharma and WGM S. Vijayalakshmi are jointly in the 3^rd position. IM Himanshu prevailed over IM Abhijeet Gupta, who suffered his 2^nd consecutive defeat and WGM Vijayalakshimi, who is also holding the title of men’s IM beat her compatriot, WGM Swati Ghate to remain in the hunt for top positions.

STOP PRESS: Final: Nigel Short, who led by half a point going into the final round, finished off with a win with Black against Surya Ganguly to make sure of retaining the Commonwealth championship. Short's nearest rivals drew so he finished a whole point clear of the field. Final scores: 1 Short 9/10, 2-3 Chanda Sandipan, MR Venkatesh 8.

Nothing happened in the USA this week.

Chess Press Worldwide

What is the world reporting about the chess scene? This week the BBC reports on a Chess star 'confided in friend'

Jessie Gilbert fell from an eighth floor hotel window. A chess prodigy told a fellow competitor that her father had abused her, a court has heard.

Jessie Gilbert, 19, allegedly confided in Joseph Redpath, now aged 21, after the pair became close during a chess competition in March 2003.

"Jessie told me that the reason she had been upset with any sexual contact was because her father had abused her."  -  Joseph Redpath
 

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

The XLI Capablanca Memorial is taking place 19th-30th November 2006. In the main event play Vassily Ivanchuk g UKR 2741, Evgeny Bareev g RUS 2683, Lenier Dominguez g CUB 2655, Lazaro Bruzon g CUB 2648, Kamil Miton g POL 2638 , Jesus Nogueiras g CUB 2554. It's a 6 player double round robin tournament.  Round 1 standings:

1-2 Ivanchuk, Nogueiras - 1.0
3-4 Dominguez, Miton - 0.5
5-6 Bareev, Bruzon - 0.0
Official site: www.inder.co.cu/capablanca/

Tal Continued, with Tal Blitz Cup

Final standings:
1. Anand, Viswanathan IND 2779 23.0
2. Aronian, Levon ARM 2741 21.0
3. Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2729 20.5
4. Svidler, Peter RUS 2750 20.5
5. Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2703 19.5
6. Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2747 18.0
7. Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2710 18.0
8. Gelfand, Boris ISR 2733 18.0
9. Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2698 17.5
10. Karpov, Anatoly RUS 2668 17.5
11. Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2672 17.0
12. Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2728 17.0
13. Polgar, Judit HUN 2710 17.0
14. Leko, Peter HUN 2741 16.5
15. Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2671 15.5
16. Bologan, Viktor MDA 2659 10.5
17. Timofeev, Artyom RUS 2662 10.0 15
18. Jobava, Baadur GEO 2650 9.0

Official site: www.russiachess.org/eng

Konstantin Sakaev became the winner of the final of the Cup of Russia in Moscow. The final knock-out system contained 48 chess players.  Last 8 qualifiers were: Alexander Galkin, Konstantin Sakaev, Igor Lysyj, Oleg Korneev, Mikhail Kobalia, Ernesto Inarkiev, Artem Timofeev, Vadim Zvjaginsev, Alexander Riazantsev Igor Kurnosov, Evgeny Najer, Alexei Dreev, Pavel Smirnov, Evgeny Alekseev, Vladimir Malakhov.  Letter from GM Drazic, Novi Sad (Serbia).  Official site: www.russiachess.org/eng
 

Letter from Serbia:
Dear chess friends please could you publish an advance notice of the tournament  18-25.03.2007.  Over 2250 ELO, and under 2250 ELO, each has15 prizes, organiser: GM Drazic. The Parrot hope he’s got this right, since his Croat-language is a bit shaky, but more information is at hand at www.drazic.co.yu and GM Drazic contacted at sdrazic@eunet.yu.

Letter from Czech Republic:
Dear chessfriends, Let us invite you cordially to the 6th International Chess Festivals in the Czech Republic - PRAGUE OPEN 2007 (11.-18.1. 2007 - 2 FIDE opens, one of them with a possibility to fulfill IM norm, active chess and blitz tournament, more information at the address http://www.czechtour.net/praha/index.php) and MARIENBAD OPEN 2007 (Marienbad is the second largest spa town in the Czech Republic, 19.-27.1. 2007 - closed GM tournament, closed IM tournament, FIDE open, active chess and blitz tournament, http://www.czechtour.net/marlazne/index.php).  With best regards, Jan Mazuch.  Dr. Jan Mazuch, Director of CZECH OPEN & CZECH TOUR - j.mazuch@avekont.cz CZECH OPEN - International Festival of Chess, Bridge and Games - http://www.czechopen.net CZECH TOUR - International Chess Festivals Series - http://www.czechtour.net International Chess Calendar - http://www.avekont.cz/calendar/ Sachovy kalendar turnaju v CR a SR - http://www.avekont.cz/kalendar/

Commonwealth Chess Championship 2006 in Mumbai [formerly Bombay].  Nice Venue!  And yes, they are in Asia’s largest glass pyramid.  The Times of India carries the following report:

MUMBAI, Nov 23: International Master Abhijeet Gupta of India assumed the sole lead with four points by crushing Woman Grand Master S Meenakshi in the fourth round of the $14,000 Commonwealth Chess Tournament on Thursday.

Indian Oil's Gupta, playing with white pieces, appeared to have prepared adequately in the Slav defence as his pieces obtained good positions and won the encounter against Meenakshi in 31 moves.

In a notable upset WGM D Harika outsmarted GM Abhijeet Kunte after she took full advantage of her rival's unimaginative play when he overstretched his position.  She won a piece on move 24 and thereafter showed good technique to romp home.

Elsewhere 'safety first' tactics were adopted on the top boards.  The game between overnight leaders, Ganguly v/s Kidambi, Tejas Bakre v/s Pravin Thipsay and Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury v/s Neelotpal Das were dull affairs as they agreed to split points within 20 moves.

The lone fight was observed on the top board between Venkatesh and the top-seeded defending champion, GM Nigel Short of Britain.  The Ruy Lopez opening opted by Venkatesh saw a theoretical battle with both players on an equal footing.

After the exchange of most of the pieces, Venkatesh managed to win a pawn on move 45.  However, the extra pawn was not sufficient in the Knight ending and the players agreed to a draw on move 51.

In other notable upsets, Arghyadip won against GM Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh, Karthikeyan against WGM S Vijayalakshmi, G Rohit against WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay and FM Priyadarshan against IM R R Laxman.

Twelve players, including Harika, shared the second spot -- the others being Short, Venkatesh, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, S Kidambi, Tejas Bakre, Pravin Thipsay, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury, Neelotpal Das, Arghyadip Das, P Karthikeyan and Praveen Kumar.

15 GMs, (including GM Nigel Short), 5 WGMs and 25 IMs, from nearly 15 countries have already confirmed their participation in this event. In all, around 150 players are expected to participate in this event.

SUSAN POLGAR Update: This week the Susan Polgar Foundation added a new board member, one of the most popular radio personalities in the US with 9 million listeners in 279 stations nightly. Delilah is the Oprah of radio. Delilah immediately promoted the SPF on her show. In addition, SPF just made more agreements with other chess organizations that have about 10,000 children playing chess and NONE of them are USCF members.

Susan Polgar landed at JFK Tuesday from Seattle to attend a global leadership summit [GGLC] in Manhattan with 5 Nobel Prize Winners and dozens of who's who in the corporate world. She is the only person invited to represent the global chess community.

I tracked the conference to this URL, where there are either live cameras or recording of panel activity: http://www.creativeleadershipsummit.org/index.htm  More tracking led me to Susan’s own Panel:

YOUR CUSTOMER’S BRAIN
With a more global and multi-cultural world, how can business develop global understanding of trends and demands? How do we develop better corporate understanding of the emotions and psychology in our decision-making process? What are the trends and patterns of the new customer and how do we keep up with him?

Dr. Antonio Damasio, Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Director, Brain and Creativity Institute. University of Southern California
Christian Deseglise, Global Head of Emerging Markets, HSBC Asset Management
Alexander Galitsky, Entrepreneur and Partner, Russian Technologies
Arianna Huffington, Author; Co-founder and Editor, The Huffington Post
Susan Polgar, Chess Grandmaster
Moderator: Chrystia Freeland, US Managing Editor, Financial Times

Last week, National Geographic finished filming the first segment about chess with Susan in Manhattan. Filming in Budapest takes place in 2 weeks and in Orlando in December. This will be shown worldwide and it is one of the biggest chess documentaries in history. The world chess and education conference asked Susan to be their honorary speaker in their upcoming conference with representative worldwide.

Susan was in the NY Times again Tuesday in an article with Mr. Agus of Goldman Sachs. And she will also be on an  upcoming Delilah show with Josh Groban, Wynona, Neil Diamond, Gloria Estefan, etc.

Chess Press Worldwide

In an article appearing elsewhere at Chessville, GM Ray Keene reports an anecdote:- The story is told that one committee meeting of the British Chess Federation had to be cancelled because the group was inquorate. Mr Soanes turned up, but Mr Ritson-Morry was in jail for embezzlement, while Mr Stammwitz was in jail for bigamy. His feeble protestations at the trial of: 'I forgot about the other one,' not unnaturally having been brushed aside.

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

Read an interview conducted by Rustem Dautov with leading French woman player GM Almira Skripchenko, on why she plays poker, and the prospects of chess in France, as well as her opinions anout taking part in the Cap D’Agle rapid tournament with the best of the world’s young players; Radjabov, Carlsen and Karjakin, as well as women players Kosteniuk, Koneru, Stefanova and Zhao, plus the ‘professor’, Anatoly Karpov who she says she has never faced before: At www.ruschess.com.

Computer Wars: The author of the chess playing program Rybka, Vasik Rajlich, writes to say he has “managed to increase his program even more significantly and now its leadership among chess playing programs is beyond question.  It is confirmed not only by the rating of independent agency CEGT (around 3000), but also by the significant victory at the Dutch Open Computer Chess Championship with the result 9 out of 9!”

The Greatest [Chess] Show on Earth:

The Mikhail Tal Memorial took place in the Central Chess Player's House in Moscow November 6th-19th 2006.  Unfortunately Thursday’s play was another short draw session, with all games drawn, one in 17 moves.

How strange to see these particular last 4 players trailing the field, I would have thought before the tournament that they might be predicted to lead it, except young Carlsen, but including Aronian.  I had private hopes that Carlsen would have done better, but after all, he is keeping pace with Svidler, Shirov, and Morozevich - and the longer the Tal memorial goes, the more it favors young players with more stamina - perhaps he'll get a couple of scalps yet?  Carlsen, Shirov and Maredyarov have not yet won a game in 8 tries, and only Aronian and Svidler won with white and black.

Final standings:
1-3 Ponomariov, Aronian, Leko - 5.5
4 Gelfand - 5.0
5-7 Mamedyarov, Grischuk, Svidler - 4.5
8-9 Shirov, Carlsen - 3.5
10 Morozevich - 3.0

A blitz qualifier began at the same time, to join both groups together in a final, and the results after the first day were: After four double rounds, Alexey Dreev leads with 6.5 points, Vladimir Malakhov and Baadur Jobava have 6 points, Joel Lautier and Ilya Smirin collected 5.5 points. Sergey Rublevsky, Dmitry Jakovenko, Viorel Bologan, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Denis Khismatullin, Teimour Radjabov and Evgeny Najer are tied for 6th-12th with 5 points. Tomorrow the participants will play the remaining five double rounds, and six winners will qualify for the Tal Blitz Cup.

Judit Polgar made some comments on arriving in Moscow: What are your plans for this visit, apart from playing, of course?

I think I am going to rest, as I don’t have so much time with two children at home.  They are staying now with my mother-in-law and my mother.  Probably we are going to walk somewhere around as well…

Official site: www.russiachess.org/eng

Coming Soon: Commonwealth Chess Championship 2006 in Mumbai [formerly Bombay].  Nice Venue!  And yes, you get to play in Asia’s largest glass pyramid.  The official website was still not operational at press time.  From other sources I believe the event is due to begin on the 17^th of November.

The Commonwealth Chess Association is spearheaded by GM Nigel Short as its President and Mr. Ravindra Dongre as its Deputy President. The association has the membership of 54 countries under the umbrella of Commonwealth countries, with nearly 20 active countries like UK, Australia, Canada, Scotland, South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malaysia, India, etc. According to Mr. Dongre, GM Nigel Short has toured extensively to attract participation of more number of countries and as also to make the game more popular. The 2007 edition of this event would be hosted by South Africa.  With a countdown of two weeks from now, 15 GMs, (including GM Nigel Short!), 5 WGMs and 25 IMs, from nearly 15 countries have already confirmed their participation in this event. In all, around 150 players are expected to participate in this event.

In the most recent anti-draw idea, Seattle just tried an innovative scoring system in a Slugfest tournament, see http://www.slugfest7.com/public/main.cfm.

Reporting on the event was mixed – too limited an event to report any successes, plus worries about the subject of cheating, and all compounded with the question, “will this make chess more interesting for TV, like poker?”

A simpler idea that is more mathematically correct and does not reward a white draw the same as a loss, is to not treat a draw as if it were half-a-win.  Therefore, the following system may be advantageous, while not skewing ratings or complicated Swiss events:

Win = 2.5 points          Draw = 1 point          Loss = 0 points

If any clubs or events have tried these or other innovative anti-draw scoring methods, drop TheParrot a line with your opinions on how they worked out.

Whoops! A little hiccup occurred when the arbiter Mr. Geurt Gijssen was asked to resolve a three-fold repetition sequence by Magnus Carlsen, which he did, then later realized the same side did not have the move, so admitted his fault, reversing his decision, but by that time his opponent Alex Morezevich could not be found, so the sponsors / organisers had to decide, draw it was!

Peter Leko looks over the shoulder of the even newer prodigy Magnus Carlsen, who Garry Kasparov recently described in his NiC column [2006/6] as already having the formidable defensive capabilities of a very strong GM.

Round four full of excitement: Morozevich scored a well-needed win with White against Grischuk on Friday 10 Nov, to give him his first whole point, and after his lack of impact with the white pieces Peter Svidler proved to himself that Kasparov is right about his opponent; that young Magnus Carlsen already has all the defensive prowess of a top-flite GM.  Aronian must have been baffled and disappointed not to score against Shirov, in a very strange ending, where Aronian had rook and 3 pawns, against Shirov’s 6 pawns, then on move 57 Shirov made the seemingly inexplicable move Kf6 instead of Kg7 – though the position is worthy of publication as an end-game study – online pundits at move 47 argued variously that it was won for black and a sure draw, and also a forced win for white!  The Leko-Gelfand game had an exciting ending with Leko a whole piece up against a mass of unconnected pawns, which at great length he eliminates to take the whole point.  Mamedyarov could not break down leader Ponomariov’s defense in 80 moves and the point was shared, maintaining Pono’s position at the top of the results board:

1. Ponomariov 3.0
2-4. Svidler, Leko, Aronian, 2.5
5-6. Mamedyarov, Gelfand, 2.0
7-9. Shirov, Carlsen, Morozevich, 1.5
10. Grischuk, 1.0

Official site: www.russiachess.org/eng

Asian Juniors and Girls under 20, 7-15 November in New Delhi is taking place, and it looks like the President of the Commonwealth Chess Association, GM Nigel Short, is there. Its difficult to find more news of what is going on via website inquiry and while there are lives games there is no leader board, and the participation list contains no Chinese players. In scouting around chess sites in India I notice that there is a new GM. And here she is: Woman International Master Tania Sachdev, a Delhi literature student today completed her final woman grandmaster norm by scoring fifty percent in the First Saturday Grandmaster Tournament which is in progress in Budapest, Hungary.

