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5-10-2008

Chess News USA and Canada

And … the Caribbean

“Dear Parrot”

We, the Eight Rivers Chess Club located in Ocho Rios, Jamaica W.I. are trying to develop the game of chess on the Island and we would appreciate your support.  We are planning an open chess tournament in Jamaica next August 2nd & 3rd.  I was wondering if you or any of your club members would be interested in coming here to participate.  It is to be a Rated tournament over 6 rounds and 2 days.  The strength of player we are expecting is good club level.  We are expecting between 75 and 100 persons to participate from all over the Island of Jamaica.  The Jamaican Chess Federation will be officiating.

We are also planning an amateur Tournament to run simultaneously.  We are intending to give cash and other prizes to the winners, but no details are available on that yet!  The venue is located at Rooms On The Beach, a good hotel in Ocho Rios on the North Coast of the Island.  I know it is early, but I want to make as many chess players as possible aware, so that they can plan their visit.

If you are interested please call me at 1 876 974 7825 or 1 876 877 9288; I'll give you more
details then.  If you don't get me speak to Syd Abbass at 1-876-880-2925, or send me an email.  If you need any info regarding hotels etc, we'll try to help.  I hope to hear from you.  Kamran Abbas

US Championship; Participants Announced:

1 GM Alexander SHABALOV 2697 Current Champion
2 GM Alexander ONISCHUK 2728 Rating (2008 SPICE Cup)
3 GM Gregory KAIDANOV 2697 Rating (2008 SPICE Cup)
4 GM Varuzhan Akobian 2666 Rating (2008 SPICE Cup)
5 GM Yury Shulman 2664 Rating (2007 SPICE Cup Invitee)
6 GM Julio Becerra 2637 Rating (2007 SPICE Cup)
7 GM Boris GULKO 2623 U.S. Open Champion (2007 SPICE Cup)
8 GM Alexander Ivanov 2622 Rating
9 GM Eugene Perelshteyn 2615 Rating (2007 and 2008 SPICE Cup)
10 GM Sergey Kudrin 2610 Rating
11 IM Benjamin Finegold 2609 Rating (2007 SPICE Cup Invitee)
12 GM Dmitry Gurevich 2594 Rating
13 GM Alex YERMOLINSKY 2587 Qualifier
14 GM John FEDOROWICZ 2531 Qualifier
15 GM Jesse KRAAI 2569 Qualifier
16 IM Dean IPPOLITO 2499 Qualifier
17 IM David PRUESS 2497 Qualifier
18 FM Daniel LUDWIG 2429 Qualifier
19 NM Sam SHANKLAND 2296 Qualifier
20 IM Josh FRIEDEL 2511 Wild Card
21 FM Michael LANGER 2322 Wild Card
22 Sergey GALANT 2176 Wild Card
23 IM Larry Kaufman 2383 Senior Open Champion
24 IM David Vigorito 2439 WCL Tnmt of Champions winner

US Women's Championship:

1 IM Irina KRUSH 2515 Current Champion (2007 SPICE Cup)
2 IM Anna ZATONSKIH 2490 Rating (2007 SPICE Cup Invitee)
3 WGM Katerine ROHONYAN 2318 Rating
4 WIM Batchimeg TUVSHINTUGS 2289 Rating
5 WFM Tatev ABRAHAMYAN 2280 Rating
6 WIM Tsagaan BATTSETSEG 2251 Rating
7 WFM Iryna ZENYUK 2205 Qualifier
8 WIM Esther Epstein 2194 Rating
9 WFM Chouchanik AIRAPETIAN 2143 Wild Card
10 Courtney JAMISON 2064 Wild Card

Information courtesy Tom Braunlich for CLO.

Innovative Chess Indexed Announced

A press release for Chess Express Ratings (www.cxrchess.com), Forest Hills, NY, May 7^th, also known as “CXR”, announced May 7^th the creation of the "Tournament Significance Index” (TSI).  Up until now, when we heard of someone’s tournament victory, we had no way to compare the significance of the achievement with that of a rival’s success someplace else.  Except for the very well known events, we may not even have a correct idea of the strength of either the event or its winner.  Chess Express Ratings, best known for bringing literally dozens of performance metrics to the sport of Chess, has developed a mathematical formula which - without bias - calculates a “Section Significance Index” (SSI) for each section of a tournament.  The formula takes into account time control, number of rounds, effective number of players participating, and the game-weighted average rating of the contestants.

