India's first chess features print magazine published quarterly from Lucknow since 2004 by Aspire Welfare Society.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Tata Steel Chess R3: Harikrishna in Joint Lead with win over Dominguez

India's second highest rated chess Grandmaster, Pentala Harikrishna is cruising along in joint lead at the 76th Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee with two points from three rounds. Tuesday was a rest day. The fourth round resumes on Wednesday and you can watch it Live at the official website.

Harikrishna has scored two very commendable draws versus World No. 2 Levon Aronian and World No. 11 Sergey Karjakin. In the first round, Levon Aronian said, "it was a strange game" and he did not feel that he could push his position too much. Both players agreed to a repetition of moves. 


In the second round, Sergey Karjakin and Pentala Harikrishna quickly reached a position in the Queen’s Gambit declined that looked highly drawish. Karjakin had the slightly better bishop but Harikrishna defended adequately for a draw.

For the third round, Pentala Harikrishna and Leinier Dominguez played out a Sicilian Najdorf. Neither player managed to obtain a clear advantage out of the opening. An endgame with both sides having rooks and opposite-coloured bishops was reached. Harikrishna later said: “His moves 27. …b6 and 32. …a5 were too committal and after that only I could play for a win.” Dominguez was left with a difficult defensive task and when Harikrishna pushed his passed d-pawn things got dangerous for Dominguez. When Harikrishna obtained a passed c-pawn as well it was only a matter of time before the Indian Grandmaster got his first win of the tournament.


Round 4 - Wednesday the 15thGiri, A. - So, W.
Gelfand, B. - Naiditsch, A.
Aronian, L. - Nakamura, H.
Karjakin, S. - Rapport, R.
Dominguez, L. - Caruana, F.
Van Wely, L. - Harikrishna, P





Schedule

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament has two main tournaments. They are played according to the 'round robin' system, whereby each competitor plays in turn against every other during the tournament. The Tata Steel Masters has 12 players and the Tata Steel Challengers has 14 players. Both groups start on January 11th 2014. All rounds in Wijk aan Zee begin at 13.30 hours, except for the last round on January 26th, which begins at 12.00 hours. The two rounds in Amsterdam and Eindhoven start at 14:00 hours.
Time control

The time control is: 100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from the first move. (With inputs via official website)



Saturday, January 11, 2014

Tata Steel Chess R1: Watch Live Harikrishna begins vs Levon Aronian

76th Tata Steel Chess 2014: Talented Indian (No. 2) chess Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna (World No. 42/Live 31) takes on World No. 2 Levon Aronian in the first round of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014 on Saturday. 

The 76th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place January 11-26, 2014 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian won the Tata Steel Chess in 2012. Harikrishna himself, as a debutant in A group of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in January 2013 Harikrishna finished in the first half (7th place) and reached an elo rating of over 2700.

Watch the games live at the official website.

Participants of Tata Steel MastersNameCountryRating World Ranking
GM Aronian, Levon ARM 2812 2
GM Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2789 3
GM Caruana, Fabiano ITA 2782 6
GM Gelfand, Boris ISR 2777 8
GM Karjakin, Sergey RUS 2759 10
GM Dominguez, Leinier CUB 2754 14
GM Giri, Anish NED 2734 19
GM So, Wesley PHL 2719 28
GM Naiditsch, Arkadij GER 2718 29
GM Harikrishna, Pentala IND 2706 42
GM Rapport, Richard HUN 2691 56
GM Van Wely, Loek NED 2672 77
Average rating : 2743
Category : 20
FIDE-ratings of January 2014


Participants of Tata Steel Challengers
NameCountryRating
GM Wojtaszek, Radek POL 2711

GM Jobava, Baadur GEO 2710 
GM Yu, Yangyi CHN 2677 
GM Saric, Ivan CRO 2637 
GM Timman, Jan NED 2607 
GM Brunello, Sabino ITA 2602 
GM Reinderman, Dimitri NED 2593 
GM Zhao, Xue CHN 2567 
GM Muzychuk, Anna SLO 2566 
IM Bok, Benjamin NED 2560 
GM Duda, Jan-Krzysztof POL 2553 
IM Troff, Kayden USA 2457 
IM Goudriaan, Etienne NED 2431 
IM Van Delft, Merijn NED 2430 
Average rating : 2579
Category : 14
FIDE-ratings of January 2014

On Friday, the opening ceremony took place with an interesting theatrical presentation based on 'The Night Watch'. 
Photo: Opening ceremony theatrical presentation/official website
(More photos and report at www.chessvibes.com)

 -- Team Black and White

Thursday, January 9, 2014

World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen at CES Las Vegas (Updated)

(The event update available now at partner chess site) World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen spent a whole afternoon signing autographs at CES in Las Vegas - to be precise at Booth MP25277 of Norwegian exhibitors, Nordic Semiconductor. You can find some great photographs on the Nordic Semiconductor Facebook Page. Needless to add, there was a huge crowd at the booth as Magnus Carlsen got down to some 'hard work' signing chess boards and wowing fans.