Many chess events seem underserved by their websites, here are three more:

2006 Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez - Caceres 2016

I can make out that the tournament is taking place 25 y 26 de noviembre de 2006, but no English language reports are available.   Spanish speakers can visit the official site:

www.ateneodecaceres.es/ajedrez

Similarly, German speakers can try to access Bundesliga information at the following:

Website Österreichischer Schachbund: http://www.chess.at
Turnierseite 1. Bundesliga: http://www.chess.at/staatsligen/stl_a.htm
Ergebnisseite 1. Bundesliga: http://chess-results.com/tnr4008.aspx?lan=0
Live Partien: http://www.chess.at/live
 

Without a shred of evidence, neverthless…  "This was posted without a shred of evidence. Nevertheless, I'd like to hear from Bill Hall if there is any truth to it." -- Joel Channing

USCF board member Channing was responding to a member’s complaint about list sales and member’s security, which read in part, “In other words, they sell it to marketing companies, or anybody else who wants it. That includes your name, address, email, phone number, and EVERYTHING!! So you can kiss your *** goodbye if it depends on security, discretion, and good judgment by current USCF management. That's a thing of the past.”

Nevertheless… “for many years…”  Bill Hall, Ex Dir USCF replies, “For many years the Federation has sold mailing lists through a list clearing house. All members that are flagged as confidential are excluded. Bill G[oichberg] may know how far back this practice goes. I know it has been going on for at least 21 years.”  Just so you know in case you want your personal information kept personal, the right hand isn’t completely sure what the left hand is doing. It is unclear from this message if one can request that this information be confidential.

Chess Press Worldwide:

Reporting on the most exiting tournament of the year, the Essent Hoogeveen, by the Dutch TVHN television station ignored everything about the tournament, to concentrate their one minute 15 second broadcast on toilets, and to briefly interview players of how often they went?  Shall we call this sort of reporting chess an Elista-cast?

The 7th Cap d'Agde rapid chess took place 26th October - 2nd November 2006. Players: Teimour Radjabov AZE 2729, Etienne Bacrot FRA 2705, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2698, Harikrishna Pentala IND 2674, Sergey Karjakin UKR 2672, Anatoli Karpov RUS 2668, Andrei Volokitin UKR 2645, Laurent Fressinet FRA 2640, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2579, Parimarjan Negi IND 2538, Humpy Koneru IND 2545, Alexandra Kosteniuk RUS 2534, Antoaneta Stefanova BUL 2489, Marie Sebag FRA 2471, Zhao Xue CHN 2467, Almira Skripchenko FRA 2427.

The First ACP World Rapid Cup will take place in Odessa January 4th to 8^th, 2007. The venue will be the Hotel Londonskaya. The tournament organisers are the Bank Pivdennyi and the Association of Chess Professionals. The total prize fund will amount to $136,000 US. 16 grandmasters will participate in this Knock-Out tournament. The time control will be 20 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 5 seconds per move. The ACP Tour is a yearly ranking system which includes most of the strongest chess events in the world. The following players will be officially invited:
Vladimir Kramnik (World Champion, Russia), Viswanathan Anand (World Champion in rapid chess, India), Alexander Morozevich (Russia), Levon Aronian (winner of the 2005 World Cup and Olympic Champion, Armenia), Peter Leko (Hungary), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Alexei Shirov (Spain), Sergey Rublevsky (Russia), Evgeny Bareev (Russia), Arkadij Naiditsch (Germany), Pentala Harikrishna (India), Ivan Sokolov (The Netherlands), Viorel Bologan (Moldova).

Details: www.chess-players.org

The Magistral Ciutat de Barcelona-Casino took place 19th-27th October 2006. In the tournament of XIV category play: Ivanchuk Vassily g UKR 2741, Bologan Viorel g MDA 2659, Korneev Oleg g RUS 2657, Dominguez Lenier g CUB 2655, Granda Zuniga Julio E g PER 2646, Peralta Fernando g ARG 2574, Timman Jan H g NED 2565, Narciso Dublan, Marc g ESP 2511, Lopez Martinez Josep Manuel m ESP 2508, Lacasa Diaz Jose Antonio m ESP 2410.  Final standings:

The Official site: www.fcde.org is in Spanish only.

The World Junior Championships (under 20) took place October 2nd - 17th 2006, in Yerevan (Armenia).

Final top-10 leading standings:

1 IM Andriasian, Zaven 2463 ARM 9.5 [photo]
2 IM Vitiugov, Nikita 2596 RUS 9
3 GM Kryvoruchko, Yuriy 2581 UKR 9
4 GM Pantsulaia, Levan 2596 GEO 9
5 IM Frolyanov, Dmitry 2498 RUS 8.5
6 GM Wang, Yue 2644 CHN 8.5
7 GM Stellwagen, Daniel 2576 NED 8.5
8 Wen, Yang 2416 CHN 8.5
9 GM Wang, Hao 2622 CHN 8.5
10 IM Khairullin, Ildar 2543 RUS 8.5

Girls
1 WGM Shen, Yang 2468 CHN 9
2 WFM Hou, Yifan 2481 CHN 9
3 WGM Melia, Salome 2395 GEO 9
4 WGM Mongontuul, Bathuyag 2383 MGL 9
5 WGM Karavade, Eesha 2321 IND 8.5
6 WIM Gomes, Mary Ann 2264 IND 8.5
7 WIM Pourkashiyan, Atousa 2330 IRI 8.5
8 WIM Rudolf, Anna 2265 HUN 8.5
9 WGM Harika, Dronavalli 2353 IND 8
10 WGM Tania, Sachdev 2383 IND 8

In related news Armenian chess player Robert Aghasaryan [photo] obtained the title of World Champion in the U12  World Youth Championship which took place in Batumi, Georgia. Aghasarian scored 9/11 with no loses.  Official site: www.armchess.am

Coming soon to a chess club near you… but where are you?  Cindy Jett of Mapmuse.com writes to say that a service to help people find chess clubs in the USA is now available, and the listing is free, and typically includes an entry with the name of the club, a description, a photo, contact information, and a link to a website. Go to:  http://find.mapmuse.com/re1/interest.php?brandID=CHESS_CLUBS

...to discover how easy it is for people to find you, or not! So, if you can’t find your own club, ask your club secretary to sign you up. It took me about 2 minutes to sign up my local club.

Roll ‘em! Filming chess in Central Park, and you could have been in it, according to Susan Polgar, who issued the following invitation at her blog site: “If you live in New York and want to be in a chess movie, come to Tompkins Square (New York City) on Avenue A and 7th Street this Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 3 PM.”
 

Chess Press Worldwide:

A new section to the Parrot on chess writing around the world introduces a PhD researcher into chess, following her master’s thesis of robotic intelligence, now to chess attendant benefits of chess and society.  She has published her thesis proposal and is looking for active collaborators on two fronts – informed opinion and contact from within the chess community, and also University sponsorship.  She writes that the most significant university study in recent times was conducted at CMU by the Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon.  Her work will involve active programs of field testing, with the overall goal in her own words:

 “My major aim in Chess life is to develop chess as a Rehabilitation tool for Weaker Society and Strong Learning tool for the general public to develop a sense of responsibility as a Human being.”

Interested parties should contact TheParrot.
 

Topalov playing again, in Holland: The Essent Chess Tournament takes place October 20th-28th 2006. The participants: Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Judit Polgar and Ivan Sokolov play a double round robin tournament.

A glance at the ACP Official Tour Crown Group Table below reveals all.  Topalov was not so hot after his world championship bout, and neither he nor Sokolov scored a win, whereas Mamedyarov and J. Polgar were definitely ‘on’.  A great game to review is Polgar-Topalov, where black seems to introduce a TN, actually a series of moves on the Kingside to maintains his attack, but far too slow, against this dynamic white player.  Here is the full game score:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. g4 h6 8. Bg2 g5 9. Qe2 Nbd7 10. O-O-O Ne5 11. h3 Nfd7 12. f4 gxf4 13. Bxf4 b5 14. Rhf1 Bb7 15. Qf2 Rc8 16. Nce2 Bg7 17. Ng3 Rh7 18. Nh5 Bh8 19. Kb1 Nc5 20. Bg3 Nxe4 21. Bxe4 Bxe4 22. Bh4 Qc7 23. Bf6 Bg6 24. Bxh8 Rxh8 25. Nf6+ Kd8 26. h4 Qc5 27. h5 Bh7 28. Qh4 Bxc2+ 29. Nxc2 Qxc2+ 30. Ka1 Rc4 31. Ne4+ Kc7 32. Nxd6 Rf4 33. Qe7+ Kb6 34. Qb7+ Ka5 35. Qa7 b4 36. Rfe1 Nf3 37. Rc1 Nxe1 38. Rxc2 Nxc2+ 39. Kb1 1-0

Player                                                   Rating               Wins    Performance

1 Shakhryar Mamedyarov AZE            2728                2          3004

2 Judit Polgar HUN                              2710                2          3010

3 Ivan Sokolov  NED                           2670                0          2477

4 Veselin Topalov BUL                        2813                0          2430

These matches were all shown live on the internet (follow official site below) as well as on Dutch textview.  Then Judit takes over to score again with a fine win with the black pieces.

Polgar is guaranteed equal first, so, hell-for-leather, thought she should sac in the last round against Mamedyarov with a real hum-dinger of a game.  Thank you, J. Polgar for not caring to play for the draw.  Even at move 32 commentators where guessing which way the game would go, but with Polgar down to 15 minutes versus the 60 of her opponent.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Nb8 10. d4 Nbd7 11. Nbd2 Bb7 12. Bc2 Re8 13. Nf1 Bf8 14. Ng3 g6 15. b3 d5 16. Bg5 h6 17. Bh4 g5 18. Nxg5 hxg5 19. Bxg5 exd4 20. e5 Rxe5 21. Rxe5 Nxe5 22. cxd4 Nc6 23. Nf5 Bc8 24. Rc1 Bxf5 25. Bxf5 Qd6 26. Bh4 Ne7 27. Bg3 Qb4 28. Bb1 c6 29. Be5 Bg7 30. a3 Qxa3 31. Rc3 Nd7 32. Rg3 *
So… who wins? Can white force a perpetual?  Nxe5 33. dxe5 Qb4 34. Rg4 Qc3 35. f4 d4 36. Kh2 Nd5 37. f5 d3 38. Qxd3 Qxe5+ 39. Rg3 Nf6 40. Qf3 Rd8 0-1

Not quite, but huge applause to Judit Polgar for playing exciting chess throughout.  Official site: www.essentchess.nl.  Chessville coverage.

The Magistral Ciutat de Barcelona-Casino takes place 19th-27th October 2006. In the tournament of XIV category play: Ivanchuk Vassily g UKR 2741, Bologan Viorel g MDA 2659, Korneev Oleg g RUS 2657, Dominguez Lenier g CUB 2655, Granda Zuniga Julio E g PER 2646, Peralta Fernando g ARG 2574, Timman Jan H g NED 2565, Narciso Dublan, Marc g ESP 2511, Lopez Martinez Josep Manuel m ESP 2508, Lacasa Diaz Jose Antonio m ESP 2410.

Round 8 standings:
1 Dominguez - 7.0
2 Ivanchuk - 6.5
3 Korneev - 5.0
4 Bologan - 4.0
5-6 Narciso Dublan, Peralta - 3.5
7-8 Granda Zuniga, Lopez Martinez - 3.0
9 Timman - 2.5
10 Lacasa Diaz - 2.0

The Official site: www.fcde.org is in Spanish only.

The World Youth Championships take place 18th-29th October 2006 in Batumi, Georgia.
The official site: www.worldchamp.adjara.ge brings up a title page, with no more information or anything click-able on it.

Coming soon to a chess club near you… but where are you?  Cindy Jett of Mapmuse.com writes to say that a service to help people find chess clubs in the USA is now available, and the listing is free, and typically includes an entry with the name of the club, a description, a photo, contact information, and a link to a website. Go to:  http://find.mapmuse.com/re1/interest.php?brandID=CHESS_CLUBS to discover how easy it is for people to find you, or not! So, if you can’t find your own club, ask your club secretary to sign you up.  It took me about 2 minutes to sign up my local club.

Here is one new club which should sign up, the new Susan Polgar South Texas Chess Center is located at the Sunrise Mall in Corpus Christi, Texas.  It is next to Sears.  The center opens seven days a week.  It is a HUGE 3,000 ft² space and it can accommodate more than 150 players + additional space right nearby for skittles and family members. The center's website is www.SusanPolgarTexas.org.

Chess Press Worldwide:

A new section to the Parrot introduces better chess journalism from around the world. Here is an article from the venerable Russian chess magazine ‘64’ titled “The Last of the Chess Mohicans”

How I played with Alekhine [extract]

In Paris in café “Regence” in Rue de Rivoli the portrait of Alekhine hung on the wall, and there was a table at which Napoleon played. Alekhine also was a customer of that café. One day they told him about me. They said that there was a boy who perfectly played simple games. The “Doctor” (that’s how they called Alekhine in “Regence”) offered me to play four games, of course with no stake.

To spectators’ surprise he only managed to defeat me in the 4th game, whereas the three first games were won by me. Alekhine demanded revenge but I refused flatly: “Doctor I want to save this result for the rest of my life”, I said. Though Alekhine was a nervous and quick-tempered person, this time he saw my point and burst out laughing.

The article also contains How I played with Botvinnik and Capablanca, and How I met Lasker, and was a tribute written for his 95^th birthday, and to being the oldest grandmaster in the world. The player is, of course, Andor Lilienthal.  Read the entire article in English [or Russian] by going to www.64.ru and selecting English Language options, then selecting the article.

World Mainstream Press: Chess continues to be in world news following the Kalmykia Circus or Rapid World Championship as some say – typically this has nothing much to do with actual chess playing as how very strangely we chess players are perceived.  A fine example is Beware of Grandmaster Bearing Yogurt in the UK published Mail & Guardian on-line.

Mysterious Russian Statement: A cryptic Russian statement about the World Championship, here reported by a Russian Chess server in English:

The President of Russian Chess Federation, vice-prime minister of Russia Alexander Zhukov has taken part in it.  Vladimir Kramnik has expressed an opinion that the system of World chess crown draw in a match between the World Champion and a pretender to the title has a 120-years history, and successfully has recommended itself for this time.  Alexander Zhukov has supported World Champion declaring that the refusal of carrying out of a final match is pernicious for chess.