The minimum requirements for a section to qualify for an SSI are:

~ at least 4 players
~ minimum average rating of 400
~ at least 3 rounds

Instead of reporting more of this service, I though, “wait a minute! I’m a chess reporter, I’ll call them up and ask some questions!” And that is how it came about that the Parrot interviewed Russ Mollot, which you can read near the bottom of this column.

US Senior Open – RESULT Stop-press: Susan Polgar reports; “Going into the final round, IM Kaufman and Foygel were both 4-0. IM Bradford and GM Gurevich were both 3.5 points. IM Kaufman defeated Foygel to win clear first.” I see from the above that Kaufman gains automatic entry into the US championship for this win. Coming up later this Year – Strongest ever US Tournament. September 19th to 28th sees a [so far] Category 15 tournament on US soil in the 10 player SPICE CUP. Seven of the 10 invitees have already signed up, and I understand average Elo is currently 2600. Chessville’s senior editor Kelly Atkins recently visited the SPICE campus at Lubbock and will make an extended report on its current and future activities. Mtel gets going, early results: Round 1 Aronian 0-1 Topalov [caption] Cheparinov 1-0 Bu Radjabov 0-1 Ivanchuk Note the dark glass with media and spectators behind it. This anti-disturbance device is now common at high level Euro-tournaments. Round 2: Veselin Topalov - Vassily Ivanchuk This was the 5,507 point match up, result 0-1 Levon Aronian - Ivan Cheparinov 5,458 points between them, result draw

What to Play? …continued The critical 8. Rb1 in the Grunfeld Exchange, with 12. Qb3 Here is the tabiya position from last week: White’s two main options at move11 are 11.d5 or 11. Qd3. Author Yelena Dembo says other options 11.Bd3 and 11. e5 seem insufficient tries by White. We continue with the most aggressive move, the pawn sac variation Black fears initiated by 11.d5. 11. d5 Bxc3 and now Qb3 or Bc4 12. Qb3 [Dangerous, but sufficiently promising?] 12. …Bg7 13. Bf4 Qc8! 14. Rfe1 Ba6 15. e5 Bxe2 16. Rxe2 e6 17 d6 Nd7 [Black is better, Avrukh] Let us look at the other White choice at 11. Bc4

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

Coming Up

The 4th PIVDENNY BANK CHESS CUP will take place in Odessa, Ukraine from 30 May - 2 June 2008. The prize fund is USD 35,000. As usual, some of the world's most famous chess players will compete in this rapid chess tournament. So far, Anatoly Karpov (Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) have all confirmed their participation. This year, the number of contestants will be reduced from 10 to 8, and the time control will be somewhat shortened, but in exchange, the grandmasters will play not one but two games against each other. The winners of the three previous tournaments were: 2005 GM Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine), 2006 GM Joel Lautier (France), 2007 GM Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine).

Also coming up

Capablanca Chess Tournament

Havana, May 7 (Prensa Latina) The drawing of lots by elite chess players will focus the opening ceremony of the 43rd Capablanca Memorial International Chess Tournament, scheduled for Wednesday evening at the Neptuno-Triton hotel resort in Havana. [caption]

According to a report from the Cuban News Agency -AIN-, the order of the matches for the nine sessions of the competition will be defined after each of the ten Grand Masters (GM) randomly pick numbers that may mark their fate.

The elite group will be granted the 15th category of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) for having an average ELO of 2,602 points. Heading the group is Cuba’s Leinier Dominguez (2,695), who is in the 26th position in world ranking.

Before leaving Caracas, Eduardo Iturrizaga [caption], first Grand Master of Venezuela,  said he aspires to dominate at the José Raúl Capablanca In Memoriam, although he still has to obtain the 2,600 ELO, threshold to enter elite events.

Another favorite is Holland’s Sergei Tiviakov (2,634), 84th in the world, and holder of the European title. He is one of the four foreign players among the group of elite competitors. The others are Farruk Amonatov (2,625), from Tajikistan, Poland’s Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2,625) and German Igor Khenki (2,608).

Also among the top players is Cuban Lazaro Bruzon [caption] (2,608).

With ELOs below 2,600 are locals Holden Hernandez (2,568), national champion Yuniesky Quesada (2,567), Jesus Nogueiras (2,559) and Walter Arencibia (2,534). GM Neuris Delgado (2,530), and International Master (IM) Fidel Corrales (2,502), who is waiting for FIDE's confirmation to be named GM, will take part in the event.

Source: www.plenglish.com

Dear Parrot:

ENCI Limburg Open chess tournament which is held this weekend in Maastricht (NL). With almost 400 players the ENCI Limburg Open is one of the biggest chess tournaments in Europe. With more than 25 titleholders the ENCI Limburg Open is a very attractive tournament which should definitely be covered on your website. For questions you can contact the organisation by mail at info@limburgopen.nl.

