Magnus Carlsen in his Blog on Winning 7th Tal Chess Memorial in Moscow

World's strongest chess player Magnus Carlsen of Norway has just won the 7th Mikhail Tal Chess Memorial in Moscow with an exciting last-round win. Carlsen's blog is a sponsoring agreement between Arctic Securities and the Magnus Carlsen. Magnus became an International Grandmaster at the age of 13, the youngest at the time.

After Tal Memorial, Carlsen will get the super-strong rating of 2837! He is surpassed only by the legendary Garry Kasparov who reached a rating of 2851 in January, 2000.

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World Chess Blitz/Rapid Player's List Released; Ruslan Ponomariov on His Exclusion

Full list for Astana World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, 1-11 July 2012.

Qualifiers by rating for finals (6-10 July)
01. Magnus Carlsen 2835
02. Teimour Radjabov 2784
03. Sergey Karjakin 2779
04. Alexander Morozevich 2769
05. Vassily Ivanchuk 2764
06. Alexander Grischuk 2761
07. Veselin Topalov 2752
08. Peter Svidler 2741
09. Boris Gelfand 2727
10. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2726

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Asian Dragons Chess in Taipei from August 14

Asian Dragons Open Chess Tournament 2012 - the sixth edition - would be held in Taipei, Taiwan, from August 14-21. The Asian Dragons tournament used to be an invitational when it first began in Kaohsiung in 2007. It was also, at that time, the first international chess tournament organised by the Chinese Taipei Chess Association. The tournament was inspired by the idea of providing an opportunity for players with ratings below 2200 to improve and compete against players from around the world in a friendly and competitive environment.

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Kazan Chess Round 8 Game: Koneru Humpy-Antoaneta Stefanova 1-0

India's Koneru Humpy

India's most talented woman chess player and current world #3 Koneru Humpy beat reigning women's rapid chess champion and former women's world chess champion Antoaneta Stefanova in a nice game in Round 8. At the press conference, Humpy said, "I played this Panov variation for the first time in my life. I was not sure what I shall do after b5. If I take Nb5 black will play Rb8 and will have some counter play and compensation for the pawn. I think my opponent should have played 19…Nf6 instead of 19…Rd8 because after d6 and Nd5 I got a better position. It was clear there are some exact moves which lead to a win after 28. Qd3 h5 but I didn’t find anything better than 29.Rc3 and 30.Rc1. after 32.Rf8 it was lost for black."

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