BOTW 2016.03.10
Candidates
March 11-29, 2016
The big elite tournament of the year starts this week. The Candidates tournament is an 8-player, 14-round double RR to determine the challenger for the November World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen in New York.
Players
#3 Fabiano Caruana USA
#4 Anish Giri NED
#6 Hikaru Nakamura USA
#7 Lev Aronian ARM
#8 Veselin Topalov BUL
#12 Vishy Anand IND
#13 Sergey Karjakin RUS
#16 Peter Svidler RUS
Canada's Hal Bond will be Deputy Chief Arbiter
Schedule
three-days-on, one-day-off
March 12: Round 1
March 29: Tie-breaks & Closing Ceremony
Live Games?
The organizers will try to prevent every site but their own from transmitting live games.
If successful, the only place to watch live games will be:
http://worldchess.com/
Homepage
http://moscow2016.fide.com/
Pairings and Schedule
PDF
Interview with Lev Aronian
Lev Aronian was the sponsor's selection to play in the Candidates, but perhaps only Vladimir Kramnik (current world #2) could complain about his selection. A wide-ranging interview with Sport Express with Lev discusses music, his fiancee, and more.
Excerpts in English
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/levon-aronian-they-wrote-me-off
full interview (Russian)
http://www.sport-express.ru/newspaper/2016-02-29/14_1/
Women's World Championship
March 1-18, 2016.
Was last week's BOTW, and continues.
After six games, former World Champion Hou Yifan leads current World Champion Mariya Muzychuk 4:2 (+2 =4 -0).
All games start at 3pm local time (8am EST).
Live Games
http://www.lviv2016.fide.com/live/
Reykjavik Open
March 8-16, 2016
Isn't quite as strong as last year, but still has four 2700+ players: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Dmitry Andreikin, Richard Rapport and Gabriel Sargissian. Canadians FM Dale Haessel, Nicolas Haynes, and FM Michael Dougherty are playing.
Live Games
http://www.reykjavikopen.com/live-c24/
Homepage
http://www.reykjavikopen.com/
Stockholm Chess Challenge
March 6-13, 2016
Is a 16 player, 9-round Swiss invitational featuring only players under the age of 25. Top seed is GM Vlaidimir Onischuk (UKR, 2614), along with three other GMs and four IMs. Canada's WIM Qiyu Zhou blundered in round 2, and has drawn her other games to sit at 2/5.
Homepage
http://stockholmchess.se/?lang=en
Live Games
video from the top two boards is uneven, and commentary is in Swedish... but some of it is by GM Ulf Andersson!
http://stockholmchess.se/live/