Final standings:
1-3 Gashimov, Wang Yue, Carlsen - 8.0
4-5 Mamedyarov, Grischuk - 7.5
6-7 Adams, Svidler - 6.5
8-10 Radjabov, Kamsky, Karjakin - 6.0
11-12 Cheparinov, Navara - 5.5
13-14 Bacrot, Inarkiev - 5.0

Radjabov and Cheparinov immediately flew to Sofia, for the 2008 Mtel Masters on Thursday.

The Parrot notes that of the top 3 players Gashimov scored 3 times, all with White. Wang Yue twice with White and once with Black, and Carlsen twice with White and twice with Black. Interestingly, at the bottom of the chart Inarkiev scored twice.

5-3-2008

Wait a minute!  Before we get started with around-the-world reporting, I want to know why India is showing up as a massive source of readership at Chessville?  There are 2 possibilities; (a) the first being India has more spammers hitting our site than any other country whatever, and (b) that the subcontinent has discovered Chessville, and likes it.

What I would like to ask is that if you are a (b) type person, our editorial group at Chessville wants to talk with you about your own column, your own reporting on chess in the sub-continent. Interested?  Write to this Parrot!

Chess News USA and Canada

Its… Editor Atkins!

Susan Polgar’s Blog reported earlier this week:  "This is Mr. Kelly Atkins, one of the editors and forum host at chessville.com. He will be visiting SPICE and Texas Tech today to do an exclusive behind the scene college chess report. Many people hear about the incredible success of SPICE in a very short period of time. But how do we do it? After this visit, Kelly will report the behind the scene secret of success of SPICE and its plans in the future."

Look for Kelly’s special report on SPICE: [caption Jerry Perez, Dr. Hal Karlsson (one of the discoverers of water on Mars), GM Susan Polgar, Kelly Atkins.]  Photographer unknown.

US Senior Open – RESULT

Stop-press: Susan Polgar reports; “Going into the final round, IM Kaufman and Foygel were both 4-0. IM Bradford and GM Gurevich were both 3.5 points. IM Kaufman defeated Foygel to win clear first and earn a spot in the Frank K. Berry US Championship in Oklahoma.”

White: Kaufman, Lawrence 2383
Black: Foygel, Igor 2501

1.d4 d6 2.e4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Be3 a6 5.f4 b5 6.Bd3 Nd7 7.e5 Bb7 8.Nf3 c5 9.Be4 Qb8 10.dxc5 Bxe4 11.Nxe4 Qb7 12.Nc3 dxc5 13.Qd5 Qxd5 14.Nxd5 Rc8 15.O-O-O f6 16.Rhe1 fxe5 17.fxe5 Nxe5 18.Nxe5 Bxe5 19.Bh6 Nxh6 20.Rxe5 Ng8 21.Rde1 Kf7 22.Nxe7 Rc7 23.Nd5 Rd7 24.Nf4 Nf6 25.Rxc5 Rhd8 26.Nd3 Kg7 27.Rc6 a5 28.Nc5 1-0

Cllr John Burton, cabinet member for schools, said: "We are delighted to be involved in this scheme which will bring enjoyment and many educational advantages to pupils across Warwickshire.

Under the scheme, each school in the county is entitled to 10 chess sets - made by a plastics firm from raw material donated by chemical companies. As part of the initiative, the council's extended services team is to launch chess as one of its children's university modules.

The junior university scheme runs modules including story telling, break-dancing and Mandarin.  After distributing the chess sets, extended services is aiming to organise sessions with accredited chess coaches to help young people learn and improve at the game.

But Brits Split: Following the April Council meeting on Saturday the following Directors have tendered their resignation effect 31 May 2008: Martin Regan (Chief Executive), Peter Sowray (International), Claire Summerscale (Junior Chess & Education; Women's Chess) and Mike Truran (Non-Executive Director). Martin Regan had this to say about the issue: However, in order for English Chess to achieve that of which it is capable, more fundamental changes are needed. This is what the board was elected to deliver. We were under no illusion about the hurdles that would need to be overcome, nor were we even sure that the Federation itself would wish to embark on major change. However, it was clear from the first that in order to progress this agenda two fundamental conditions were required: A unified board and a Council wishing to hear the debate with an open mind. I regret to say that neither condition could be met, despite my best efforts. Chess News WORLDWIDE The IX European Individual Chess Championships take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria 20th April - 4th May. It was a bit of an effort to determine what actually happened from the offical web site, but the Parrot thinks that Tiviakov won the men’s, and Lahno the women’s.