I asked three experienced Russia-watchers in chess what they thought this meant?  And they replied “no way will Kramnik play in Mexico.”

World Championship – Re-take: A Russian language video of the end of the match and brief interview with Kramnik can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va9Hxr7bfEk

Topalov playing again, in Holland: The Essent Chess Tournament takes place October 20th-28th 2006. The participants: Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Judit Polgar and Ivan Sokolov play a double round robin tournament.  Chessville coverage

The 10th edition of the Essent Chess Tournament takes place from October 20 up to and including 28 October 2006. The location is the city of Hoogeveen. Just like last year there are several competitions: a Crown Group, a strong Essent Open, an Amateur Tournament, a pub tournament and an event for youth.

In the chess cafe comments and analyses will be made. The matches will be live on the internet (follow official site below) as well as on Dutch textview.  Official site: www.essentchess.nl.

More from India on the process and result of the World Blind Championship:

The All India Chess Fed for the Blind organized the XI individual world chess championship for the blind in Goa from 8-19 Oct, 2006. This is a world class championship which is held every 4 years. More than 35 countries participated. The Final report is not yet posted, but Vladimir Berlinskiy [Russia] is confirmed in a note by the organizers to the Parrot to have won first place.
One pleasant feature of this event, compared with the recent shenanigans in Elista, is that the spirit of the event seems much more important than winners or losers. It is somewhat disappointing to read the scant chess-press coverage around the world, which lists only, Chessville News, Chessville Editorials, The Navhind Times and Telugu Portal.

The second captioned picture is from a news conference “Talk 64” and of the presentation of new software for the unsighted, which is a chess-dedicated aural announcement of moves. This will obviously be of great interest and importance to chess players round the world.

The full press release of this new software can be reviewed at the site – here is an extract from it:

Talk 64 is the only fully featured chess software in the world, which has complete speech support, speaking out every single move played on the chessboard.  Thus, even visually challenged players are kept informed about the moves played.  A chatter feature has been provided, whereby the software interacts with the player via comments, which give the player the feeling that he/she is playing with another person.

The manufacturer, GTL, can be contacted by E-Mail: kvseshadri@gtllimited.com or Website: www.gtlfoundation.org.  Official Site: www.aicfb.org

The Magistral Ciutat de Barcelona-Casino takes place 19th-27th October 2006. In the tournament of XIV category play: Ivanchuk Vassily g UKR 2741, Bologan Viorel g MDA 2659, Korneev Oleg g RUS 2657, Dominguez Lenier g CUB 2655, Granda Zuniga Julio E g PER 2646, Peralta Fernando g ARG 2574, Timman Jan H g NED 2565, Narciso Dublan, Marc g ESP 2511, Lopez Martinez Josep Manuel m ESP 2508, Lacasa Diaz Jose Antonio m ESP 2410.

If the Parrot’s Spanish is functioning, Jan Timman is  giving a simultaneous exhibition.  The Official site: www.fcde.org is in Spanish only, and may even be in Catalan!

The World Junior Championship took place in Yerevan, Armenia between October 4-16, 2006.  Here are the top finishers:

The official site was so slow I won’t waste reader’s times referring to it.  Sorry, no pictures, press reports or other information about the world’s up-and-coming brightest players.

NEWS FROM RENO

Attendance was down from over 400 players last year to 309 this year but the field was strong with 11 grandmasters and many titled players in the top section where GMs Kudrin and Serper shared first at 5-1 ahead of Ehlvest, Yermolinsky, Ibragimov, Lein, etc., Reports Larry Parr.

Philly: Susan Polgar is doing a 100-board simul for kids at the Philadelphia City Hall on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at 10 AM. This event is organized by the office of Philadelphia Mayor John Street.

Troubled Times at CJA.  The Chess Journalists of America appear to be happy with an article currently to be featured in Penthouse and Playboy magazine, an achievement apparently not equaled since 1956.  I say appear, since apparently some internal difficulties exist among CJA officers in the recognition of an article on Alexandra Kosteniuk for an award.  Paradoxically, this success is not welcomed by the CJA President.

CJA Pres. Jerry Hanken personally disqualified the article for consideration – and equitably also disqualifies views of his members and even his officers.  “I delete all messages coming from **** and his surrogates ***  and ***”, he wrote in a chess newsgroup today, Friday 13^th, October, 2006.

The Parrot will not publish the Penthouse URL since it is considered ‘adult’.

While CJA internal relations have been strained for some time about its direction, there remains a serious question of representing women in chess – especially in this case since it is the voluntary act of a top woman player Alexandra Kosteniuk. During a previous Kosteniuk episode Judit Polgar ran a poll on such representations. CJA might consider some similar activity, focusing more the market of chess journalists, on readers, inviting especially women to address the issue.

This Week, Three World Championships:

Letter from India:  The All India Chess Fed for the Blind is organizing the XI individual world chess championship for the blind in Goa from 8-19 Oct,2006 at the Radisson White Sands Hotel. This is a world class championship which is held every 4 years. More than 35 countries are participating. Interim report:

RUSSIANS  lead the pack after round 3

Two former world champions from Russia Sergey Kirlov (WC 1978) (2393) and Alexy Smirnov (WC 1998,2000) (2244) with 3 points each lead the pack.  9 players – Pribenu(Romania), Popov(Russia),Magnusson( Sweden), Suder(Poland), Carlos(Cuba), Berlinsky(Russia), Wassin(Ukraine), 4 times world woman champion Zsiltzova (Ukraine) and Gunajew(Russia) have 2.5 points are in the 2^nd postion.

On Table number 1 Sergey Kirlov playing with black pieces defeated Rasim Nizam of Bulgaria.  In the Kan variation of the Sicilian defence Kirlov tactfully avoided castling on either side and launched a devastating attack along the G5. A Bh2+ followed by 30..Qf4 was a telling blow to Razim for which he had no answer.

In another crucial game between Serbia’s Sretko and former world champion Alexy Smirnov from Russia, both the players opened with a symmetrical 4 knight opening and fianchettoed the bishop on the king side and  waited for an opening. But with Smirnov making use of the position by opening his bishop at E2 supported by d3 passer got Stedko in a flash, who had no answer to this. After seeing 35 Qg6 Sdetko simply resigned to Smirnov.

Indian National Blind Champion Srikrishna Udapa(2057) caused a big upset on his birthday when he defeated Alexy  Nikitin( 2318) of Russia in the third round. This birthday boy who is also a lawyer from Shimoga was in a punishing mood after he had squandered an advantageous position against top seeded IM Sergei Krylov in the very first round. From the White side of King’s Indian Defence , Udapa tied down all of Nikitin’s pieces and checkmated him in just 25 moves. It is first victory of an Indian Blind player over Russian seeded player. After 3 rounds Udappa has 2 points.

India’s Shirsh Patil also won his game against Paul Eros- Hungary(2089)from Russia on table no 22.

After the first round on the 10^th Oct the russian’s, german’s polish, Serbian and Swedish players were in the lead with 2 points. But now after the 3^rd round the russian’s lead the pack with 3 points each for Sergey Krylov and Alexy Smirnov.

This event happening at the Radisson White sands resort at goa is co-sponsored by the GTL foundation and supported by Govt. of India, Sports Authority of Goa, NFB

www.aicfb.org

Another World Championship

And the World champion is… game 11 was another well fought draw, meanwhile a somewhat underpopulate audience waited, as did 23 GM commentators lined up at the pay to view site Playchess. Presumably they also thought it was a well played draw, with Kramnik pushing, but eventually Topalov’s space advantage telling. Exciting, no? There was an official dope testing session before the press conference, delaying it for 30 minutes just to keep everyone happy. In Game 12 Topalov made a sudden aggressive complicating manoeure at move 32 when he had 40 minutes remaining on his clock, and Kramnik had only 14, and Topalov continued to decline drawing opportunities until move 47, when there was no play left in the game. The ‘thrilling finish’ in FIDE’s description by this draw, led to a drawnwatch, Kramnik’s lawyers permitting.

So! And the World champion is…? Well, it was drawn out, so…

A play-off was arranged with 25 minute clocks, and the first game was a draw, and then I walked the dog, spotting a rare pair of blue Heron, and when I came back Kramnik was champion. I expect you can review the details at every other chess site. Tiebreak scores:

Game 1 Topalov - Kramnik 1/2
Game 2 Kramnik - Topalov 1-0
Game 3 Topalov - Kramnik 1-0
Game 4 Kramnik - Topalov 1-0

Final score 8.5:7.5. Final money, $500,000, $500,000.  Chessbase had so little to say that they skipped ahead to the 2007 championship in Mexico.  Official site: www.fide.com.  Chessville coverage + all the games.

Click here for GM Polgar's analysis and comments on games 1-4
Click here for GM Polgar's analysis and comments on games 5-9
Click here for GM Polgar's analysis and comments on games 10-12
Click here for GM Polgar's analysis and comments on the playoff games

The World Junior Championship is taking place in Yerevan, Armenia between October 4-16, 2006. Round ten is completed and there are 13 rounds total. That’s all the available news since the Official Site: http://www.armchess.am/index.html is still very slow loading.

Kasparov is afraid;  Chess champion Kasparov fears for safety after journalist murder

AFP  Thursday, October 12, 2006  14:50 IST

LISBON: Former chess champion Garry Kasparov, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday he fears for his safety in the wake of the weekend murder of a critical Russian investigative journalist.  "I try to protect myself and my family as much as possible but I am aware that no protection is possible," he said in an interviewed published in daily Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negocios.  Read entire article at: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1058135

Spassky unwell: Anthony Saidy reports on Boris Spassky's long simul, then of a two-hour lecture at the Mechanics Institute, at the end of which he lost the thread and had to sit down. That evening he was confused and we rushed him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a stroke. GM Saidy said of Spassky ‘he the greatest sportsman in chess history’ and Boris Vasilievich  seems to have recovered and is cracking jokes, though more tests are pending. The hospital want him to stay in the hospital all week and to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Western States Open in Reno later this week, where GM Larry Evans is scheduled to give a lecture at the Sands Regency Hotel Casino on Thursday, October 6, starting at 6pm. This is to be followed by a Kavalek simul.

Coming Soon To Philly: Susan Polgar is doing a 100-board simul for kids at the Philadelphia City Hall on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at 10 AM. This event is organized by the office of Philadelphia Mayor John Street.

Letter from India:

Vishy Anand writes: It gives me immense pleasure to note that the XI Individual World Chess Championship for the Blind will be held in my country, India. Chess is one of the few games where the battle takes place in the mind of the individual. I play one blindfold event every year and for me that is the most daunting format.  My wholehearted respect and admiration goes out to these players.  Chess by itself is a complex game and these individuals have taken human calculation to a new level.

We would like to inform you that he All India Chess Fed for the Blind will be organizing the XI individual world chess championship for the blind in Goa from 8-19 Oct,2006 at the Radisson White Sands Hotel. This is a world class championship which is held every 4 years. We feel elated and proud to inform you that we will be organizing this event for the first time in India. More than 35 countries have confirmed their participation. We have bagged this event after great difficulty as all the previous chess championships for the blind have been held in Europe only. Hence it’s a big challenge for us to make this event a successful one. The visually impaired compete with the sighted players on equal footing and on the same board with the same rules.

We feel that chess and IT are the only 2 fields that offer the visually impaired an equal opportunity. The favourites are the Russians and the Kazaks. But there will be strong competition from the Polish and the Ukranian players. The strong Indian contingent will look to make a break in the top ten. We will keep you updated about the event..

Hope to get a positive response from you. It will surely be a big boost for the visually impaired who need a same chance to compete equally in this world. Thanking you in anticipation, Yours truly, Pankaj Athawale, Charudatta Jadhav, PR & General Secretary, AICFB 9869164174, 9820226516, respectively

www.aicfb.org

‘The’ World Championship

Larry Christianson wrote this week:  "Vladimir Kramnik has already won the match, no matter what the result in my opinion. He showed true sportsmanship and an ability to rise to the occasion when confronted by an injustice away from the chessboard.”

But is Larry Christianson promoting the other side of the coin with the mis-principled idea that has beggared chess and prevented any real unification for all these years - of moral victors on the one hand, and committee favorites on the other?

Commentators, like committees should resist determining the fate of the championship by ex-cathedra fiats, since real world champions always have been recognized by their performance at playing chess.

GM Evgeny Bareev and GM Peter Svidler are also calling on the FIDE President to sack Mr. Makropoulos and Mr. Azmaiparashvili.

Garry Kasparov weighs in to mention a little dirt while also objecting to a low point in reporting, but can’t resist shoveling some of his own about an unproved scandal: “Adding irony to the tragedy is the fact that for the past year and a half Mr. Topalov himself has been the subject of rumors and even public accusations that he has cheated with computer assistance.  Hard evidence is lacking, with some pointing to odd behavior by his assistants and other critics saying there is simply no other explanation for Mr. Topalov's sudden ascent to the top of the rating list after my retirement”.  – Garry Kasparov

So what does World Media think about our game in 2006?  Hardly anything about the match is being reported, and Justin Doom of Sports Illustrated describes our game like this:  When the match was scheduled to begin on Friday, Topalov sat down to play, while Kramnik instead sat down outside his private bathroom and demanded that it be unlocked.  After an hour of refusing to play Game 5, the WCF forced Kramnik to forfeit, a decision he now is appealing, claiming that locking the bathrooms shows a severe bias toward Topalov.

Who needs a president of FIDE into spaceships and Genghis Khan [though Buddhist] when a top player is portrayed like this?  The BBC radio World Service had an interview with Kirsan Iljumzhimov [see Outlook programme], Friday 6 October, which was a ho-hum experience.

Meanwhile overall opinion of the chess-press is strongly pro-Kramnik.  Apparently leaving the playing area and going to the bathroom every third move is not thought to be a significant distraction to the player still seated – since other actions by Topalov’s team drown that affront with those of their own.

And now the chess… In Game 8 Kramnik lost against Topalov’s home preparation in a Meran to even the match score.  During the game GM commentators were divided over who had the better prospects.  In an earlier Game Topalov misjudged his chances in going for a win, and in this game Kramnik returned the favor by neglecting to understand that he need to grimly defend. Apart from draws earlier in the week, that was the news for the world title.

News Flash:  After ten games Kramnik has evened the official score of the match at 5-5.  For more see GM Polgar's coverage right here at Chessville.  Official site: www.fide.com

The World Junior Championship is taking place in Yerevan, Armenia between October 4-16, 2006. The ten top rated particpants, which include incredibly strong Chinese participation, are:

The Official Site: http://www.armchess.am/index.html was very slow loading, therefore information is abbreviated.

Letter from Czech Republic: Dear chessfriends, we are sending you regulations of 7th International Chess Festival LIBEREC OPEN 2006 which will take place within the frame of 6th CZECH TOUR 2006/2007 Series on 11.- 18.11. 2006 in Liberec (Czech Republic). FIDE open, active chess tournament and blitz tournament will be a part of the festival.

