Khanty-Mansiysk Women's World Chess Championship 2012: Humpy, Harika Sail into Round 2

KHANTY MANSIYSK (RUSSIA): Koneru Humpy effortlessly defeated Denise Frick of South Africa while D Harika outplayed compatriot Soumya Swaminathan to move to the second round of the World Women's Chess Championship 2012 on Monday. Humpy scored an easy win, though Harika had to struggle a bit against Soumya. The other higher-ranked players also cruised to the second round and topping the list was reigning world champion Yifan Hou of China who scored easily over Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka, former Women's World Chess Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk and Antoaneta Stefanova. 

Amongst the fancied, Ju Wenjun of China was the only exception as she suffered a reversal against Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran and the two will now battle it out in the tie-break games of shorter duration.

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Fujairah Chess Open: Abhijeet Gupta, Ganguly, Chanda among Several Indians to Participate

Fujairah (UAE): Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta will spearhead the Indian challenge in the Fujairah International chess tournament that gets underway here on Tuesday. Currently ranked fourth in the country, Gupta is playing his first tournament after the Chess Olympiad where he bagged the silver medal on the fourth board playing for Team India.

 

Mr. Abdullah Al Barkat, Chairman of Fujairah Chess club welcomes Mr. Geoffrey Borg, Chief Executive Officer of 'Global Chess', the Marketing Arm of World Chess Federation who visited the UAE Chess Federation recently. They discussed about the rules and regulations of the Fujairah International Chess Championship. Also present were His Excellency Sheikh Saud Al Mualla, President of the UAE Chess Federation, Mr Mehdi and Mr. Tunaiji.

The Indian has escalated himself to 2667 ELO rating points and the expectations are high despite the presence of a very strong field here. Gupta is not the lone Indian hopeful in the 50500 USD prize money tournament as multiple times national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda have it in them to make the best on their day. For the records, this will be amongst the strongest ever tournament in Asia with presence of over 20 players above 2600 rating in the fray.

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Women's World Chess Championship 2012: Humpy off to Winning Start; Harika, Soumya Draw

KHANTY MANSIYSK (Russia): Top rated Grandmaster Koneru Humpy has begun her campaign for the World Chess title with a win with Black over Denise Frick of South Africa in the first round on Sunday. Frick went for a crazy all-out attack on the Kingside down the h-file, but Humpy knew to handle it all with a forced Queen exchange and was never really in any serious trouble. The all-India match between Soumya Swaminathan and D Harika ended in a draw. 

 

While there were no great surprises in the first game of the first round, the second game to be played on Monday is likely to bring many of the higher ranked under pressure as they drew. The list includes Harika who either has to win or force herself in to the tiebreaker the following day.

The championship is back to the knock out format wherein 64 top woman players across the globe take part fighting for a total prize pool of $450000. Humpy and Harika were ousted in the semis in the previous edition of the event. In the return game now, Humpy just needs a draw to advance to the next round. 

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Women's World Chess Championship 2012: Humpy, Harika, Soumya Lead Indian Challenge; Games Begin Sunday

Reigning women's world chess champion, Hou Yifan of China, draws a white pawn at the colourful opening ceremony that took place in Khanty-Mansiysk earlier today.

RUSSIA: Grandmaster Koneru Humpy will take on Denise Frick of South Africa in the first round of the World Women's chess championship on Sunday.

Looking for an elusive world title, Humpy starts as the highest rated player in the 64-player knockout event that will have almost all the top rated woman players of the world.

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Magnus Carlsen Wins Sao Paulo-Bilbao Chess Masters; Vallejo-Pons Announces Retirement

The world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen has won tonight in Sao-Paulo Bilbao Chess Masters Final on Saturday night. The first section was played in the last week of September in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. The Norwegian Grandmaster's victory comes after a thrilling tiebreak played against Italian Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana. 

The direct duel between the top two players after 10 rounds was scheduled after both Carlsen and Caruana drew their games with Levon Aronian and Francisco Vallejo respectively. Carlsen went into the tiebreaks as a clear favourite. Carlsen confirmed his superiority in the Alhondiga Bilbao by winning both the games of the tiebreak.


Final standings:
• Magnus Carlsen: 17 points (champion)
• Fabiano Caruana: 17 points.
• Levon Aronian: 11 points.
• Sergei Karjakin: 10 points
• Viswanathan Anand: 9 points.
• Francisco Vallejo: 6 points.

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Times Now 'The Amazing Indians Stories' Feature Visually Challenged Chess Player Charudatta Jadhav

For 44-year-old Charudatta Jadhav (visually challenged), chess is not just a game but a way of life and he believes that chess is important for a blind persona as is it is the only game that a blind person can play at par with the sighted and if you want to be successful in mainstream, the most imp qualities which every individual should have is self belief, self confidence and if you want to compete you should have a sense of equality.

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Fischer Chess Memorabilia Auction Oct 14 in New York

On Sunday, October 14, 2012, an auction of one part of chess historic collection owned by Nenad Nesh Stankovic will be held in Philip Weiss Auctions, New York. Offered objects take us 20 years back in time of “Rematch of XX century” - remake of Iceland chess match from the period of Cold War. The objects on the auction are unique part of history and expression of eternal value. For more details, please visit www.weissauctions.com (Sport auction lot # 2200A, 2200B, 2200C and 2200D). 

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Best Chess Radio Show on the Planet: The Full English Breakfast 025

Okay folks, let's say it: No one does it better than them - The Full English Breakfast chess radio show is here with the 25th episode. MUST HEAR.

Episode 025 - Olympiadding it Up
The Stevie G. behind the scenes report, with Grischuk, Leko and Mamedyarov.(Below-right: Sergei Movsesian, Levon Aronian, Arshok Petrosian. Credit: Macauley Peterson)

Donate to the show to be entered into THE BIG RAFFLE! Listen for details! (Radio player in extended post).

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