9.…b6! A move developed by the aptly named  David Avrukh, and adopted by Petr Svidler, David Navara and Pavel Eljanov 10. 0-0 Bb7 Take another snapshot of the position: The author notes one worthwhile alternative in 10. …Qc7!? As an attempt to avoid the pawn sac line 11. d5, but we skip that analysis here to look at White’s two main options at move11: 11.d5 or 11. Qd3. The idea of ‘What to Play’? is not to just remember move orders from the openings, but to try to understand the potentials of the position by looking at key points in it. If you want to play the Grunfeld, or understand what to play against it, each tabiya illustrates critical strategic or tactical points in the game that are essential to understand. Next week we can continue this investigation with the most aggressive move, the pawn sac variation Black fears initiated by 11.d5.

After 10 minutes at the site I decided I couldn’t tell who was who from the pictures, so do not provide any, or any other information that is for sure, rather than a guess. Maybe you can do better, see the Official site.

A Russian site reports leader scores:

Men:
1 Tiviakov - 8.5
2-10 Volkov, Tregubov, Movsesian, L'Ami, Vachier-Lagrave, Grachev, Baklan, Kryvoruchko, Nyback - 8.0
11-34 Sutovsky, Laznicka, Pavasovic, Efimenko, Papaioannou, Khalifman, Najer, Mamedov, Akopian, Areshcenko, Fressinet, Smirin, Lululesku, Bologan, Khismatullin, Galkin, Gustafsson, Sargissian, Andreikin, Hracek, Roiz, Vajda, Markovski, Gurevich - 7.0

Women - Final leading standings:
1 Lahno - 8.5
2-7 Ushenina, Zhukova, Cmilyte, Mkrtchian, Skripchenko, Dembo - 8.0
8-16 Cramling, Pogonina, Muzychuk, Stefanova, Dzagnidze, Danielian, Lomineishvili, Demina, Socko - 7.5
17 Houska, Paehtz, Hoang Thanh Trang, Repkova, Rajlich, Zimina, Romanko, Atalik, Turova, Khukhashvili, Molchanova, Cosma - 7.0

Big Deal in Baku

When Sicilians go bad…
 

GM Adams (2729) - GM Svidler (2746) [B92]
30.04.2008

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.0–0 0–0 9.Be3 Be6 10.Qd2 Nbd7 11.a4 Qc7 12.Rfd1 Rac8 13.a5 Rfe8 14.h3 h6 15.Qe1 Qb8 16.Bf3 Rc4 17.Nd2 Rc6 18.Nf1 Rec8 19.Bd2 b6 20.Ne3 bxa5 21.Ncd5 Bxd5 22.exd5 Rc5 23.Bxa5 e4 24.Be2 Qxb2 25.Bxa6 Rb8 26.c3 Rxa5 27.Rxa5 Qb6 28.Rda1 Nc5 29.Bf1 Qd8 30.Rb5 Rc8 31.Ra7 Nfd7 32.Nf5 Bf8 33.Qe3 Qf6 34.Ng3 Qe5 35.Nxe4 Nxe4 36.Rxd7 Rxc3 37.Qe2 Qd4 38.Rd8 Rc1 39.Kh2 White wins 1–0
 

GM Radjabov (2751) - GM Kamsky (2726) [B41]
30.04.2008 (Baku Grand Prix - Round 9)

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.a3 b6 8.Be3 Bb7 9.f3 d6 10.Rc1 Nbd7 11.Be2 Be7 12.0–0 0–0 13.b4 Rac8 14.Nb3 Qb8 15.Kh1 Rfe8 16.Na4 Bd8 17.Bg1 h5 18.Bf2 Bc7 19.Nd4 Ne5 20.c5 dxc5 21.bxc5 b5 22.c6 Nxc6 23.Nxc6 Bxc6 24.Rxc6 bxa4 25.Bg1 Be5 26.Qxa4 Rxc6 27.Qxc6 Rc8 28.Qxa6 Rc2 29.Bd3 Rd2 30.Rc1 Qb2 31.Qc8+ Kh7 32.Rc2 Rxc2 33.Qxc2 Qxa3 34.f4 Bxf4 35.e5+ g6 36.exf6 Qd6 37.Qc5 Qxc5 38.Bxc5 Be5 39.Be7 h4 40.Bc4 g5 41.Bxe6 Kg6 42.Bc8 Bxf6 43.Bxf6 Kxf6 44.g4 hxg3 White wins 1–0
 

Round 10 standings:
1 Grischuk - 6.5
2-3 Gashimov, Wang Yue - 6.0
4-6 Mamedyarov, Carlsen, Adams - 5.5
7-9 Bacrot, Kamsky, Radjabov - 5.0
10-12 Svidler, Karjakin, Cheparinov - 4.5
13 Inarkiev - 3.5
14 Navara - 3.0

I have been trying to access the official site baku2008.fide.com all week, and you can too!  But it didn’t work for me.