Record-breaking 4,543 starts of players from 44 countries were registered in the 17th International Festival of Chess, Bridge and Games CZECH OPEN 2006. 1655 players started in five main tournaments. 29 international norms (8 GMs, 19 IMs and 2 WIMs) were achieved in the grandmaster tournament PARDUBICE OPEN!   With best regards, Jan Mazuch

Dr. Jan Mazuch, Director of CZECH OPEN & CZECH TOUR - j.mazuch@avekont.cz  http://www.czechopen.net CZECH TOUR - International Chess Festivals Series

The Vikings were no dummies – their idea of heaven was to play chess all day.  Here's the poem Jane Smiley put at the beginning of Greenlanders:

"Voluspa"
("The Sayings of the Prophetess")

Chess hits the air-waves, as reported by Lawrence Totaro of Nevada, ABC News provide a browser-happy report on David Shenk’s new book on chess.  Recommended!  Copy and paste this URL to your browser, circulate to friends!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-171374104176431873&q=david+shenk&hl=en
 

Meanwhile correspondent GM Evans writes: Richard Laurie, author of Knight of The Id  (about Alekhine's last days in Portugal) is coming next week to Reno for the Western Open tournament.  Spassky will also be here.

October 6-8, 2006.  Reno, Nevada.  $50,000 PRIZE FUND for this Six Round Swiss in Six Sections (based on 500 paid players, $32,350 Guaranteed).  At least 12 places paid in every section!  Large prize fund made possible by the generosity of the Sands Regency Casino Hotel.

FREE lecture by GM Larry Evans on Thursday evening.  GM Lubosh Kavalek simul on Thursday evening.  Book signing session with GM Boris Spassky on Friday morning.  Clinic for Juniors by GM Boris Spassky on Friday evening.  Position analysis clinic by GM Boris Spassky on Saturday afternoon.  Tribute to GM Igor Ivanov by GM Boris Spassky on Sunday afternoon.

TWO ADDITIONAL SIDE EVENTS at RENO:  Five Minute Blitz Tournament on Thursday night.  Junior Tournament hosted by GM Boris Spassky, five rounds on Saturday.

For more info see: www.renochess.org/wso/index.html

Coming Soon To Philly:  Susan Polgar is doing a 100-board simul for kids at the Philadelphia City Hall on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at 10 AM.  This event is organized by the office of Philadelphia Mayor John Street.

World Championship goes Potty! Where to begin? The answer might lie within, since the away from board behavior of GM Kramnik threatened to wreck the match by Topalov withdrawing. So what could he have done for such extreme action to be considered by the World Champion? According to the Focus News Agency “Video records showed that Kramnik went to a particular bathroom more than 50 times during play. This was the only bathroom with no surveillance cameras installed.”

That's right, 50 is not a typo, FIFTY. Meanwhile back at the board Topalov lost the first two games, throwing away a draw in the first, losing with White in the second, then draw, draw…

Chief Arbiter Mr. Geurt Gijssen received a first complaint from Topalov’s manager, then a rebuttal from Kramnik’s manger threatening to withdraw, then a further reply from Toppy’s team, apparently agreeing to continue, but even on Thursday night it was unlear if the obviously distracted and unhappy-looking Topalov would attend. In the event arbiter Gijssen announced a ‘technical delay’ at the beginning of the fifth round which did not start on time.

About 35 minutes after the game should have started on Friday, FIDE made this report at their official site: “There will be no broadcasting of Game 5 moves as no moves has been made. Please check news later for details.”

BBC’s Finlo Rohrer has made a report, with the unfortunate header, “After 13 years of bickering and infighting, the chess world is at last setting aside its divisions with a reunification bout.”  But also include a comment from GM Ray Keene, “It is a shame Kasparov has retired - he would possibly beat both of them”  http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/europe/5377372.stm

Most commentators are now reduced to talking toilets – but what strikes this writer is the effect of the opponent not just getting up and pacing around 50 times so far, but leaving the playing area 50 times. Putting aside the idea of cheating [the toilets are regularly electronically swept] what is the psychological effect of your opponent not being present?

This question seems even more pertinent when an ‘inspirational’ player like Topalov cannot face his opponent.  This, I submit, is the cause of his grief, and whether innocent or advertent on the part of his playing partner Kramnik, is a factor not apparently dealt with by the copious FIDE rule-book, and nothing that arbiter Gijssen seems prepared to rule on at the board. He needs to take a stand, and the players need to stay seated!

Quite obviously Topalov is not played-in, has not hit his form, and from the first game has made poor judgment calls in only modestly complex positions, and in terms of the brevity of this match, decisions which are strategically inept in a 12 game World Championship match

Does anyone remember a chess player named Robert James Fischer? He too traveled to a world championship match in another country, and he too was a notoriously slow starter, and he also lost his first two W. Ch. games. But Fischer had progressed through the traditional candidates cycle and convincingly defeated other best players in the world by huge margins. After his first two loses there came the infamous novelty Nh5 move and the GM commentators were shouting in the press room – “take it, don’t take it!” – and Spassky made the wrong decision and seemed never to recover his composure thereafter.

Sensible comparisons are almost impossible to make; of Topalov as creative a player now as Fischer was then? Without playing himself in he cannot perform at that level, especially in such a short match, and maybe his business manager should get his mind out of the toilets and tell Toppy he is no Fischer.

Here is the awful picture of the state of world chess today, which the Chessville reader might remember a long time, Topalov waits in vain for Kramnik to show up.

These guys are being paid half a million dollars each, win or lose, to play a dozen games of chess – which many think for a world championship is a lottery in any case. Who is playing this match, the managers? This is ‘re-unification, Fide style”, a fantastic circus of extras, bread and circuses, almost too daft to take seriously, and this picture is emblematic of the utter failure to live up to what once was an honorable title.

The Official site: www.fide.com often freezes presumably when available bandwidth is exceeded, so other recommendations for live viewing with GM commentary in English are from playchess and ICC with GM Seirawan [for a fee], or free at Susan Polgar’s blog site.

And on the home front… let me ask readers if they have ever encountered a chess prodigy?  Our local club has recently been amazed by a 7-year old, who is tired of beating his dad, his uncles, chess players 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grades, and has now come to the club and is beating up on 10^th and 11^th graders, plus the occasional adult.  Probably everyone reading this has seen the film Searching for Bobby Fischer, which is as much a warning against parental and coach’s ‘pushing’ against the wishes of the child – so we are all wondering what to do beyond following his own lead.  I lent him GM Blokh’s very good book of pattern exercises and also Maurice Ashley’s wildly popular DVD on a 4-GM blitz event, but the child’s mother took it away after he watched and listened to Maurice’s entire rap 15 times in 5 days.

This is not really a problem, is it?  And yet I corralled a local shrink and we talked half an hour about these intense interests, and she said that very often young people abandon a subject overnight, and transfer just as intensely to an entirely new subject.  I am interested in this topic since turnover rate in scholastics is enormous.

Is this something to do with wearing-out the challenge?  I asked.

She thought so, even though the child may not have gone the whole distance, they have gone as far as they can on their own steam, and very often they don’t want ‘teachers,’ she thought.

Does any reader have their own stories like this, or can they refer to anything written on this subject that they feel is useful to understand?

It was more difficult to find other US Chess news this week – USCF’s last on-line report is dated 20 September but is a retrospective of something that happened 3 weeks ago, but in reviewing the list of back articles at the online USCF site http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/section_7.php the Parrot can recommend an interesting article with Dr. Alexey Root, senior lecturer at University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), and also going directly to http://chessweb.utdallas.edu/ to review Tim Redman’s material on chess at University of Texas.

 The Russian Federation supported Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who is president of Kalmykia in the recently concluded election.  Premiere Putin had this to say: “It is very much gratifying that the significant tournament of the high level takes place in Russia, country that is deservingly famous for its Chess School and outstanding victory traditions."

While that is wonderful for the Russians, it may not be so wonderful for chess, since Chess City in Elista is mighty remote from the world’s possibilities of attendance, and a GM wrote the Parrot during the election that whoever won, that he hoped the World Championship match would be held somewhere more accessible, any European capital would do, but specifically he hoped for Paris – since 1000 times more people could physically attend the events, and mainstream western media could broadcast and report much more substantially.

Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik will play a re-unification match for the title of all-round World Chess Champion in Elista September 23d - October 12th.  They will play 12 games under classical time control (120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 61).  Possible tiebreak: 4 games of rapid chess (25min+10sec), then 2 blitz games (5min+10sec), then sudden death (6min/5min) with white to win.

Each player will receive 500,000 USD from FIDE and in addition certain revenues from possible commercial sponsorships.  The winner goes to the WCC tournament 2007, the loser has to wait for the next cycle.  Dates: Open Ceremony 21st September 2006, 7.00 p.m. Play on: 23rd, 24th, 26th, 27th, 29th, 30th September, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th (tie-breaks) October 2006. Closing ceremony 13th October 2006.

Game 1 is underway – let the speculating begin on how soon ‘Toppy’ hits his creative stride or if that will be blunted by draws against the incredibly solid Kramnik.  Official site: www.fide.com

Get your Norms here!  Letter from Budapest.  We will organize our FIRST SATURDAY GM-IM-FM norm tournaments next time from 7th until 19th of October in Budapest.  We have some vacancies in the event.  What is your opinion to come this time?  Can I ask you to circulate this info amongst your chess friends in your country?  You kind answer would be highly appreciated.  Best regards:
Nagy, Laszlo
International chess organizer,
member of the FIDE Organizers' Committee
e-mail: firstsat@hu.inter.net
www.firstsaturday.hu
http://home.hu.inter.net/~firstsat
Phone-fax: (+36)-1-263-28-59
Mobile: (+36)-30-230-1914
ICC, SKYPE, YAHOO and MSN
messenger nickname: mrfirstsaturday
ICQ#: 44805877

Editorial Note: Chessville has asked Lazslo Nagy to write more about his norm-attaining tournaments in Budapest, so that we can get a better picture of what its like on the chess side, the social side, and what it might cost.

16 y.o. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France became the winner of the 7th Lausanne Young Masters tournament took place in Lausanne 13th-18th September 2006.  Players: Gashimov Vugar g AZE 2644 (born 1986), Areshchenko Alexander g UKR 2641 (1986), Wang Yue g CHN 2626 (1987), Wojtaszek Radoslaw g POL 2622 (1987), Vachier-Lagrave Maxime g FRA 2577 (1990), Predojevic Borki g BIH 2568 (1987), Koneru Humpy g IND 2548 (1987), Kosintseva Tatiana m RUS 2479 (1986).  Knock-out system of 2 classical, 2 rapid and 1 blitz games

Final standings:

1  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
2  Wang Yue
3  Alexander Areshchenko
4  Vugar Gashimov
5  Radoslav Wojtaszek
6  Koneru Humpy
7  Borki Predojevic
8  Tatiana Kosintseva

Magnus Carlsen and Simen Agdestein play off for the Norwegian title. Time controls: first two games under classical time: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 30 minutes for the rest of the game. The next games in rapid chess (25 minutes) will continue in pairs until the match is decided.

Classical games

Game 1 Carlsen - Agdestein ½
Game 2 Agdestein - Carlsen ½

So it all came down to rapid play offs with clocks set at 25 minutes, with the result:

Rapid games
Game 3 Agdestein - Carlsen 0-1
Game 4 Carlsen - Agdestein 1-0

Official site: http://www.nettavisen.no/sjakk

Nothing good happened this week in the USA except this review of a new chess title.  Instead of reviewing the book, I review the review by New York Times reporter Katie Hafner of “The Immortal Game, A History of Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminating Our Understanding of War Sport Science, and the Human Brain,” published September 10th.

The book is recently published by Doubleday for $26.  In a rambling report about a rambling book held together by interspersed moves from The Immortal Game, Katie Hafner concludes that the author David Shenk is at last convincing on the need to do something about education, and quotes him:

"We face in our modern, splintered world not only a crisis in education, but more pointedly a crisis of understanding -- of thought and of willingness to engage in thought."  And thinking tools like chess, Shenk continues, "help our minds expand, grow comfortable with abstraction and learn to navigate complex systems."

As far as I can tell from this review, it may not interest any chess players for its chess qua chess content, and Eales or Yalom may be superior as history cum anthropology of chess, and Adrian de Groot for its much neglected psychology – though sociologically we do have in this title an appreciation of a need to evolve beneficial aspects of chess to the mainstream, especially for children and young adults.

It would have interested me more if the problem of scholastic disintegration could itself be examined, since there is an implicit criticism in this book that whatever we are currently 'doing to kids' in our schools is not sufficient to avoid the 'splintering' as cited by the author.

As a phenomenological book for our times, it does, however well, make a link between societal and educational failure [which we all know is now of catastrophic dimension], and the need for such things as chess to fulfill a cultural and personal role as an agent of personal and collective integration can at least get a hearing.

This book is welcome on the scene inasmuch as it addresses these issues to at least the degree of declaring that there is a crisis in education and the pain thereof, though seems not sufficiently acuitous on its own to articulate and further stimulate any action based on it.  It rather raises the issue to a general public who could identify and support another, deeper examination.

I write this on September 11th 2006, and reflect that a much larger catastrophe happened to education in the USA - which has direct consequences on the well-being of children and as consequently to society as a whole, and which is of such dire extent it dwarfs all else.

European Union Individual
Chess Championships

Wednesday 6^th September to Friday 15^th September 2006. A 10 round Swiss, open to players affiliated to countries within the European Union.

Smoking in Liverpool

Nigel’s on fire – or is it the building?  The fire alarm went off during round 8 and players had to vacate the building.  Making literal sense of ‘leader standings’ here Nigel takes a breath of fresh air.  Since his earlier lead other players now seem to have caught fire, with 5 players sharing 7 points at round 9, and one round to go, and another 9 players just half a point behind.

Round 9 leading standings:
1-7 Short, McShane, Gordon, Williams, Sulskis, Hebden, Jones - 6.5
8-16 Gormally, Conquest, Pert, Galego, Luther, Brandenburg, Van der Weide, Bischoff, Hanley - 6.0
17-24 Guimesi, Sarakauskas, Haslinger, Miezis, Rudd, Medvegy, Ciuksyte, Swinkels - 5.5

Round 10 games: Highly recommended entertainment from round 10 is 2513-rated Gormally against 2473 Williams. Try these opening moves: 1. d4 f5 2. Bg5 h6 3. Bh4 g5 4. e4 Rh7 – are you getting the picture?  These is merely the prelude to Gormally’s attack, and the reader can play through the complete game on site. Danny finished his game early, so took a stroll round the neighborhood, and St. George’s Hall where the British Championship will be held in 2008.

