BOTW: 2017.03.01
Starts, ends, returns, and reruns are this week's Best of the Web:
- The PRO Chess League playoffs start,
- the Women's World Championship ends,
- Aman Hambleton returns to international chess,
- and Magnus Carlsen will be on reruns...
PRO Chess League - Playoffs Round 1: Toronto vs Miami
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
6:30 p.m. EST; 3:30 p.m. PST.
In the first round of the PRO Chess League, the Toronto Dragons will be in tough against the Miami Champions, even without their #1 Hikaru Nakamura:
Toronto Dragons
- GM Bator Sambuev, 2548
- GM Razvan Preotu, 2495
- IM Nikolay Noritsyn, 2479
- IM Bindi Cheng, 2397
Miami Champions
- GM Leinier Dominguez, 2720
- GM Yunisky Quesada, 2636
- GM Aryam Abreu, 2456
- Nikhil Kumar, 2076
The Montreal ChessBrahs earned a first round playoff bye and so are idle this week.
Full list of pairings
https://www.chess.com/news/view/pro-chess-league-week-8-pairings-6960
Live games with commentary
https://www.chess.com/tv
Women's World Championship
February 10 – March 5, 2017.
Tehran, Iran
The Women's World Championship continues in Tehran.
Play has reached the finals, between Tan Zhongyi (CHN) and Anna Muzychuk (UKR). The final is a four game match; the first game was drawn, Tan won the second game, and Muzychuk won the third, so they are now in a best-of-one. Muzychuk is the current Women's World Blitz Champion and the current Women's World Rapid Champion, so she must be considered the favourite should the match go to playoffs.
All rounds start at 3pm local time, 6:30 am EST.
http://tehran2017.fide.com/en/main-page
Aman Hambleton GM Norm Quest
IM Aman Hambleton will be playing four international events before the end of April in an effort to get his final two GM Norms. The first is the Stockholm Chess Challenge, March 6-11, 2017, an invitational featuring players from around the world, including Scandinavia, Mongolia, India and Ukraine.
The other three are:
- Charlotte Chess Center GM Invitational (March 29 - April 2, 2017)
- Grenke Open(April 13-17, 2017)
- Reykjavik Open (April 19-27, 2017)
Stockholm Chess Challenge
http://stockholmchess.se/2441-im-aman-hambleton-canada/?lang=en
Carlsen on the Simpsons
World Champion Magnus Carlsen appeared as himself on the Simpsons (Feb. 19, 2017). In case you missed it, here's a short clip:
Even better, there's a summary, with screencaps and chess reconstructions and analysis, by FM Dennis Monokroussos, who even tries (mostly successfully) to find the games which inspired the positions shown on the episode:
https://worldchess.com/2017/02/26/the-simpsons-with-magnus-carlsen-and-other-chess-stars/