4-26-2008

Chess News USA and Canada

This Week:

Big Focus on Chess USA

Samford Fellowship Awards, Krush and Bhat

International master (IM) Irina Krush is the reigning U.S. Women's Champion, with a USCF rating of 2515 and a FIDE rating of 2479.  Irina has represented the U.S. in numerous international competitions since the age of seven, receiving medals in both World Youth and World Junior Championships.  She became a master at age twelve, and an International Master at age sixteen.  She has been an integral part of the U.S. Women's Olympiad Team since the age of fourteen, helping the U.S. win a historic silver medal at the 2004 Olympiad in Mallorca, Spain.

At just fourteen, she won her first U.S. Women's title with the convincing score of 8.5/9.  At seventeen, she tied for first place with GM Igor Novikov in the NYC Mayor's Cup and earned her first grandmaster norm.  Irina is also active in the chess community as a writer, photographer, teacher, and manager of the U.S. Chess League team, the New York Knights.

Vinay Bhat learned how to play chess when he was six-and-a-half years old.  At the age of ten-and-a-half he set the then-current record for becoming the youngest national master, breaking Bobby Fischer's record by two years.  That record was since broken by Hikaru Nakamura, and most recently, by Nicholas Nip.  Vinay also played extensively internationally, representing the US in nine different World Youth competitions with top five finishes on five different occasions.Vinay completed his IM title in 2000.

From 2002 through 2006, he attended the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with degrees in Statistics and Political Economy, and then went on to work at Cornerstone Research in Menlo Park, California.  While working he has gotten back to playing chess and won his third and final GM norm in July 2007.  Later that year, FIDE granted him the GM title conditional on his FIDE rating crossing 2500.

10th North American FIDE Invitational - Chicago

April 19 - April 25, 2008. All games held at the Touch Move Chess Center at 5639 N. Ashland Ave Chicago, IL 60660.  The score with 3 rounds to go:

1st - 2nd (5.0/6.0)
WFM Melekhina [captioned] (WIM norm scored!  Will she get a GM norm too?)
IM Young
3rd place (4.0/6.0)
FM Pasalic
4th (3.5/6.0)
IM Amanov
5th - 6th (3.0/6.0)
FM Stamnov
FM Shankar
7th (2.0/6.0)
FM Chow
8th - 10th (1.5/6.0)
WFM Yuan
FM Monokroussos
IM Vishnuvardhan

IM Norm - 6.5/9; WGM Norm - 6/9; WIM norm - 4/9

For events specifics including round times visit - http://www.nachess.org/fide

MASSACHUSETTS WINS STATE CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS TITLE

IM David Vigorito claims online U.S. Championship Qualifying Spot

World Chess Live - April 20, 2008 - The United States Chess Federation and World Chess Live are pleased to announce that, after a close competition, IM David Vigorito, representing Massachusetts, has won the fourth U.S. State Champion of Champions event and will now go forward to the 2008 Frank K. Berry U.S. Chess Championship, 13-21 May, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Fifty state champions from Alaska through California to Hawaii, and from Maine through to New York and Florida battled their way through the Eastern and Western Conferences held on WCL (the new sister-site of the Internet Chess Club), with the top four contesting the Finals.

The four who battled their way through the Blitz Conference qualifiers to the Finals Weekend were: Western Conference: IM Vinay Bhat (Northern California) and IM Enrico Sevillano (Southern California). Eastern Conference: IM David Vigorito (Massachusetts) and IM-elect Ray Robson (Florida).

In the semifinals, both Vigoreto and Sevillano scored convincing 2-0 wins, respectively, against Robson and Bhat to set-up the final match-up of Southern California versus Massachusetts.  And in that final, it was David Vigorito, 36, from Andover, MA, who snatched the final U.S. Chess Championship qualifying spot by taking the title 1.5-0.5.

“It’s [the U.S. State Champion of Champions event] tough and demanding, yet at the same time innovative by being played online,” commented David Vigorito after winning the title.  “It was nice to be able to go to Tulsa having won through -- and doubly so by representing my home-state of Massachusetts.”