So the stage was set for the final round, and the breath of fresh air must have done Nigel more good than for the other 4 contenders:

Final leading standings:

1 Short 7.5
2-9 Sulskis, McShane, Gordon, Jones, Galego,
      Gormally, Bischoff, Van Der Weide - 7.0
10-15 Williams, Hebden, Ciuksyte, Luther, Conquest, Rudd - 6.5
16-28 Pert, Brandenburg, Miezis, Haslinger, Gyimesi,
          Hanley, McNab, Medvegy, Pritchett, Swinkels,
          Karttunen, White, Wallace - 6

Official site: http://www.liverpoolchessinternational.co.uk/

59th Championship of Russia - top league took place 2-12 September in Tomsk Final leading standings
1 Inarkiev 6.5
2 Khismatullin 6
3 Tomashevsky 6
4 Nepomniachtchi 6
5 Grigoriants 6
6 Alekseev 6
7 Vitiugov 6
8 Najer 6

Official site: www.tomsk-chess.ru

Alexander Grischuk won the FIDE World Blitz Championship which took place on 7th September 2006 in Rishon Le Zion (Israel). This was a round robin tournament with 16 players. Alexander Grischuk won a final playoff game against Peter Svidler after they tied during the all-play-all phase.

Final standings [top boards]:
1 Grischuk 10.5
2 Svidler 10.5
3 Radjabov 10
4 Anand 10
5 Polgar 9.5
6 Gelfand 9.5
7 Bacrot 8
8 Carlsen 7.5

Official site: www.fideblitz.com

Chessville!  Who are you people?  First of all, the Parrot welcomes Chessville’s new webmaster, Lamarr Wilson, to the team.  Lamarr writes "This site has always been my favorite chess site.  Finding it a few years ago was quite by accident.  I did a blurb in my chess newsletter about 1st grader Sam Schmakel tying for 2nd place with a 9th grader in an online tournament."  I was contacted by Chessville to assist them in writing about Sam, and from there I've been a regular visitor to Chessville.  I'm thrilled about the chance to contribute regularly to the site in the form of webmastering, as well as article contributions."  He joins our international line-up from Chicago, whereas publisher David is from Washington State, and the international contingent comprises Pablo from Spain, Jens from Denmark and Phil from England.

Thanks to Darren Dillinger who pointed out an excellent US chess history website at http://www.chessdryad.com/articles/index.htm#bcm which has some very early US Chess reporting, including; American Chess Bulletin vol. 3 No. 5, May 1906, originally published by Hartwig Cassel and Hermann Helms – here is an extract:
 

OFFICE OF THE QUARTERMASTER, FORT MILEY, CALIFORNIA. April 26, 1906

The American Chess Bulletin, P.O.Box 1207, New York City:

Dear Sirs--Yours of the 23rd inst. to hand. While I formerly had the opinion the nothing could possibly happen that would drive away thoughts of chess from my mind, my ideas have decidedly changed. I do not think I remembered I ever played chess during the period from the morning of the 18th to the 25th; on the latter date I received a postal with moves in a correspondence game, and, truthfully, the notations seemed Greek to me for a moment.

My experiences during the shock were lively enough for me. My first impression was that an explosion had occurred, as it commenced without any preliminary tremors; the next was to extinguish a lamp standing on a hall table. First the bed jambed me up against the wall, and when I got loose the shaking was such that I fell in every direction but towards the door; finally, the bed reared up and, luckily (funny sort of luck when one thinks of it), knocked me through the door into the hall, just as the lamp was falling and I fell on top of it.

Lost and Found continued… exactly 100 years later what is the state of USCF’s own archive?  A Canadian player writes:

It's a good thing that Rea B. Hayes, the late chess expert and veteran of 65-plus years as a chess organizer and official in half a dozen different U.S. states and Canadian provinces, isn't still around to hear this.  In the early '80s he donated a thousand chess books to the USCF for what for a short while was known as the "Hayes Collection."  A couple of decades ago the grapevine was already reporting sightings of these books at East Coast book dealers, apparently as a result of under-the-table transactions.  The last I heard, some of the collection may have found its way to a chess museum in Washington, D.C.  I suppose that when Hayes made the donation to the USCF, he probably imagined it would be a permanent resource at the headquarters for USCF officials and members.  I know he intended it that way.

The Parrot’s previous inquiry about the contents of “the Morgue” which USCF call it and which won’t fit into the new building, and is instead contained in a warehouse in maybe 100 boxes, has gone unanswered, nor is it even known if this US Chess history archive is even indexed.

European Union Individual Chess Championships

Wednesday 6^th September to Friday 15^th September 2006. A 10 round Swiss, open to players affiliated to countries within the European Union. Total Prize Fund £15,000. Women players might be advised not to enter the woman’s section, since the rather nice hotel [captioned] might not cover expenses even if you win first place: Main Prizes: £3000, £2000, £1200, £1000, £800, £600, £500, £400, £300, £200 Women’s Awards £600, £400. 

This tournament is just beginning, but local FM Jack Rudd is there [with the hair], and so is the #3 seed GM Luke McShane. Maybe next week there will be some photos of the women in this strongest tournament to be held in Britain in the last 20 years? But there are live games to watch every day, recommended replays are Hebden v Pritchett in round 3, and from the same round the totally wild Radovanovic [2366] v Gymesi [2616], and 2676 rated top-seed Nigel Short has the white bits against 2514-rated GM Sulskis who also leads with 2 points, and Nigel can perhaps demonstrate to us how to resolve White’s middle game strategy in a typical Ruy set-up? Nigel’s plan was to ditch his bishops allowing black a pair, then to exploit the central whole in the position, eventually forcing black to make concessions and to lose a pawn. Notably at move 61 Nigel still had 5 minutes on his clock, when his opponent had 55 seconds – game over 1-0 on move 62. Thank you Mr. Short, for the demonstration.

Official site: http://www.liverpoolchessinternational.co.uk/

Letter from the Czech Republic: Dear chessfriends,  3rd International Chess Festival HIGHLANDS OPEN will take place on 23.9.-1.10. 2006 in the Havlickuv Brod town (the Czech Republic) which part is open FIDE with the possibility to participate for all applicants. The festival is part of the 6th CZECH TOUR 2006/2007 Series. Detailed information should be found at the address http://www.czechtour.net.  With best regards, Jan Mazuch

59th Championship of Russia - top league is taking place 2-12 September in Tomsk Round5 leading standings:

1-2 Timofeev, Inarkiev - 4.0
3-11 Malakhov, Vitiugov, Dreev, Alekseev, Khismatullin, Tomashevsky, Motylev, Grigoriants, Khalifman - 3.5
12-25 Smirnov, Popov, Lysyj, Belov, Khairullin, Landa, Nepomniachtchi, Kobalia, Najer, Zvjaginsev, Volkov, Yudin, Lastin, Maletin - 2.5

Official site: www.tomsk-chess.ru

A rapid match between Anatoly Karpov and Peter Leko took place in Miskolc (Hungary) 30th August - 3rd September 2006. Over 8 games there was one decisive result, when Peter Leko won game 3 with the white piecezzzzzzzzz. I suppose I will be criticized for that comment by the fighting draw school of chess, who here have 7 fighting draws to celebrate. The official site also features these interesting pictures of an associated event, which I don’t fully understand or think will make it into 64, but may be more interesting.  Official site: http://www.lekokarpov.hu/

USCF Press:  By Presidential Proclamation - October 9th - National Chess Day in America

You Can Be A Part Of It!  October 9, 1976, President Gerald Ford, the nation’s thirty-eighth president, declared National Chess Day.  As we approach that date, and the 30th anniversary of its inception, we would encourage state and local clubs to commemorate the day in some way, perhaps with a tournament or an education program about chess in their communities. Interestingly, National Chess Day began in South Carolina. It was created by the late Bill Dodgen, who was President of the South Carolina Chess Association for a number of years.  It was originally a state chess day in South Carolina, but Bill quickly expanded it to a nationwide effort, and was appointed National Chess Day Chairman. Bill’s idea was to encourage local and state chapters to organize events to bring in beginners and others who played chess but had not joined the USCF. We can continue Bill’s vision by establishing special tournaments, community awareness events, and even contacting your local media. This is a great opportunity to expand Chess Awareness. After your National Chess Day event, be sure to email any articles or information to Chess Life editor Daniel Lucas, dlucas@uschess.org.  Photos are also appreciated.

Leko vs. Karpov Match (August 30 - September 3, HUNGARY).  Games 5 & 6 drawn // Current score: 3.5 - 2.5  Official site     Games in PGN

59th Championship of Russia - top league takes place 2-12 September in Tomsk.  The participants are based on results of qualifying tournaments of Federal regions, the championships of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, and players with ratings 2575 and higher on January 2006 (according to Regulations about All-Russia competitions).  Swiss system, 9 rounds with time control 1 hour 40 minutes on the firsts 40 moves, then 50 minutes on the next 20 moves and 10 minutes till the end of the game with an incrimation of 30 seconds per move from the first one.  The prize fund is $100,000.  The participants who take the top seven places, will acquire the right of participation in the super-final of the Championship of Russia 2006.  Players (62): Malakhov Vladimir g RUS 2690, Najer Evgeniy g RUS 2677, Zvjaginsev Vadim g RUS 2675, Dreev Alexey g RUS 2666, Motylev Alexander g RUS 2662, Timofeev Artyom g RUS 2657, Kobalia Mikhail g RUS 2647, Tkachiev Vladislav g FRA 2645, Alekseev Evgeny g RUS 2644, Sakaev Konstantin g RUS 2642, Volkov Sergey g RUS 2628, Inarkiev Ernesto g RUS 2625, Riazantsev Alexander g RUS 2622, Khalifman Alexander g RUS 2622, Korotylev Alexey g RUS 2613, Lastin Alexander g RUS 2613, Smirnov Pavel g RUS 2613, Galkin Alexander g RUS 2600, Belov Vladimir g RUS 2598, Tomashevsky Evgeny g RUS 2594, Ikonnikov Vyacheslav g RUS 2587, Landa Konstantin g RUS 2584, Grigoriants Sergey g RUS 2579, Popov Valerij g RUS 2578, Yevseev Denis g RUS 2572, Bocharov Dmitry g RUS 2571, Kornev Alexei g RUS 2568, Khismatullin Denis g RUS 2568, Vitiugov Nikita m RUS 2555, Glek Igor g GER 2553, Zakhartsov Viacheslav m RUS 2548, Shaposhnikov Evgeny g RUS 2547, Lysyj Igor m RUS 2547, Maletin Pavel m RUS 2543, Amonatov Farrukh g TJK 2542, Vorobiov Evgeny g RUS 2539, Khairullin Ildar m RUS 2538, Chernyshov Konstantin g RUS 2537, Kosteniuk Alexandra g RUS 2534, Shomoev Anton g RUS 2528, Chuprov Dmitry m RUS 2527, Nepomniachtchi Ian m RUS 2520, Belozerov Andrei g RUS 2518, Ionov Sergey g RUS 2517, Yemelin Vasily g RUS 2516, Anisimov Pavel m RUS 2515, Kharitonov, Alexandr m RUS 2514, Kabanov Nikolai m RUS 2514, Chebotarev Oleg RUS 2505, Andreikin Dmitry m RUS 2503, Voitsekhovsky Stanislav g RUS 2494, Alavkin Arseny m RUS 2492, Yudin Sergei m RUS 2475, Nechepurenko Roman f RUS 2463, Gochelashvili David f RUS 2448, Shabanov Yuri g RUS 2443, Gubajdullin Alexei f RUS 2431, Sitnikov Dmitrij m RUS 2430, Karpov Vadim RUS 2411, Tsigelnitskiy Ilusha f RUS 2404, Arzhenkov Gennady f RUS 2371, Karalkin Maksim RUS 2332.

The open international women's tournament in memory of the World Champion between women Ludmila Rudenko takes place in Saint-Petersburg 25 August-3 September 2006. Swiss system, 9 rounds. The prize fund - not less than 150000 rubles.  Round7 leading standings:  1-3 Svetlana Petrenko MDA im 2293, Marina Guseva RUS wim 2303, Marina Lupik RUS 2249 - 5
4-5 Varvara Kirillova RUS wfm 2236, Valentina Soloviova RUS wim 2265, Bronnikova Elizaveta RUS wf 2243, Anna Shlakich RUS 2077 - 5.0  Official site: www.totalchess.spb.ru

Spitsbergen Chess Festival (September 1 - 4, NORWAY)  Peter Svidler defeated Magnus Carlsen in their rapid match (1.5-0.5) / More information

NH Chess Tournament (August 19-29 / NETHERLANDS)  "Rising Stars" team won the match - Final score: 28 - 22 // Magnus Carlsen will participate in the next Amber Chess Tournament // Official site     Games in PGN

Canadian Closed Chess Championships (August 18 - 27 / CANADA)  IM Igor Zugic (7/9) is the new Canadian Chess Champion, GMs Bluvshtein & Charbonneau, IM Gerzhoy & Vicente Lee Jr. shared the 2nd place

French Championships (August 14 - 26 / FRANCE)  Vladislav Tkachiev is the new French champion after beating Fressinet in the tie-break.  Almira Skripchenko (9.5/11) won the women's championship.

4th Staunton Memorial (August 14-25/ ENGLAND)  Ivan Sokolov (9/11) won the tournament // Timman & Adams share the 2nd place.  Official site

Chess News USA:

Lost and Found: Great sighs of relief abound about USCF’s records previously reported lost to an unknown degree by new board member Sam Sloan. Current reports have one ton of overprinted ChessLifes being delivered to Tennessee plus an unknown quantity of boxes believed to contain the missing records.

Glenn Peterson wrote: It is at present believed that all of the records are probably intact.
The wisdom of leaving the vital USCF records in a long forgotten storage bin is another subject.

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

   Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi and Judit Polgar played blitz (5'+2") games against each other in six "Anniversary Matches", which is organizing by Credit Suisse in Zurich on August 22 2006 devoted to its 150 anniversary.

First place: Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov tied with 4 points each
Second place: Judit Polgar with 2.5 points
Third place: Viktor Korchnoi with 0.5 points

Simultaneous Tournament:
     Garry Kasparov won 20 of 20 games
     Judit Polgar won 19 of 20 games and lost 1 game
     Anatoly Karpov won 17 games and drew 3 games
     Viktor Korchnoi won 15 of 20 games, drew 2 and lost 3 games

Official site: 150.credit-suisse.com

Russia and China match finally over!

Final results: Russia - China (men) 26.5:23.5. Russia - China (women) 22:28

Women’s teams were equal in this report last week, but in the interim the Chinese women pulled out all the stops and won by a convincing margin.

The 81st French Championships among men and women takes place in Besancon 14th-26th August 2006. Players: Lautier Joel g FRA 2675, Tkachiev Vladislav g FRA 2645, Fressinet Laurent g FRA 2626, Bauer Christian g FRA 2599, Nataf Igor-Alexandre g FRA 2592, Sokolov Andrei RUS 2589, Dorfman Josif D g FRA 2586, Vaisser Anatoly g FRA 2568, Vachier-Lagrave Maxime g FRA 2577, Fontaine Robert g FRA 2518, Libiszewski Fabien m FRA 2482, Colin Vincent m FRA 2415.