World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen signing autographs at CES Las Vegas at sponsor Nordic Semiconductor's booth. Photo: Nordic Semi

On Thursday afternoon, the very talented World Chess Champion will play a simul against 20 opponents in an auditorium. Magnus Carlsen, and his opponents, will all be hooked to a special wireless pulse gauge that uses Bluetooth Low Energy chips, says Managing Director, Nordic Semiconductor, Svein Tore Larsen.
Nordic Semiconductor is an industry leader in ultra low-power wireless devices. With a world-class mixed-signal R&D team Nordic develops innovative ground-breaking devices for Bluetooth low energy, ANT and 2.4GHz proprietary markets. The ARM Cortex M-series lie at the core of Nordic's highly flexible, ultra low-power wireless SoC solutions.

Ultra-low power (ULP) wireless sensors that are small enough to be worn on the body are transforming the sports & fitness world by making it easy to track and log training data – such as heart-rate, speed, and distance – and share the results on-line with others. This benefits everyone from elite athletes seeking to fine-tune their training regimes to those who simply want to get fit and stay motivated by seeing the results of their hard work.

Typical products in this segment are:Wearable sensors
Heart-rate belts
Speed-distance foot pods
GPS pods
Pedometers
Activity sensors
Bike cadence sensors
Bike speed sensors
Bike power sensors
Weight scales

The International CES is the world’s largest tradeshow for consumer technology and America’s largest annual tradeshow of any kind. With more than four decades of success, the International CES reaches across global markets, connects the “who’s who” of the industry and enables consumer electronics (CE) innovations to grow and thrive.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Chess World Record: Judit Polgar No. 1 Woman for 25 Years on Jan 1, 2014!

Screen grab from special video on Judit Polgar.


World Record in Chess: Hungarian Grandmaster Judit Polgar completed 25 years as world No. 1 among women on January 1, 2014 with FIDE releasing the latest chess ratings list. 

Polgar's current rating on the FIDE list is 2693. She is followed by Hou Yifan of China at 2629 and India's Koneru Humpy at 2613.


-- Judit Polgar official website

Anand vs Carlsen at Zurich Chess Jan 29-Strongest Tournament in History

Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 – The strongest tournament in chess history to date

On Wednesday, 29 of January 2014, the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014» will commence at the Hotel Savoy. With six participants it is the first tournament in the history of chess to reach category 23 with an amazing average rating of 2801!

The star of the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014» will be the newly crowned world-championMagnus Carlsen. During his first tournament appearance since winning the world title last November, the 23-year old Norwegian will compete against his predecessor and former world-champion, Viswanathan Anand of India (number 9 in the world-ranking), the Armenian Levon Aronian (2), the American Hikura Nakamura (3), the US-Italian Fabiano Caruana (6), as well as the Israeli Boris Gelfand (8).



This brilliant event, which will take place in the extraordinary familial environment of the ballroom of the Hotel Savoy, has already caught the attention and led to the registration of many journalists and top-players from throughout the world, including Peter Leko,Jan Timman and Gennadi Sosonko. Further, the Chinese women's world-championHou Yifan will attend this unique occasion and will be playing a simultaneous exhibition with clocks against 6 top Swiss juniors on 1 February at 1 p.m. at the Zurich «Zunfthaus zur Saffran».

For the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014», a blitz tournament will determine the color distribution on the first day. Five rounds of classical chess will then be played from Thursday to Monday (30 January to 3 February), followed by a rapid tournament with reversed colors on the last day (4 February). A won game in the classical tournament counts two points, draws one point. Wins in the rapid tournament count one point and draws half a point. All games will be commented live by GM Yannick Pelletier and IM Werner Hug and broadcast world-wide live via Internet on www.zurich-cc.com. Admission to the classical and rapid games of this formidable event is free and no previous registration of spectators is required!

The «Zurich Chess Club» was founded in 1809 and is the oldest active chess club of the world. With the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014» it will continue its long-standing tradition of hosting top-level tournaments, which have included such memorable events as the «Candidate's Tournament 1953», the simul and rapid tournament of all living world-champions at at the Zurich main train station 2009, the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2012» with Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik as well as the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2013» with the four grand masters Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand.