This unique event demonstrates that online chess and over-the-board chess can indeed be a perfect mix – even for one of the world’s most famous national championships.  First, each player in the tournament had to prove themselves OTB by winning (or scoring highly in) their relevant state championship to be invited, then they had to play online on WCL (both in an all-play-all Blitz for the conference qualifiers, and then the G\60 knockout finals, with independent proctors officiating at each venue to ensure fairness throughout), with the winner going forward to the U.S. Chess Championship.

Caption: Winner IM David Vigorito

For further information:
John Henderson, Director of Marketing & Chess Content
Tel: 847-347-9593. Email: jbhthescots@chessclub.com

The 5th Annual All-Girls Nationals, presented by the Dallas Chess Club and the Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) kicks off Friday April 25 with a simultaneous by Irina Krush.  The main event begins on Saturday, April 26 with four rounds, and two more on Sunday.  Some notable pre-registered players include 2008 U.S. Women's Championship wild card Courtney Jamison, World Youth silver-medalist Sarah Chiang and members of the many-time National Championship team I.S. 318 Darrian Robinson and Angelica Berrios, pictured to the left.  Other high-ranked entries include Anna Matlin, Medina Parilla, Sylvia Yang and Linda Diaz.

At stake in the Under 18 section is a Scholarship to the University of Texas at Dallas, valued at over $65,000 for an out-of-state student. KCF President Michael Khodarkovsky is happy that this year the tournament will include: "195 registered players and the strongest ever field of competitors so far."

The Susan Polgar Foundation and the Las Vegas International Chess Festival proudly present the Third Annual Susan Polgar World Open Championship for Girls (This is an OFFICIAL qualifier for the SP National Invitational for Girls) and Second Annual Susan Polgar World Chess Challenge for Boys.

Sections: Under 8, 11, 15, 19
June 6-8, 2008 - Las Vegas
G/45 - 5 Round Swiss

Over $100,000 in scholarships and cool chess prizes are available. Details: http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/polgar/

New Chess Blog

GM Boris Alterman has put up a new instructive chess blog:

“Nowadays I rarely play professional chess. Most of my time is dedicated to giving chess lectures, Simultaneous exhibitions, private lessons and training sessions.”

See http://chesslessons.wordpress.com:80/.

Good Interview Spotted:

Lilja Gretarsdottir - President of the Iceland Chess Federation spoke with journalists on her chess playing career and also the state of chess in Iceland.

“I cherish it personally more than competitively, in fact, and I enjoy the beauty in chess when others play well. Somehow for me it is also a personal connection to my grandmother, whom I adored. She was a person of an incredible independence and free spirit, both on the chessboard and in life. She always played the King’s Gambit and always went for the win no matter what. I loved her dearly and she gave me chess. I never had a trainer or anything like that, but I had my grandmother as an inspiration. (In spite of this fact Lilja has been eleven-time Icelandic women champion! D.B.)’

Read the whole thing here.

Chess News WORLDWIDE:

The IX European Individual Chess Championships take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria 20th April - 4th May.

Top men participants: Movsesian Sergei 2695 SVK, Vallejo Pons Francisco 2684 ESP, Volokitin Andrei 2684 UKR, Almasi Zoltan 2674 HUN, Nikolic Predrag 2674 BIH, Akopian Vladimir 2673 ARM, Fedorchuk Sergey 2671 UKR, Motylev Alexander 2666 RUS, Bologan Viorel 2665 MDA, Georgiev Kiril 2665 BUL, Timofeev Artyom 2664 RUS, Efimenko Zahar 2660 UKR, Roiz Michael 2659 ISR, Tomashevsky Evgeny 2658 RUS, Fressinet Laurent 2656 FRA, Predojevic Borki 2651 BIH, Areshchenko Alexander 2650 UKR, Moiseenko Alexander 2650 UKR, Ivanisevic Ivan 2649 SRB, Sakaev Konstantin 2649 RUS

Round 4 leading standings
1-3 Grigoriants, Pantsulaia, Sutovsky - 4.0
4-14 Volkov, Stevic, Kovacevic, Tiviakov, Pavasovic, Efimenko, Mamedov, Werle, Movsesian, Kurnosov, Kriviruchko - 3.5

Top women participants: GM Cramling Pia 2539 SWE, GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2538 BUL, IM Socko Monika 2505 POL, IM Muzychuk Anna 2486 SLO, GM Lahno Kateryna 2479 UKR, IM Danielian Elina 2479 ARM, GM Hoang Thanh Trang 2477 HUN, IM Ushenina Anna 2474 UKR, WGM Pogonina Natalija 2470 RUS, IM Cmilyte Viktorija 2466 LTU, IM Javakhishvili Lela 2466 GEO, GM Peng Zhaoqin 2455 NED, IM Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan 2452 SCO, WGM Zhukova Natalia 2450 UKR, IM Paehtz Elisabeth 2449 GER. IM Dzagnidze Nana 2443 GEO, IM Skripchenko Almira 2443 FRA, IM Ovod Evgenija 2437 RUS.