The 4th Staunton Memorial takes place in UK 14th-25th August 2006. Players: Michael Adams, Ivan Sokolov, Jan Werle, Jan Timman, Tea Bosboom-Lanchava, Yge Visser, Erwin L'Ami, Jonathan Speelman, Peter Wells, Jonathan Levitt, David Howell and Lawrence Day.
Round 9 standings:
1 Sokolov - 7.5
2-3 Adams, Timman - 7.0
4-5 Werle, L'Ami - 6.0
6-8 Speelman, Wells, Bosboom-Lanchava - 4.0
9-10 Visser, Levitt - 3.0
11 Howell - 1.5
12 Day - 1.0

Regretable space considerations abbreviate an excellent special report to the Parrot from Greece by Spiros Ilandzis:

More information In English/Greek at: http://www.chessfed.gr/Acropolis2006/

And another special report.  The Parrot’s German makes German’s laugh, tso… here is a note from Walter Kastner, on the:

International Youth Chess Festival - Mureck 2006

and perhaps interested parties who can read in German will like to follow the links below.  Anbei finden Sie...  der 4. EU-Jugendmeisterschaft, die vom 8.-17. August in Mureck (Österreich) stattgefunden hat. Detailergebnisse und viele mehr finden Sie auf unsere Website www.chess.at oder unter dem direkten Link http://www.chess.at/specials/2006/0608_mureck.htm.

Tournaments In Progress:

This week: XIVth INTERNATIONAL CHESS FESTIVAL "Chigorin Memorial" will take place in Saint Petersburg 20th-29th October 2006. The International Festival comprises 4 tournaments.
A. Blitz tournament in memory of the outstanding blitz master Chepukaitis. Prize fund 50 000 rubles (on 24/07 1 euro=34.03 rubles)
B. Rapid tournament. Prize fund 50 000 rubles.
C. Main tournament, a stage of the Russian Cup, Swiss system, 9 rounds. Chess players with ELO >2300 can participate. Prize fund 270 000 rubles.
D. Tournament for players with ELO<2300. Prize fund 100 000 rubles

Also this week: The open international women's tournament in memory of the World Champion between women Ludmila Rudenko will take place in Saint-Petersburg 25 August-3 September 2006. Swiss system, 9 rounds. The prize fund - not less than 150000 rubles.

Chess News USA, and, ahem, Canada:

The Montreal Empresa International tournament took place August 8th-16th, 2006. Participants: Onischuk Alexander g USA 2668, Timofeev Artyom g RUS 2657, Eljanov Pavel g UKR 2651, Miton Kamil g POL 2638, Korneev Oleg g RUS 2638, Ibragimov Ildar g USA 2624, Sutovsky Emil g ISR 2607, Mikhalevski Victor g ISR 2571, Gulko Boris F g USA 2570, Charbonneau Pascal g CAN 2501

And the biggest ever field of 6,000 players hve finished competing in the US Open in Chicago – GM Yury Shulman takes clear first in the U.S. Open!  His key victory was in Round 8, in which he defeated GM Alexander Shabalov.  In round 9, he met a peaceful Emilio Cordova.  GM John Fedorowicz was unable to win a better endgame against Michael Aigner, leaving Yury's 8/9 untouchable.

Information courtesy: http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/section_7.php

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

Russia and China go at it:

The match between teams Russia and China takes place August 10th-21st in Erguna (China).
Russia (men): Vladimir Malakhov 2690, Alexey Dreev 2666, Vadim Zvjaginsev 2675, Evgeniy Najer 2677, Dmitry Jakovenko 2667.
China (men): Bu Xiangzhi 2664, Chzhan Pensian, Ni Hua 2607, Chzhan Chzun and Wang Yue 2626
Russia (women): Tatiana Kosintseva, Nadezhda Kosintseva , Svetlana Matveeva, Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, Elena Tairova.
China (women): Chazhao Sue, Shen Yan, Wan Yui, Yifan Hou and Huan Tsian.
Match is going on Sheveningen system in 2 rounds.

At round 5 the Chinese women were leading, but at round 7 the Russian women had drawn equal.  Whereas the Chinese men stopped the slide, but haven’t caught up Russian men, who lead by a comfortable 3 points.

Sorry – no web coverage seems available.

The Chess Classic Mainz took place 15th-20th August 2006. The title of the World Champion in chess960 (Fisher-random chess) is played among men: actual Champion Peter Svidler (Russia) takes on Levon Aronian (Armenia), women: Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) against Elizabet Paetz (Germany), seniors: Vlastimil Hort (Germany) vs Laiosh Portish (Hungary), juniors: Arkadij Naidich (Germany) against Pentala Harikrishna (India) and computers. Viswanathan Anand plays vs Teimour Radjabov in the annual rapid match (17th-20th 8 game match).  Chessville coverage

The 81st French Championships among men and women takes place in Besancon 14th-26th August 2006. Players: Lautier Joel g FRA 2675, Tkachiev Vladislav g FRA 2645, Fressinet Laurent g FRA 2626, Bauer Christian g FRA 2599, Nataf Igor-Alexandre g FRA 2592, Sokolov Andrei RUS 2589, Dorfman Josif D g FRA 2586, Vaisser Anatoly g FRA 2568, Vachier-Lagrave Maxime g FRA 2577, Fontaine Robert g FRA 2518, Libiszewski Fabien m FRA 2482, Colin Vincent m FRA 2415.

Round 5 standings:
1 Fressinet - 4.0
2-3 Fontaine, Tkachiev - 3.5
4-9 Vachier-Lagrave, Sokolov, Dorfman, Lautier, Bauer, Colin - 2.5
10 Nataf - 2.0
11 Vaisser - 1.5
12 Libiszewski - 0.5

Official site: www.echecs.asso.fr and http://www.echecs2006-besancon.com/

The 4th Staunton Memorial takes place in UK 14th-25th August 2006. Players: Michael Adams, Ivan Sokolov, Jan Werle, Jan Timman, Tea Bosboom-Lanchava, Yge Visser, Erwin L'Ami, Jonathan Speelman, Peter Wells, Jonathan Levitt, David Howell and Lawrence Day.

Round 5 standings:
1 Fressinet - 4.0
2-3 Fontaine, Tkachiev - 3.5
4-9 Vachier-Lagrave, Sokolov, Dorfman, Lautier, Bauer, Colin - 2.5
10 Nataf - 2.0
11 Vaisser - 1.5
12 Libiszewski - 0.5

Official site: www.echecs.asso.fr and http://www.echecs2006-besancon.com/

The 93rd Championships of The British Isles 2006 is taking place 6th-19th August at the University of Wales in Swansea. Sponsor Smith and Williams.

Final standings:
1 Rowson Jonathan W SCO g 2579 8.5
2 Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan GEO m 2427 8
3 Gormally Daniel ENG g 2513 7.5
4 Hebden Mark ENG g 2532 7.5
5 Jones Gawain C ENG m 2416 7.5
6 Parker Jonathan F ENG g 2509 7.5
7 Davies Nigel R ENG g 2512 7
8 Haslinger Stewart G ENG m 2423 7
9 Lalic Bogdan CRO g 2488 7
10 Palliser Richard JD ENG m 2413 7
11 Pert Nicholas ENG g 2503 7
12 Pert Richard ENG m 2445 7
13 Ward Chris G ENG g 2461 7
 
Official site: www.bcf.org.uk/events/bc2006/index.html

Result: A four game match between Boris Gelfand and David Navara took place in Prague 9th-12th August for the Cez Chess Trophy 2006. The match was drawn 2-2.
Game 1 Navara - Gefand 0-1
Game 2 Gelgand - Navara 0-1
Game 3 Navara - Gefand 1/2
Game 4 Gelgand - Navara 1/2
Official site: www.praguechess.cz

Coming soon:

This week: XIVth INTERNATIONAL CHESS FESTIVAL "Chigorin Memorial" will take place in Saint Petersburg 20th-29th October 2006. The International Festival comprises 4 tournaments.
A. Blitz tournament in memory of the outstanding blitz master Chepukaitis. Prize fund 50 000 rubles (on 24/07 1 euro=34.03 rubles)
B. Rapid tournament. Prize fund 50 000 rubles.
C. Main tournament, a stage of the Russian Cup, Swiss system, 9 rounds. Chess players with ELO >2300 can participate. Prize fund 270 000 rubles.
D. Tournament for players with ELO<2300. Prize fund 100 000 rubles

Also this week: The open international women's tournament in memory of the World Champion between women Ludmila Rudenko will take place in Saint-Petersburg 25 August-3 September 2006. Swiss system, 9 rounds. The prize fund - not less than 150000 rubles.

And finally, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi and Judit Polgar will play rapid games against each other in six "Anniversary Matches", which is organizing by Credit Suisse in Zurich on August 22 2006 devoted to its 150 anniversary.

Great Brits: World Chess Solving Championship Report: The Great Britain team of John Nunn, Colin McNab and Jonathan Mestel, sponsored by Winton Capital Management, retained the World Chess Solving Championship held in Wageningen, Netherlands on 1st-2nd August, after one of the toughest fought contests for years ... [9/8/06]

Chess News USA:

Why isn’t chess part of the curriculum in US Schools?

A Tennessee reader writes: Currently in Tennessee 4 out of every 10 students entering the ninth grade do not graduate from high school.  My biggest question in why are administrators willing to try almost anything and spend wildly on new teaching methods yet ignore a Canadian chess and math program that demonstrates such great promise?  Rob Mitchell, Nashville, TN.

3rd Annual Susan Polgar National Invitation for Girls Chess Championship
Aug. 6-11 - Oak Brook, IL

 In a similar boys event, The Denker, here are the top finishers:

Here are the top 6 finishers of the Denker event:

1. Lopez II, Nelson M (10).... NC 2136 5.5
2. Chua, Alexander Ja (1)..... TX 2255 5.0
3. Ju, Evan D (4)............. NJ 2203 4.5
4. Hughes, Tyler B (5)........ CO 2186 4.5
5. Yu, Corbin Z (12).......... OR 2076 4.5
6. Goldstein, Brian (14)...... FL 2057 4.5

Captioned is the winner Nelson Lopez II playing blitz with Abby Marshall.

Photo credits: Paul Troung, Vice President, Susan Polgar Foundation

Hello Hello Hello!  News from Chicago is that after substantial complaint and remonstration by USCF Delegates, GM Larry Evans who was fired by incoming editor Dan Lucas, has been re-instated!  Last week we read that Lucas denied receiving any letters at all about the subject, whereas the truth seems to be there was a veritable avalanche of them.  The Grandmaster seems to have been offered a different sort of column ‘opportunity’.

And the biggest ever field of 6,000 players are currently competing in the US Open in Chicago – see separate report elsewhere.

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

     The 93rd Championships of The British Isles 2006 is taking place 6th-19th August at the University of Wales in Swansea. Sponsor Smith and Williams.

Round4 standings:
1 Hebden, Mark g ENG 2532 4.0
2 Rowson Jonathan g SCO 2579 3.5
3-14 Greet Andrew m ENG 2431, Davies Nigel R g ENG 2512, Williams Simon m ENG 2473, Jones Gawain C m ENG 2416, Pert Nicholas g ENG 2503, Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan m GEO 2427, Gormally Daniel g ENG 2513, Parker Jonathan g ENG 2509, Haslinger Stewart m ENG 2423, Gordon Stephen J m ENG 2443, Lalic Bogdan g CRO 2488, Devereaux Maxim f ENG 2377 - 3.0

Watch the games live by following the link at the Official site: www.bcf.org.uk/events/bc2006/index.html

A four-game match between Boris Gelfand and David Navara is taking place in Prague 9th-12th August for the Cez Chess Trophy 2006.
Game 1 Navara - Gefand 0-1
Game 2 Gelgand - Navara 0-1
 
Official site: www.praguechess.cz

The 21st "Ciudad de Villarrobledo" international chess tournament took place 5th-6th August 2006. 162 Players took part.
Final leading standings:
1 Viswanathan Anand - 7.5
2 Ivan Sokolov - 7.5
3 Ruslan Ponomariov - 7.5
4 Oleg Korneev - 7.5
 
Official site: www.ajedrezenvillarrobledo.com

The Dortmunder Sparkassen Chess Meeting takes place 29th July - 6th August 2006. Participants: Levon Aronian ARM 2761, Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2743, Peter Svidler RUS 2742, Peter Leko HUN 2738, Michael Adams ENG 2732, Boris Gelfand ISR 2729, Arkadij Naiditsch GER 2664, Baadur Jobava GEO 2651.

Final standings:
1 Kramnik - 4.5
2 Svidler - 4.5
3 Adams - 4.0
4 Leko - 4.0
5 Gelfand - 4.0
6 Naiditsch - 3.5
7 Aronian - 2.0
8 Jobava - 1.5

Official site: www.chessgate.de

Chess in London for ChessWorld Friends: London Social August 26th 2006.  A reminder that this year’s London social will be on Saturday, 26th August, from 12.00 midday onwards, at the Punch and Judy in Covent Garden.

A good post-Biel interview with Alexander Morozevich is worth a look. Check out http://www.bielchessfestival.ch/interview2006.php where the modest 29 year old says why he has done so well at Biel – 3 wins, equaling Karpov, and also why Russia is not doing so well as a team on the world chess circuits – too old!  Is this a future world champion?  Who knows?  But he has all the right attributes, including eschewing computers in a preference to relying on his own wit. The question about Moro is always, can he bring his brilliance to the very top-flight of chess?

And now, the World?  Most top-10 players are more professional in their approach to chess. They devote most of their time to it. Anand, Leko or Topalov do not necessarily play better than I do, but they are more serious in their work, in their regularity. I can beat any player in a game, I can get ahead in a tournament, but they logically defeat me on the whole. I consider myself partly amateur. Chess remains my greatest passion, of course, but I can do other things for months, before getting back to it. I have other centers of interest; I have friends outside of the chess world. This is my way of life and it suits me.

Next week: XIVth INTERNATIONAL CHESS FESTIVAL "Chigorin Memorial" will take place in Saint Petersburg 20th-29th October 2006. The International Festival comprises 4 tournaments.
A. Blitz tournament in memory of the outstanding blitz master Chepukaitis. Prize fund 50 000 rubles (on 24/07 1 euro=34.03 rubles)
B. Rapid tournament. Prize fund 50 000 rubles.
C. Main tournament, a stage of the Russian Cup, Swiss system, 9 rounds. Chess players with ELO >2300 can participate. Prize fund 270 000 rubles.
D. Tournament for players with ELO<2300. Prize fund 100 000 rubles

Also next week: The open international women's tournament in memory of the World Champion between women Ludmila Rudenko will take place in Saint-Petersburg 25 August-3 September 2006. Swiss system, 9 rounds. The prize fund - not less than 150000 rubles.

And finally, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi and Judit Polgar will play rapid games against each other in six "Anniversary Matches", which is organizing by Credit Suisse in Zurich on August 22 2006 devoted to its 150 anniversary.

  Chess News USA:

3rd Annual Susan Polgar National Invitation for Girls Chess Championship - Aug. 6-11 - Oak Brook, IL

The third annual GM Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls (under 19) will begin August 6 at the Double Tree Hotel in Oak Brook, IL. This is a culmination of a series of regional and state qualifying events over the past 12 months that involved over 3,000 vying to represent their respective states. More information and pictures next week.

