International News Today - Aug 2, 2011

published by fred on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 11:31
Getting caught up on the two super tournaments that finished in the last few days.

In Biel Magnus Carlsen (NOR) coasted home with three straight draws to finish two points ahead of Alexander Morozevich (RUS) in the 3 point scoring 19-17. He gained enough rating points to now have his highest rating ever and highest rating held by anyone not named Kasparov. Tied for third were Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) and Alexei Shirov (ESP).

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International Chess News Today - Aug 3, 2011

published by fred on Wed, 08/03/2011 - 08:18
The World Junior Championship started yesterday in Chennai, India. Representing Canada are Roman Sapozhnikov, the reigning Canadian Junior Champion and Shiyam Thavandiran a former 2 time winner. Both of these FIDE masters have lots of International experience, and are no doubt hoping for an IM norm to bring home. They are both ranked about 60th in the 125 player event.

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International News Today - Aug 6, 2011

published by fred on Sat, 08/06/2011 - 13:13
At the World Junior:

FM Roman Sapozhnikov has 2.5/5, and has played 2IM's and a GM. His performance rating of 2295 is dead on with his FIDE rating. Tomorrow he is black against GM Jorge Cori (PER).

FM Shiyam Thavandiran has 3/5, and has played 2IM's. His performance rating of 2359 is an improvement on his 2320 FIDE rating. Tomorrow he is white against IM Suri Vaibhav (IND).

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International News Today - Aug 9, 2011

published by fred on Tue, 08/09/2011 - 12:17
In India, our Canadian players are now tied with 3.5 each. Roman won his game today, while Shiyam lost leaving both of them at 3.5 out of 7.
Tomorrow they both play Candidate Masters from India. Meanwhile at the top of the heap, IM Alex Rombaldoni (ITA) drew his game to now
have a score of 6.5. Tied for 2nd with 6 are GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM), who is paired with the leader tomorrow
and FM (!) Koushik Girish (IND), who has knocked off 3 straight GM's. He plays GM Nils Grandelius (SWE) tomorrow.

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International News Today - Aug 11, 2011

published by fred on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 12:26

After 9 rounds in Chennai, IND, Roman now has 5 points and Shiyam have 4.5, with 4 rounds to go, a late surge is going to be required for either to have a truly great event. At the top of the leader board, we now have GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM) with 8 points and tomorrow he’ll be matched up against fellow Armenian GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, who has 7.5. Tied for third are GM Swiercz (POL) and Indian sensation FM Girish (IND). Among those at 6.5 are American GM Ray Robson, and former leader IM Rombaldoni (ITA).

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International News Today - August 16, 2011

published by fred on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 08:55
At the World Juniors on Monday, Polish GM Dariusz Swiercz won his final round game to catch Armenian GM Robert Hovhannisyan and take 1st place on tie-break. They had a full point lead over 3rd place finisher Indian IM Sahaj Grover, who came out of nowhere to win his final 3 rounds, for a GM norm. Roman Sapozhnikov ended the tournament on a high note and scored 7.5, while Shiyam Thavandiran settled for 5.5

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International News Today - Aug, 21, 2011

published by fred on Sun, 08/21/2011 - 14:29

The 8th round of the Manhatten Open is in progress. Top Canadian player present is IM Zhe Quan, who hasn't been seen too frequently of late, probably immersing himself in a University degree. In any case, with a score of 4.7 in the top section he is paired for rd 8 with IM Irina Krush. The final round is later today. Tournament leader is IM Vladimir Romanenko (BLG) with 6 points. His round 8 game with GM Sergei Kudrin (a point behind) was drawn, leaving only Alexander Shabalov a chance to move into a tie for 1st, but he is down a pawn against Jan Gustafsson in a 3 piece ending.

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Canadians at the World Cup

published by fred on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 13:41

Hansen, Eric (2449) - Gashimov, Vugar (2760)
FIDE World Cup 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (1.1), 2011.08.28
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.h3 a6 8.a4 Qe7 9.Nd2 Nbd7 10.e4 Ne5 11.Be2 g5 12.Nf1 h6 13.Ng3 Bg7 14.Qc2 O-O 15.Bd2 Bd7 16.O-O g4 17.Rae1 gxh3 18.f4 Ng6 19.Nf5 Bxf5 20.exf5 Nh4 21.Bd1 Qd8 22.g4 Ng2 23.g5 Nxe1 24.Rxe1 Re8 25.gxf6 Rxe1+ 26.Bxe1 Qxf6 27.Kh2 Qd4 28.Ne4 Re8 29.Bf3 Qe3 30.Nxd6 Re7 31.Qd1 Qxe1 32.Qxe1 Rxe1 33.Nxb7 Re3 34.Bh1 Bf8 35.d6 Rd3 36.Nxc5 Rxd6 37.Kxh3 a5 38.Ne4 Rb6 39.Kg4 Rxb2 40.Nf6+ Kh8 41.Bd5 Rb4 42.Bc6 Rb6 0-1

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International News Today - Sept 8, 2011

published by fred on Thu, 09/08/2011 - 14:07
Some old business. With the World Cup progressing, probably not enough attention was given to the Botvinnik Memorial (Rapid D-RR) with the 4 top players in the world (Anand, Carlsen, Aronian, and Kramnik). Carlsen missed lots of winning chances on day one and instead of 2.5 has to settle for 1.5. The biggest shock was yet to come as he lost all three games on day 2. I haven't seen any of these games, so not sure what happened to him. Anand played the steadiest chess and was rewarded with a first place score of 4.5.

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Candidates Matches Update - Sept 13, 2011

published by fred on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 09:59

Could this be Peter Svidler's hour to shine? After eliminating the crowd favourite, Judit Polgar in tound 5, he has gone on to eliminate Ruslan Ponomariov in round 6 and advance to the final. Win or lose he will be a participant in the next Canadidates matches.

Vassily Ivanchuk has some winning chances today with the white pieces (Q&pawns vs RB&pawns), but Alexander Grischuk was able to build a fortress ,and they go to the tie-breakers tomorrow.

 

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