Round 4 leading standings
1 Kovalevskaya - 4.0
2-8 Cmilyte, Kazimova, Stefanova, Peptan, Muzychuk A., Lahno, Dzagnidze - 3.5

Official site: http://www.eicc2008.com

Big Deal in Baku

Standings after 3 rounds:

1 Grischuk 2716 RUS 2.5
2-6 Carlsen 2765 NOR 2
Radjabov 2751 AZE 2
Karjakin 2732 UKR 2
Kamsky 2726 USA 2
Gashimov 2679 AZE 2
7-9 Adams 2729 ENG 1.5
Bacrot 2705 FRA 1.5
Yue 2689 CHN 1.5
10-13 Mamedyarov 2752 AZE 1
Svidler 2746 RUS 1
Inarkiev 2684 RUS 1
Navara 2672 CZE 1
14 Cheparinov 2695 BUL 0

Round 4 results:
   Kamsky Gata 2726 1/2 Grischuk Alexander 2716
   Adams Michael 2729 1-0 Navara David 2672
   Bacrot Etienne 2705 1/2 Karjakin Sergey 2732
   Yue Wang 2689 1-0 Cheparinov Ivan 2695
   Svidler Peter 2746 1/2 Radjabov Teimour 2751
   Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 - Gashimov Vugar 2679
   Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 1-0 Carlsen Magnus 2765
 

GM Mamedyarov (2752) - GM Carlsen (2765) [E17]
24.04.2008 - Round 4

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7  [Regular Parrot readers will recognize features of the English Defence and the Accelerated Queen’s Indian featured earlier this year.  A game Bilek-Schussler, Helsink 1978 went 1.c4 b6, 2. d4 Bb7, 3. Nf3 e6, 4.g3 Bxf3 – in other high level games this year Black has chosen Ba6].
5.Bg2 Be7 6.0–0 0–0 7.Re1 Na6 8.Ne5 Bxg2 9.Kxg2 c6 10.e4 Qc7 11.Nc3 Qb7 12.Nd3 d5 13.e5 Nd7 14.cxd5 cxd5 15.h4 Nb4 16.Bg5 Nxd3 17.Qxd3 Bb4 18.Rec1 a6 19.Ne2 Rfc8 20.h5 h6 21.a3 Bf8 22.Bd2 Rxc1 23.Rxc1 Rc8 24.Rf1 b5 25.f4 Qc6 26.Rc1 Qb7 27.Rf1 Qc6 28.Qf3 Qb6 29.f5 exf5 30.Bc3 a5 31.Bxa5 [Carlsen overlooked this shot] Qxa5 32.Qxf5 Qd2 33.Qxf7+ Kh8 34.Rf2 Rd8 35.Qxd5 Qa5 36.Nf4 Qa8 37.Ng6+ 1–0

Why Resign?  See the ‘Final Word’ at the bottom of the Page.

Olympiad Feed, Dresden:

Polgar defeats GM Uhlmann in demonstration games a couple of times at castle, before 1,200 guests.

Susan Polgar in her role of Ambassador of the Chess presented to the Chess Olympiad at Dresden, 2008, where 75 nations are registered to take part. [The following is from the German Press…]

The celebrated Hungarian-American chess genius Susan Polgar celebrated her birthday on April 19th, 2008 at the Dresden Residence Castle. The former chess world champion was, on her great day, the star visitor of this year’s Press Gala. The glamorous meeting of journalists, politicians and business representatives this year will be themed “Rochade in black and white” – on the occasion of the Chess Olympiad Dresden 2008 from 12 to 25 November.

Along with Susan Polgar, the grand masters Wolfgang Uhlmann and Lothar Schmid, Winfried Lehmann, president of the Organizing Committee, Chairman Dr. Dirk Jordan, director Jörn Verleger as well as the 26-year-old artist and ambassador of the Chess Olympiad Dresden 2008, Vaile, followed the invitation of the host and celebrated together with over 1,200 ball guests until early morning.