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

  The Dortmunder Sparkassen Chess Meeting takes place 29th July - 6th August 2006. Participants: Levon Aronian ARM 2761, Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2743, Peter Svidler RUS 2742, Peter Leko HUN 2738, Michael Adams ENG 2732, Boris Gelfand ISR 2729, Arkadij Naiditsch GER 2664, Baadur Jobava GEO 2651.

Round4 standings:
1-3 Svidler, Leko, Adams - 2.5

4-5 Aronian, Kramnik - 2.0

6-8 Gelfand, Naiditsch, Jobava - 1.5

Captioned, (right) Cornishman Micky Adams. (left) Ms. Pahtz and New York’s Irina Krush.  Go to the official site and check out live-play options. For non-German readers the text button says “live-Partien.”  Official site: www.chessgate.de

Nice Place to Play Chess

The XIIIth Summer Int. Open of Nice (French Riviera) takes place from July 31th to August 6th.

It's this year a 9 rounds event (40 moves/2h + 1h KO).

Best GM and IM are Nenad Sulava (g, 2489, CRO), Krum Georgiev (g, 2485, BUL), Miroljub Lazic (g, 2477, SCG), Petar Velikov (g, 2465, BUL), Dimitar Marholev (m, 2434, BUL), Milan Mrdja (m, 2414, CRO), Milko Popchev (g, 2405, BUL), Bogomil Andonov (m, 2391, BUL), Benjamin Bujisho (m, 2387, FRA), Bjarte Leer-Salvesen (f, 2372, NOR), Stephen Jessel (2350, IRL)...

Daily results and pairings on http://www.echiquier-nicois.org.

Nenad Sulava already won the event in 2002 and 2005. A 3rd win and he 'ld go back with the silver plated trophy of Nice. M. Palac, M. Lupu, Z. Lanka, A. Kogan, O. Foisor, L. Gofshtein, A. Delchev (two times), D. Komljenovic and N. Gouliev were the past other winners from 1994 till 2005.

Expensive Place to Play Chess

ICC is increasing their adult membership price from $49.00 to $59.95.  On the one hand they are doing so because they can, but on the other, the price rise seems to indicate that people are willing to pay money for chess – as long as they can get what they want.  ICC now cost more than USCF membership, which continues to decline.

IV women's super-tournament North Urals Cup-2006 takes place July 22nd - 1st August in Krasnoturinsk (Sverdlovsk region). Participants: Antoaneta Stefanova g BUL 2520, Maia Chiburdanidze g GEO 2504, Tatiana Kosintseva m RUS 2479, Viktorija Cmilyte m LTU 2476, Chen Zhu g QAT 2476, Nadezhda Kosintseva m RUS 2472, Lilit Mkrtchian m ARM 2459, Svetlana Matveeva m RUS 2454, Kateryna Lahno m UKR 2449 and 12 y.o. Yifan Hou wf CHN 2488.

Captioned is the winner Kateryna Lahno who scored a colossal 2860 performance rating and 1.5 points ahead of the field.  Official site: www.northuralscup.ru.

Final standings:
1 Lahno - 7.0
2 Chen Zhu - 6.0
3 Kosintseva N. - 5.5
4-6 Mkrtchian, Stefanova, Chiburdanidze - 4.5
7 Cmilyte - 4.0
8 Yifan Hou - 3.0
9 Kosintseva T. - 2.5
10 Matveeva - 2.0

The 39th Biel International Festival took place 22nd July - 4th August 2006. There are two super-tournaments, one for men, one for women.

Players: Alexander Morozevich RUS 2731, Teimour Radjabov AZE 2728, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2675, Lazaro Bruzon CUB 2667, Andrey Volokitin UKR 2662, Yannick Pelletier SUI 2583.
 

A ladies tournament is also taking place [see caption] from the left: Almira Skripchenko, Yelena Dembo, Monika Socko, Anna Muzychuk, Ekaterina Atalik, Pia Cramling.

In Memoriam

The BBC reports: A teenage chess champion has fallen to her death while competing in an
international tournament. Jessie Gilbert, 19, from Croydon, south London, fell from the eighth floor of the Hotel Labe in Pardubice, in the Czech Republic, on Wednesday morning.  She had been working towards becoming a Women's International Master and had a place to study medicine at Oxford.

Chess News USA:

O ALABAM! A regional newspaper tells an edifying story which we chess players all know is true, but always seems to surprise the general public. Jean Cole, Staff reporter of the News Courier, Athens, Alabama, writes in her article what is in effect a salute to America’s chess teachers:

Learning chess strategies helps kids develop mental acumen.

A salute from The Parrot to America’s chess teachers:

He can scarcely contain himself as he watches about a dozen students ranging in age from 5 to 33 face-off over chessboards at the downtown bookstore and deli. They sit – sometimes half off their chairs and sometimes dangling their feet – as they take turns moving game pieces and slapping the time clock when finished. They all look like regular kids, not geeks, aliens, robots or whatever you are expecting.

“In this age of computers and video games, chess teaches them patience and problem solving,” Steele said. “It is both and art and a science. It takes an hour to learn and a lifetime to master.”

Read the full story, (and thanks Jean!) here.

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

Kasparov Sighting – First on the Charlie Rose TV show talking about Russian politics and the failure of democracy there, and now on August 22^nd in Zurich, against Judit Polgar, Victor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov. It's going to be a blitz engagement, see below.

Kramnik Sighting: Vladimir Kramnik played a dozen blitz games on ICC this week, winning each, and also chatting by finger-notes with the participants afterwards, declined an offer of marriage.

Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi and Judit Polgar will play rapid games against each other in six "Anniversary Matches", which is organizing by Credit Suisse in Zurich on August 22 2006 devoted to its 150 anniversary.

Russian boys beat Europe in the European team championship U18, which took place in Balatonlelle (Hungary) July 11th-20th 2006.

Final leading standings:
1 Russia - 11
2 Hungary - 10
3 Germany - 10 Here is the winning team, average rating 2331 over top 4 boards.

Official site: web.axelero.hu/passant/sakkversenyek/u18etc/res.html

IV women's super-tournament North Urals Cup-2006 takes place July 22nd - 1st August in Krasnoturinsk (Sverdlovsk region). Participants: Antoaneta Stefanova g BUL 2520, Maia Chiburdanidze g GEO 2504, Tatiana Kosintseva m RUS 2479, Viktorija Cmilyte m LTU 2476, Chen Zhu g QAT 2476, Nadezhda Kosintseva m RUS 2472, Lilit Mkrtchian m ARM 2459, Svetlana Matveeva m RUS 2454, Kateryna Lahno m UKR 2449 and 12 y.o. Yifan Hou wf CHN 2488.

Round 5 standings:
1 Lahno - 4.5
2 Chen Zhu - 4.0
3-6 Mkrtchian, Kosintseva N., Stefanova, Chiburdanidze - 2.5
7-8 Yifan Hou, Cmilyte - 2.0
9 Matveeva - 1.5
10 Kosintseva T. - 1.0

Recommended game is a round 6 Modern Benoni encounter between Zhu Chen and Katerina Lahno [who incidentally has a current performance rating of 2865 !!].  The first significant decision was for White to park the queen on b3 at move 9, after playing the usual check at 8 to dis-coordinate Black’s pieces.  Black offers a pawn at 11 which is declined.  Move 29 sees a significant central exchange and the live chess at time of going to press is now dynamically paused between the tournament leaders at move 34.

There are 9 rounds in total and the site is English/Russian.  Official site: www.northuralscup.ru

The 39th Biel International Festival takes place 22nd July - 4th August 2006. There are two super-tournaments, one for men, one for women.  Players: Alexander Morozevich RUS 2731, Teimour Radjabov AZE 2728, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2675, Lazaro Bruzon CUB 2667, Andrey Volokitin UKR 2662, Yannick Pelletier SUI 2583.

Standings after Round 5

There is also a ladies tournament taking place Standings after Round 5

Official site: www.bielchessfestival.ch

Chess News USA:

USCF Election results are being counted, and preliminary totals read…

Sloan    Perks   Goodall    Hough      Schlich

1193    942      1113        1401        811

Based on these results, says the USCF site, Randall Hough has been elected to a three year term and Sam Sloan has been elected to a one year term, both terms to begin once the election has been certified by the Board of Delegates in August.

The Parrot will attempt to interview both new board members for their take on things, past present and future, and what they hope to achieve during their terms.

And soon… 2006 Junior Chess Championships

Where: PGA Commons West, PGA Boulevard at Central Boulevard in the Off the Vine Courtyard.

When: Saturdays, Aug. 5 and Sept. 30, 9 a.m. to noon.

Details: Tournaments for beginners and experienced players, ages 8 and younger; ages 9 and older. Events begin with one-hour basic chess instruction by National Chess Master Robert Sinn.

Cost: Free.  Thanks to: Joel Channing, Organiser

http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/lifestyle/article/0,,TCP_24451_4860927,00.html

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

IV women's super-tournament North Urals Cup-2006 takes place July 22nd - 1st August in Krasnoturinsk (Sverdlovsk region). Participants: Antoaneta Stefanova g BUL 2520, Maia Chiburdanidze g GEO 2504, Tatiana Kosintseva m RUS 2479, Viktorija Cmilyte m LTU 2476, Chen Zhu g QAT 2476, Nadezhda Kosintseva m RUS 2472, Lilit Mkrtchian m ARM 2459, Svetlana Matveeva m RUS 2454, Kateryna Lahno m UKR 2449 and 12 y.o. Yifan Hou wf CHN 2488.
Official site: www.northuralscup.ru  in Russian and English langauges.

For the fourth year running a small town in the north of the Urals becomes a world’s capital of the women’s chess. To participate in the “North Urals Cup – 2006” 10 world’s strongest chess-players are coming on July 22 to go through 9 rounds of win-or-die rivalry to name a winner.

It should be noted that the participants of the tournament catch keen attention not only due to their brilliant play, and also due to their exceptional appearance. Snapshots of these chess-players have been on front pages of many glossy magazines in many countries.

To view the games will be possible for all fans from any place of the world – all games will be on-line at the official tournament’s site www.northuralscup.ru.

The tournament will take place at the stage of Bogoslovsky aluminium smelter’s Arts Palace within the period of July 22 –August 1. The prize fund makes up USD10.000. The team of arbiters will be led by the international arbiter and celebrated journalist Yakov Damsky (Russia). The tournament is patronized by the Sverdlovsk region’s Governor Edward Rossel. Chief organizer and general sponsor of the “North Urals Cup – 2006” is - as by the tradition - Bogoslovsky aluminium smelter (Director General – Sibagatulla Aminov). The tournament was initiated by FIDE Vise-president and honorable President of the Russian Chess Federation Andrey Selivanov and by the President of the Sverdlovsk Chess Federation Anatoly Sysoev.  Contacts in respect of accreditation and additional information should be made to the press-attache of the Supertournament Ms.Nataly Khamidova.

Strong Tourney in Tomsk:

The rapid chess tournament takes place in Tomsk (Russia) 11th-16th July. Players: Morozevich Alexander g RUS 2731, Ponomariov Ruslan g UKR 2721, Karjakin Sergey g UKR 2679, Kasimdzhanov Rustam g UZB 2672, Rublevsky Sergei g RUS 2667, Bologan Viktor g MDA 2645. They play double round robin competition. During the festival will be held also an open tournament Izmailov Memorial, which is a stage of Cup of Russia 2006.

To his great credit, Karjakin scored 3 wins with the black pieces, and 2 with white, and obviously clearly outscored the field by playing active for-the-win chess.

Final standings:
1 Karjakin - 7.0
2 Rublevsky - 5.5
3 Kasimdzhanov - 5.0
4 Morozevich - 4.5
5 Ponomariov - 4.0
6 Bologan - 4.0

Official site: www.tomsk-chess.ru

The Norwegian Championship takes place July 8th-15th 2006 in Moss. Players: Carlsen Magnus g NOR 2673, Agdestein Simen g NOR 2575, Johannessen Leif Erlend g NOR 2555, Lie Kjetil A g NOR 2536, Ostenstad Berge g NOR 2480, Djurhuus Rune g NOR 2462 etc.
Final leading standings:
1-2 Carlsen, Agdestein - 7.0
3 Ostenstad - 6.0
4-6 Johannessen, Sahl, Lie - 5.5
7-9 Bae, Djurhuus, Tallaksen - 5.0

Official site: www.nm2006.sjakknet.no

In Memoriam

Thom Klem has died in Nevada, aged 58, the frequent commentator on the US chess scene, chess organizer and fine musician, and sometimes personal correspondent. The traditional phrase in the Parrot’s culture is to say that he was better than those now living – and to example it by an aspect of his life. Thom had a spiritual dimension to him which, as most men, he may have been apt to ignore at times, but unlike most men, on its reminder, soared over all.

On Friday July 14th, the chess world lost Grandmaster Aleks Wojtkiewicz at age 43. “Wojo” won or tied for 1st in the last 5 tournaments that he played:

2006 Columbus Open
2006 World Open
2006 National Open
2006 Kentucky Open
2006 DC Action Championship

He will be missed by his friends and colleagues.

Chess News USA:

Did you see…?  May’s National Geographic magazine featured five pages on chess – titled Checkmate on the Prairie, and written by Chris Carroll, the article shows Lindsborg Kansas and Mikhail “Misha” Korenman’s work there for the Karpov School.

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

Strong Tourney in Tomsk:

The rapid chess tournament takes place in Tomsk (Russia) 11th-16th July. Players: Morozevich Alexander g RUS 2731, Ponomariov Ruslan g UKR 2721, Karjakin Sergey g UKR 2679, Kasimdzhanov Rustam g UZB 2672, Rublevsky Sergei g RUS 2667, Bologan Viktor g MDA 2645. They play double round robin competition. During the festival will be held also an open tournament Izmailov Memorial, which is a stage of Cup of Russia 2006.

Round 8 standings:
1 Karjakin - 5.5
2 Kasimdzhanov - 4.5
3-4 Morozevich, Rublevsky - 4.0
5 Ponomariov - 3.5
6 Bologan - 2.5

Official site: www.tomsk-chess.ru

The Norwegian Championship takes place July 8th-15th 2006 in Moss. Players: Carlsen Magnus g NOR 2673, Agdestein Simen g NOR 2575, Johannessen Leif Erlend g NOR 2555, Lie Kjetil A g NOR 2536, Ostenstad Berge g NOR 2480, Djurhuus Rune g NOR 2462 etc.
Round 8 leading standings:
1 Carlsen 7.0
2 Agdestein 6.0
3-5 Djurhuus, Sahl, Ostenstad 5.0

Official site: www.nm2006.sjakknet.no

Vlasta Macek 2239 (Croatia), Gundula Heinatz 2225 (Switzerland), Caterina Leite 2210 (Portugal), Suzana Chang 2085 (Brazil), Amani Matoussi (Tunisia) took part in the event.

