BOTW: 2016.08.23
Grandmaster Blitz Battle: Semi-Finals
Chess.com hosts the "Grandmaster Blitz Battle", an 8-player online knock-out tournament where players compete over 3 hours of blitz and bullet chess. They play 1 hour of 5+2 blitz, then 1 hour of 3+2 blitz, then 1 hour of Bullet 1+1, which translates to approximately 25 games per match. The players have their laptop webcams on, so you get to see what super GMs look like when they play at home.
This week has the two semi-finals:
Magnus Carlsen vs Alexander Grischuk (Aug.23; 1pm EST)
Magnus Carlsen is the World Champion, highest rated player in history, and a two-time former World Blitz Champion.
Alexander Grischuk is the three-time and current World Blitz Champion. Grischuk also has a winning record over Carlsen in blitz games, including his win over Carlsen at the 2015 World Blitz Championship, and (as Mike Klein points out in his match preview) since he will be playing from home, Grischuk will be allowed to smoke.
Hikaru Nakamura vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Aug.24, 2016; 1pm EST)
Hikaru Nakamura is a legendary bullet player, but MVL is also a blitz phenom, and his excellent results in 2016 have raised him to the world #2 ranking. Naka is the favourite -- particularly with so many bullet games -- but MVL is more than capable of the upset.
Watch Live
Chess.com
https://www.chess.com/tv
Twitch
https://www.twitch.tv/chess
More (with commentary in French or Russian)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-watch-magnus-carlsen-vs-alexander-grischuk
23rd Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival
Aug 21-29, 2016
40 GMs compete in a 9-round Swiss.
The top seeds are Dmitry Andreikin and Wang Hao (both +2700), with 22 more players over 2600, including Canadian GM Anton Kovalyov. FM Shiyam Thavandiran (2344) is ranked 86th out of 137, which gives a good idea of how top-heavy this tournament is.
Live Games
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/abu-dhabi-2016/4/1/9
Live Games with Video
http://www.adchessfestival.com/en/livevideo/detail/27
Homepage
http://www.adchessfestival.com/en/home
Happy 110th Birthday Zoltan Sarosy!
Zoltan Sarosy turns 110 today, making him Canada's oldest man!
Both the CBC and Globe and Mail have run brief stories on Mr.Sarosy this week. And yesterday the Newsfeed posted analysis of his 1951 win over future Canadian Champion Frank Anderson.
Sarosy - Anderson, 1951
http://chess.ca/newsfeed/node/876
CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/zoltan-sarosy-110-year-old-chess-master-1.3731477
photo: Zotan Sarosy, courtesy of Stacey Simon, via CBC.