During the blitz match with commentary upon for visitors by Dr. Dirk Jordan, Susan Polgar twice defeated her ambassador colleague, the Dresden chess legend Wolfgang Uhlmann, in an uphill struggle. He took it calmly. For him, this weekend’s sportive highlight is the finale of the 2nd German Chess League. The male players of the USV TU Dresden are right before their ascension into the 1st league.

www.dresden2008.de or www.dresden2008.com

Karpov, Ponomariov and Gelfand to play in Odessa
by GM Mikhail Golubev

The 4th PIVDENNY BANK CHESS CUP will take place in Odessa, Ukraine from 30 May - 2 June 2008.  The prize fund is USD 35,000.  As usual, some of the world's most famous chess players will compete in this rapid chess tournament.  So far, Anatoly Karpov (Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) have all confirmed their participation.

This year, the number of contestants will be reduced from 10 to 8, and the time control will be somewhat shortened, but in exchange, the grandmasters will play not one but two games against each other.

The winners of the three previous tournaments were:
     2005 GM Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine)
     2006 GM Joel Lautier (France)
     2007 GM Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine)

The main organiser of the tournament is Bank Pivdenny (en.bank.com.ua), which is the largest bank in the southern part of Ukraine. Pivdenny also organised the 2007 and 2008 ACP World Rapid Chess Cups, which were won by Peter Leko (Hungary) and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), respectively.

The 4th Pivdenny Bank Chess Cup will be covered at the Pivdenny chess site, worldcup.pivdenny.com.

4-19-2008

10th North American FIDE Invitational - Chicago

April 19 - April 25, 2008. All games held at the Touch Move Chess Center at 5639 N. Ashland Ave Chicago, IL 60660.

Participants include:

IM Norm - 6.5/9; WGM Norm - 6/9; WIM norm - 4/9.  For event specifics including round times visit - http://www.nachess.org/fide.

So Wins, Other Cheated at Dubai

Even so, let us not concentrate on yet another chess cheater on his cell-phone when the 14-year old youngest Philippine GM scores a great tournament championship victory in Dubai. Now rated 2540, but with a massive 2700 level performance rating, the young player scored 7 points to clinch the win and also $4500. Good show! Mr. So.

Susan Polgar is in Dresden for the Olympiad, and Chessville understands that she, and her husband will forward Chessville regular news on the Olympiad, as well as photography of the event.

Not everything in the April Fool’s joke was false!  In fact other parts of the Fool’s Day are also true – and the Parrot also wants to point out that the origin of the joke was from Susan herself.

Susan wrote, “The festivities in Dresden this weekend will be amazing. There will be tons of mainstream media, celebrities, important business people, politicians, etc.  I was told that there will only be two representatives from the chess community, grandmaster Wolfgang Uhlmann and myself.  I just gave a long interview to the biggest newspaper in Dresden.  They will be doing a 4-page chess special every single day during the Olympiad.  All the announcement will be officially made by this weekend. I will keep you posted.”

Ural win Russian Team Championship – Result

It must feel good to have a team like this, and they certainly performed: Board 1: Radjabov, Board 2: Shirov, Board 3: Kamsky, Board 4: Grischuk, Board 5: Malakhov, Board 6: Akopian

4-12-2008

First of All:  Reply-to-Parrot Mail Dear Louis, Fantasy Chess Island in Rare Chess Pictures vol 3 is not Mont St Michel in France, though you are not too far adrift!  You are right that Errol Flynn is playing Olivia DeHavilland who co-starred with him in "They Died With Their Boots On", which you date to 1940 or 1941.

This Could Be The Last Time Last week we reported the immanent demise of a board member – and his issue seems to now have become public news, and concerns legal liabilities of the USCF Forum, and disagreement about the need for insurance. I note in passing that other board members Susan Polgar and Paul Truong have refused to have anything to do with the forum for over a year, and suggested shutting it down. A visit to that forum records: Who is online “Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest.” Which would be moi. The most visited item was “Notices of Disciplinary actions” which recorded a whopping 8,666 views [!] and another titled Complaints Department had recorded 1,616 views. Any thread identifying chess itself as a topic was in the hundreds of view, and many of those seemed abandoned, with no 2008 entries at all. In his offer to resign letter, Mr. Joel Channing opined with 2 rather significant comments:

Small Problem with World Championship On 25th of June 2007 on the presidential board meeting in Tallinn, FIDE decided that the semi final match of the world championship cycle (2008-2009) between Gata Kamsky and Veselin Topalov will take place in the second half of 2008 in Bulgaria.  The same decision was confirmed at the 78th FIDE congress in Antalya in November 2007.  The Bulgarian Chess Federation expressed it's readiness to provide the necessary prize fund of 150 000 USD and to cover all additional taxes and expenses around it's organization.  The contract for the match had to be signed in Singapore.  But that did not happen. Instead of following the decisions taken at the 78th congress, the FIDE President Kirsan Ilymzhinov has extended the bidding period until April 23rd.