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The chess world is going to witness the first-ever World Chess Championship in Rapid and Blitz formats of the sport in Astana, Kazakhstan. The head of the country of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev will officially declare open the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in Astana today - July 5.
The inauguration ceremony would be held in Astana at the Radisson hotel and would include the drawing of colours for the pairings. Not only is the format exciting, but so is the line-up of players: the strongest in the world.
GM Igor Kurnosov has won the qualifier of the World Rapid Chess Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan. He was already leading on the first day and finished the qualifier with a point ahead of the rest of the field. Second place was shared by four players, but 2nd and 3rd on tiebreak were Alexey Dreev and Vladislav Tkachiev, who also qualified for the World Rapid Chess 2012 finals.
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| Gull Rukh |
Gull Rukh of Lahore won the Punjab Women's Chess Championship 2012 by upsetting top seed Samina Kanwal of Faisalabad in Lahore on Wednesday. She remained unbeaten in all the five rounds of the championship. Samina Kanwal of Faisalabad was the runner-up while young prodigy Mehak surprised everyone by clinching the third position.
Indian National chess champion GM Abhijeet Gupta has won the Philadelphia Chess Open and $2000 with a clear first ahead of Indian mate IM Marani Venkatesh. IM Venkatesh earned his GM title!
Gupta won his final round game against IM Dean Ippolito for the title. Meanwhile, both IM Marani Venkatesh and WGM Padmini Rout, earned their GM norm and IM norms respectively. There were several other Indians in the line-up who did fairly well. GM SP Sethuraman was fourth, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy was tenth, WGM Eesha Karvade was 16th and Rout was 17th. The opposition Rout faced was strong enough for the norm for her.
The Pakistan National Chess Championship is currently on in Karachi. Reigning national chess champion Mahmood Ahmed Lodhi, national master Raees Ansari and Asif-ur-Rehman are leading with three points each after the second day of the 28th National Chess Championship at Hotel Beach Luxury Hall. International Master Mahmood Lodhi of Punjab bidding for his 13th title got a walkover against Muhammad Shafiq Senior. Asif-ur-Rehman of Hyderabad also maintained his winning sequence when he beat Nawaz Zehri of Baluchistan. Raees Ansari beat Sajid Moosa of Balochistan.
The 32nd Benasque International Chess Open will be played over 10 rounds of swiss system from 5th to 14th July at the Benasque Sport Pavilion. The tournament is valid for FIDE and FEDA rankings and provides the opportunity of winning title norms. The total prize fund is 20.000 EUR. 1º- 4.000€ // 2º- 3.000€ // 3º-2.000€ // 4º-1.000€…etc. The 2011 edition had 471 players from 42 countries: 35 GM, 7 WGM, 31 IM, 8 WIM and 390 players with Elo FIDE. 11 title norms were obtained. There will be lots of parallel activities at the event including football, tennis, conference, etc. There will also be two chess simuls:
July 8 (Sunday), 2012
40 boards: 2/3 Grand Masters / as International.
Hours: 11 hours.
Location: Plaza Mayor Benasque
July 8th (Sunday) 2012
40 boards - 2/3 International Grand Masters.
Time: 11:00 hours.
Place: Major Square of Benasque
22nd World Senior Chess Championships
12 - 25 November 2012 @ Kamena Vourla, GREECE
GALINI Wellness Spa and Resort Hotel*****
The World Senior Chess Championships 2012 will be held in the 5-star GALINI Wellness Spa & Resort Hotel in Kamena Vourla, Greece from 12 November (arrivals) to 25 November (departures). The opening ceremony, the games and the closing ceremony will take place in the Congress Center of GALINI Wellness Spa & Resort Hotel.
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| Photo © Ray Morris-Hill
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Is the London Chess Classic going to be the most exciting chess event of 2012? World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen have both confirmed their entry for the fantastic event already.
World Champion 1st to sign-up for London Chess Classic
Fresh from yet another successful title defence, World Champion Viswanathan Anand, of India, became the first player to sign-up to play in the 4th London Chess Classic, at Kensington Olympia, 1-10 December, 2012. It is no secret that London is one of Anand’s favourite cities, and this will be his third successive appearance in the tournament.