The «Zurich Chess Club» is very proud to be the organizer and host of this unique event. Further, it would like to thank the main tournament sponsor and chess-enthusiast Oleg Skvortsov from the «International Gemological Laboratories» of Moscow, Russia, whose generous contribution has allowed for this extraordinary happening! We look forward to welcoming all our friends from throughout the chess world either at the Hotel Savoy or live via the Internet!

Participants (Elo rating according to FRL of January 2014)

Magnus Carlsen (Norway, Elo 2872, Nr 1)
Levon Aronian (Armenia, Elo 2812, Nr 2)
Hikaru Nakamura (USA, Elo 2789, Nr 3)
Fabiano Caruana (Italy, Elo 2782, Nr 6)
Boris Gelfand (Israel, Elo 2777, Nr 8)
Vishwanathan Anand (India, Elo 2773, Nr 9)

Schedule

Daily from 30 January to 4 February 2014.
The rounds start at 15.00 local time (CET), except for the last round, which begins at 13.00 CET.
Spectators are welcome, entrance free.

Main sponsor

«IGC International Gemological Laboratories» is a Russian institute providing gemological services, such as diamond grading reports, enhanced diamonds identification, man-made/synthetic diamonds and imitation detection, as well as certification of diamonds, gemstones and jewelry in the Russian Federation. IGC is the Russian branch of «GCI» a group of gemological laboratories located worldwide.

Co-sponsors


Aspeco, SurJewel, Savoy Chess Corner, Zurich Chess Club (founded in 1809, the oldest chess club of the world)

Partners

Hotels Savoy Baur en Ville, Rössli and Seehof in Zurich

Organization

Zurich Chess Club

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Kasparov Muscat Chess Simul Puzzle!

Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov has just wrapped off a cool chess visit to Muscat, Oman. The Times of Oman reports, in an interview, 50-year-old Russian chess great said winning the world chess title was the best moment in his life!


Garry Kasparov making a move against one of the 20 hand-picked players of Oman during an exhibition battle. Kasparov moved around to play against the 20 players at the same time. Photo – JUN ESTRADA / Times of Oman


Here are some quotes that Garry Kasparov gave to Oman journalists, plus a video.

- "I think luck played only a minor role. It was pure hard work and patience that helped me win the championship. I think I played a better game than my opponent and when you play a good match, you deserve to win, don't you?"
"Winning the world championship was the best moment in my life. I don't think there was any world champion who won because he was lucky. The world championship title had been in contest since 124 years and we have only six world champions. So that makes the game extra special.
- On the simul he played in Muscat with 20 selected players: "They have great skills but they need to have more knowledge about the game. A proper League will benefit these players to attain international rating and for that, they need to have a federation. I am sure they will soon have one.
- Tips to young chess players: Practice makes you perfect. You need to regularly practice the game to hone your skills. The rest will fall in place automatically.  

The simul was hosted by International Chess Academy of Oman. IM Karim Ismael of the Academy said, Kasparov normally completes such exhibition matches in not more than two hours but I think this was one with the longest duration.

Garry Kasparov's official website has this very interesting chess update from Oman

Garry went 19-0 in his simultaneous exhibition in Oman on January 3, 2014. A beautiful line from one game caught his mind’s eye, but unfortunately his young opponent chose to lose in a relatively uneventful way!

In the diagram, White to play and win...

For a full analysis of the actual game and the beautiful move that chess great Garry Kasparov hoped he would get to play, read the post at the the former World Chess Champion's official website.



Friday, January 3, 2014

South Asian Amateur Chess (u2000) in Kathmandu Feb 1-6

The latest chess news via FIDE is that the South Asian Amateur Chess Championship 2014 will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal from February 1-6.


(FIDE Rating under 2000)

2014 Feb. 1-6, Kathmandu.
Venue:Covered Hall, National Sports Council, Tripureshor, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Tournament Rules
* System of Play: As per FIDE Laws of chess & Swiss System 9 rounds game will be played. Swiss Manager Software will be use for pairings.
* Time Control: 90 min. + 30 sec. /per move from move 1.
* Tie- break: The latest FIDE Rules shall apply. The cash prizes won't be share.
* Special Rule: The tournament is only for players under FIDE rating 2000 or without rating. Feb. 2014 FRL will be used for the ranking list.
* Players with FIDE titles except CM are not allowed to participate in this event.

For more details download the brochure from the FIDE website.

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