May 16 2011

published by zenno on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 14:02

An exciting day at the Candidates as both matches were still deadlocked after the 4 rapid games so it went to the exciting blitz matches. Gelfand and Grischuk both won the first games with black, and Kamsky and Kramnik both tried unorthodox openings with black and things went downhill from there for them. The finals (Gelfand vs Grischuk) start on Thursday.

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May 19 2011

published by zenno on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 14:05

I have just enough time to post from my hotel lobby this evening. Won't be home til nearly midnight tomorrow, so I'll probably be back on, Saturday.

Grischuk changed up his "apparent" strategy of playing simple drawish positions with white, as today he had a really dynamic game and had serious winning chances against Gelfand, who managed to hold him back, when Grischuk got into severe time trouble. Game 2 tomorrow, 7am EDT.

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May 22 2011

published by zenno on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 14:05

A short draw in game 3 yesterday as Gelfand played a novelty to equalize by move 14 after Grischuk's seldom played fianchetto in QGD. Today was a rest day.

I took my eye off the action in Havana for a couple of day's and when I came back Vassily Ivanchuk had worked his way back with into a tie for first, by winning his last two games, with Le Quang Liem. They scored 6.5/10. Meanwhile Mark Bluvshtein finished tied for 1st in the premiere group with Emilio Cordovo (PER). Both scored 6 /9.

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May 24-25 2011

published by zenno on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 14:06

Candidates Matches:

Game 5: Draw. Last game of regulation goes tomorrow, 7am EDT.
Game 6: Gelfand wins with the White pieces in a Grunfeld. The game was very interesting all the way along, with Grischuk seeming to completely fall apart in time pressure, although the play was way over my head, so it might be that he just wasn't able to come up with moves to stay in the game at that point.
So it's all over. Check back next spring for Anand-Gelfand - Best of 12.

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International News Today - July 19, 2011

published by fred on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 14:32
Two big events in play

1) In China, the World Team Championship is taking place with a lot of the World's best in action: Aronian, Karjakin, Grischuk, Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Gashimov, Kamsky, Svidler, Leko, Nepomniachtchi, Polgar, Sutovsky, etc.

After today's third round, Russia has the lead with 5 points and are followed by Armenia, Ukraine, and Israel all with 4. None of the leaders play each other tomorrow, with Russia having the toughest match vs Azerbaijan.

We'll check in with some of the individual leaders tomorrow.

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International News Today - July 21, 2011

published by fred on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 11:56
The pairings for the World Cup tournament have been posted at FIDE
#88 - Mark Bluvshtein plays #41 - Alexander Motylev (RUS)
#123 - Eric Hansen plays #6 - Alexander Grischuk (RUS)
I wonder if we can help our Canadian reps prepare for their matches ?

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International News Today - July 23, 2011

published by fred on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 22:04
Magnus Carlsen defeated Fabiano Caruana yesterday. He now has a record of 3 wins and a draw. Today he is black against Vachier-Lagrave to finish the 1st half of the double round robin in Biel.

Vlad Kramnik defeated German rep George Meier in the 2nd round at Dortmund. With 2/2 he has a full point lead over the rest of the field including American Hakaru Nakamura.

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International News Today - July 25, 1011

published by fred on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 11:58
Organizing, TDing and playing chess all weekend sucks the life out of you and the ability to monitor what's going on in the world. Anyway this week I'm in a trailer in what must be the biggest campground here in PEI. I was trying to get some live chess this afternoon, but I can't seem to get through right now, so we'll just deal with some stuff up to the beginning of today.

Yesterday at Dortmund, Vlad Kramnik took advantage of Nakamura's trying to win an even position and now has 3.5/4. Second in Ponomariov with 2.5 in the double RR.

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International News Today - July 27, 2011

published by fred on Wed, 07/27/2011 - 10:39

In the World Team Championsaip, Armenia secured the gold medal yesterday with a 2-2 tie with Ukraine. apparently the games were close in 3 with Armenia having an advantage in the 4th when the whole "deal" was made. China passed Ukraine for silver by winning their match from Hungary. Top individual performance was put in by Wang Yue (CHN).

After 7 rounds in Biel, Carlesn is still hot, but Morozevich remains only 3 points behind (13 to 10). Carlsen has white today against Moorozevich, in what could be the biggest game ot the tournament.

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International News Today - July 28, 2011

published by fred on Thu, 07/28/2011 - 11:23

All 3 games in Dortmund were drawn yesterday leaving Vladimir Kramnik still sporting a 1.5 point lead over Le Quang Liem with 4 rounds to go in the double RR.

In Biel the big Carlsen- Morozevich affair fizzled out to a draw leaving Carlsen still in the lead with 17 points to Morozevich's 14 (three point scoring), with 2 rounds to go. Shirov and Vachier-Lagrave both won their games and are tied for third with 10 points.

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