A boost for Chess in Belgium:

Fifth Knokke Open International Chess Tournament  - 12, 13, 14 and 15 August 2006

The Belgium Chess Club 'Cnoc Is Ier' located at the coast city Knokke Belgium, organises for the fifth time a Open International Chess Tournament on the 12, 13, 14 and 15 of Augusts 2006. The tournament accredited by the Flemish Chess Federation exists of 7 rounds 'Swiss system 2 hours K.O'.

Prize money provided for a total amount of 2275 Euro:  1st prize: 750 euro -  2e prize: 375 euro - 3e prize: 200 euro 4e prize: 125 euro -  6e until 13e prize: 25 euro.  The best youth player (born after 15 Aug. 1990): 50 euro - Best senior (born before 12 Aug. 1946): 50 euro. The participants who win no money prize will rewarded with a gift prize.  Tournament participation: Before 31 July 2006 one pays 20 euro, afterwards 25 euro. Participation is for nobody free. Maximum 120 players are allowed.  Registrations happen in order of recieved payment. Participants must present themselves on the 12 of Augusts between 10 and 12 O'clock.

Register by e-mail sk_knokke@hotmail.com or our Internet site.

Politics not like chess for GK? Garry Kasparov in his election bid in Russia once called Premier Putin “an exemplary Stalinist” – More recently, Garry has been even more specific about restoring democracy to Russia.

What follows are his comments from 2004 and the task he set himself before discovering there was no level playing board.

“He speaks the old Soviet language in virtually all areas. He presses the freedom of press, hinders free commerce, he has knocked Russia off its democratic path,” Kasparov said speaking in Hamburg on Monday, at the Baltic Development Forum.  His statement was published by the News.Ru web agency.

The chess player added that modern Russia is too tied with its Soviet past. He expressed regret that Russia had not admitted the guilt of its Soviet predecessors. “There is no place in the Russian press for the Committee 2008 and for a real opposition,” Kasparov said.

“But there is a place for nationalists and Stalinists who grieve over that ’great country’. They negate basic democratic values. They say it was better under Stalin because at that time, at least, everyone was afraid of us! These conversations on the ’return to the bygone fame’ become more and more frequent. Nazi propaganda is forbidden in Germany, but not in Russia,” the opposition committee chairman said.

Kasparov also criticized Putin’s latest proposals on changes in the political system. “Now, when we need more democracy, Putin takes steps to destroy it,” he said.

Putin proposed on Monday to cancel the election of governors by popular vote, and to introduce a fully proportional system of elections to the lower house of the parliament, the State Duma.

Gary has recently taken to quoting westerners, including this, from the NY times:

WHEN observing the West's conciliatory dealings with Russia, I'm reminded of a quotation often attributed to Winston Churchill: "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."

Happy Birthday Phil !!!!

Chess News USA:

The World Open took place June 30^th to July 4th:

Players finishing with 7 points:

GM Kamsky, Gata; GM Ehlvest, Jaan; GM Milov, Vadim; GM Yudasin, Leonid G; GM Ivanov, Alexander; GM Kacheishvili, Giorgi; GM Wojtkiewicz, Aleks; GM Benjamin, Joel. Kamsky won the title in a blitz playoff against Milov. Strangely, Kamsky’s share of the prize money was only $6,000.

Taking part in the tournament was Habu Yoshiharu the Shogi World Champion who made an IM Norm. Habu has been described as ‘the best known person in Japan.’  Here is his best result, a draw against GM Ben Finegold: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.O-O-O h6 9.Be3 Bd7 10.f4 Qc7 11.Bd3 Rc8 12.Kb1 Be7 13.h3 Na5 14.Qe1 b5 15.g4 Nc4 16.Bc1 Qb6 17.Nce2 g6 18.Rf1 e5 19.Nf3 Qc5 1/2-1/2

On the dark side of the event was an instance of sandbagging in the under-2000 section, which still had a handsome $25,000 prize.  A certain player was eliminated from the event for wearing ‘a hearing-aid device’ which turned out was capable of receiving audio transmission, especially from the world champion computer program Shredder.  L

Another incident in the top category produced this result, of which there are many questions about Varshavsky and his special blue hat:

[White "Smirin, Ilya"]
[Black "Varshavsky, Eugene"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2800"]
[BlackElo "2169"]

Here are overall top scores:

See: http://www.worldopen.com/

USCF Election Fiasco – a (1) (2) (3) and (4) what are we voting for?

Chess News POLGARS:

The Polgar family has just added a Chess Princess Friday, in Bupadest.  Baby Hanna weighed in at 3.5 kilos.  Both baby Hanna and Mommy Judit are doing well.

In the mean time, Susan is in Dresden, Germany trying to bring home for the US the Women's Chess (Soccer) Cup.  Each country that qualifies for the World Cup is entitled to send 1 player.  The format is identical to the World Cup and the event will end this Saturday.

Chess News KEENE:

Perhaps the most published author of chess books in the world, GM Ray Keene, OBE is coming to Chessville.  A new monthly column will report on the goings on around the world from this leading English GM's perspective.

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

Eight players remain in the Women's World Chess Cup in Dresden, Germany.  This will also be the site for the 2007 European Championship (Open and Women) as well as the 2008 Chess Olympiad.

Here are Saturday’s match ups:

IM Pahtz (Germany) vs. IM Kachiani (Germany)
WIM Chang (Brasil) vs. IM Sebag (France)
IM Socko (Poland) vs. WGM Lujan (Argentina)
GM Polgar (USA) vs. WGM Ushenina (Ukraine)

In case of ties after 2 games, the players will have soccer penalty kicks. The winner of the penalty kick can choose black with 4' + 2" inc and draw odd vs. white with 5' + 2" inc.

That’s new!  Perhaps some photos next week if the Parrot’s informant can manage it.

The 56 Women Russia Championship takes place 28 June - 7 July in Orel. Among participants: wg Ekaterina Korbut (2442) Saint-Petersburg, wg Natalia Pogonina (2440) Saratov, wg Elena Zajatz (2417) Kazan and others. There are 36 players, among them 13 grandmasters, 11 masters and 9 masters of FIDE. Players finishing in the top 5 slots, will acquire the right to enter the superfinal of the Championship of Russia.

8th round Standings:
1-3 Gunina Valentina, Komiagina Maria, Bodnaruk Anastasia - 6.0
4 Ovod Evgenija - 5.5
5-9 Korbut Ekaterina, Zaiatz Elena, Sudakova Irina, Shadrina Tatiana, Tairova Elena - 5.0
10-15 Chistiakova Tamara, Shumiakina Tatiana, Kursova Maria, Malysheva Polina, Solovjova Valentina, Meshcheriakova Evgenia - 4.5
Official site: http://www.russiachess.ru/

Nigel’s Back: And now writing for the Guardian newspaper after being fired from his tenure at the Sunday Telegraph after 10 years.  A Bessel Kok supporter in the recently concluded Fide sort-of election, GM Short likes to say it like it is, with commentary as colourful as he finds things – so if its black, its black!  Nigel Short has also been elected President to the Commonwealth Chess Association, in his own words:

“One small consolation: I was elected president of the Commonwealth Chess Association despite a concerted attempt to oust me by the FIDE apparatchiks. It was a close-run thing though: I defeated general secretary Ignatius Leong from Singapore by 16 votes to 15 with one abstention. Nice try, guys! Come back again in four years..”

Check out Nigel Short’s often provocative column in the Guradian Newspaper. [That spelling is a traditional joke folks!]

Chess News USA:

USCF Election Fiasco – a (1) (2) (3) and (4) what are we voting for?

But there is chess in New York, New York

 2006 NYC Mayor's Cup, the strongest double RR event in US history.  The event is sponsored and organized by the Susan Polgar Foundation in collaboration with the NYC Sports Commission, the office of the NYC Mayor and the NYAC.

1. GM Gata Kamsky (2736) 6.5 / 10 (#1 in the US)
2. GM Susan Polgar (2557) 6.0 / 10 (#1 woman in the US)
3. GM Alexander Onischuk (2704) 5.5 / 10 (reigning US Champion)
4. GM Boris Gulko (2659) 5.0 / 10 (Former USSR and US Champion)
5. GM Ildar Ibragimov (2704) 4.0 / 10 (Olympic Bronze Medalist)
6. GM Alexander Stripunsky (2659) 3.0 / 10 (Former US Open Co-Champion)

The event was held at the prestigious NY Athletic Club. It is sponsored and organized by the Susan Polgar Foundation in collaboration with the NY City Sports Commission and the Office of Mayor Bloomberg.  Chief Arbiter: Frank Berry.  Assistant Arbiter: Jim Berry.  Average USCF Rating: 2665+.  Average FIDE Rating: 2622.5.  Information courtesy: Mr. Paul Truong.

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

The International chess tournament "Aerosvit-2006" took place 17-28 June in Crimean Foros.  The tournament took place in the sanatorium complex "Foros" located in relic park.  Leading grandmasters of the world took part in this competition - the strongest for all history of the Ukranian chess: Ponomariov Ruslan 2738 UKR, Ivanchuk Vassily 2723 UKR, Rublevsky Sergei 2665 RUS, Grischuk Alexander 2719 RUS, Karjakin Sergey 2661 UKR, Volokitin Andrei 2660 UKR, Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter 2695 ROM, Areshchenko Alexander 2660 UKR, Shirov Alexei 2699 ESP, Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2699 AZE, Harikrishna Pentala 2680 IND, Bologan Viktor 2666 MDA.

Wow!

The Shahcom Company together with the Ukrainian Company RelayExport provided live coverage of the games on the site www.relayexport.com/en/chess/chess.html.
The chief arbiter: international arbiter Leonid Bodankin (Ukraine).

The Dutch Championship takes place 17th June - 2nd July 2006 in Hilversum. Players: Ivan Sokolov g 2676, Sergei Tiviakov g 2669, Loek van Wely g 2655, Jan Timman g 2616, Friso Nijboer g 2584, Erwin l'Ami g 2565, Daniel Stellwagen g 2543, Jan Smeets g 2535, Jan Werle g 2529, John van der Wiel g 2511, Yge Visser m 2480, Jeroen Bosch m 2465.

Final Standings:
1 Tiviakov - 9.0
2 Sokolov - 7.5
3-4 Nijboer, Van Wely - 7.0
5 Stellwagen - 6.5
6-7 Van der Wiel, Werle - 5.5
8 L'Ami - 5.0
9 Smeets - 4.5
10-11 Timman, Bosch - 3.0
12 Visser - 2.5

Official site: http://www.schaakbond.nl/nieuws/nk2006/
Live games: http://www.schaakbond.nl/nieuws/nk2006/livenk.htm

Special Message to the Parrot on the Fide Election:  from USCF Board Member Mr. Don Shultz:

During the campaign few campaigned harder for Bessel Kok than I did.  The USCF EB fully supported my efforts.  As a result we have a first hand insight into many campaign goings-on.  And contrary to the Chess Cafe report I believe the election was lost before the Turin meeting.

IMO, there were several reasons why Bessel did not win.  He had fantastic credentials and contacts; his articulation of concrete programs was awesome.  Compare that to the lack of substance in the Ilyumzhinov campaign.  Give lots of credit to Bessel and his team for a lot of hard work and presenting their message.  They lost because of unexpected defections, the myth that Kirsan could not lose so best to be with the winner, and a scratch my back, I'll scratch yours philosophy adopted by Ilyumzhinov and rejected by Bessel.

Bessel could/would have won except for things like the following:

• Karpov's dissatisfaction with one those on Bessel's ticket caused coolness on his part towards Bessel and his ticket.  Everyone had expected full endorsement and active campaigning by the former world champion.

• Failure to get Susan Polar’s active support: I am not privy to the reasons for this but I do know that like Karpov, early on Susan strongly supported Bessel.

• Failure to convince Nigel Freeman to support and help: Nigel is thought of very highly and his defection to Ilyumzhinov added credibility to that ticket.  The famous Bermuda party run by Nigel and fellow Bermudans is so well liked by so many that it magnifies the impact of the Freeman defection.

• The open letter from Beatriz Marinello to the countries of the Americas:  Beatriz sought to change her USCF Executive Board vote to support Bessel to one of neutrality.  She called her fellow Board members fanatical supporters of Bessel.  Beatriz is well liked in the Americas and there is no doubt that she cost a great deal of votes for the Bessel ticket.  With her supporting the USCF endorsed Bessel, a significant shift of votes among the nations of the Americas would have taken place.  Interestingly, early on she considered the possibility of running for Treasurer on the Bessel ticket but declined, IMO, because she felt Bessel could not win and that she could be the friendly conduit between the USCF and the Ilyumzhinov regime.  A split like this among USCF leadership drastically reduces our influence.

• Bessel too quickly rejected the compromise ticket proposed by Ignatius Leong.  Ignatius proposed it and said if either Bessel or Kirsan rejected the offer and the other accepted it, he would cast his support to the one that accepted.  Bessel rejected the offer too quickly though for honorable reasons not the least of which, it was illegal.  Kirsan than accepted the compromise knowing it was already rejected and all his acceptance meant was a guarantee of Leong's support which would have meant about 10 or 12 votes, or a swing of 24.  Bessel should have waited and if he did, so would have Ilyumzhinov.  If neither Bessel nor Kirsan responded, I believe Ignatius would have bolted the Kirsan ticket and thrown his support to Bessel.

• The defection of Israel to openly support Ilyumzhinov: Bill Goichberg and I wrote a personal private letter to the Israeli chess federation urging them to reconsider.  Our letter was never answered.  The Israeli endorsement like the defection of Nigel Freeman added credibility to the image of Ilyumzhinov.

• Another factor was Ilyumzhinov's personal campaigning.  He should not be underestimated.  He was everywhere, smiling, shaking hands, having his picture taken with whoever asked.  He also had Makropoulos running his campaign.  Makro would do well in USCF elections, he knows how to count votes and when to bring in the cavalry which he did by bringing in Ilyumzhinov when he realized things were not liked they appeared and Bessel might win.

Was there bribery?  Well during my campaigning, two African countries wrote to me and said they would go to Turin, campaign for Bessel and vote for him BUT they needed $2,500 and $3,500 respectively to do that.  Bessel declined.  Both those countries showed up in Turin supporting Ilyumzhinov.

I am proud that the USCF supported Bessel.  His integrity on each and every issue is something well worth emulating.  I sincerely hope that Jan Timman is wrong and world chess will not lose him.

Some want to start a counter organization - I am against that -too much tradition and infra-structure to cast aside.  I support development within FIDE several semi-autonomous organized projects such as a major league of Internet chess - a sort of having your cake and eating it to approach.

One last word - during the debate on proxies, Makro went too far in fighting for a decision on Peru's representation and temporarily lost the support of the meeting.  Clearly, the meeting was, at that time, overwhelmingly supporting the view of Bessel's lawyer Eric Kelzey.  At that point Kirsan took the microphone from Makro and diplomatically gave in on the point.  In the end Peru was denied their vote as the two Peru delegates competed for credentials were both denied.

Don Schultz

2004

• July-September

• October-December
  
   

2005

• January-March

• April-June

• July-September

• October-December

2006

• January-March

• April-June