The Chinese are coming !

The relentless march of the Chinese chess players cannot go unnoticed any longer. They were always climbing up in Fide's top nations charts. Just imagine, 4 players at or above 2700 and an amazingly talented girl. When did we last see this kind of a rise by any country ? China is now No. 3 when you count the top 10. How far will they go ?

In the April list, the top Chinese were:

Open

Bu Xiangzhi 2708
Ni Hua 2703
Wang Yue 2689 (Definitely above 2700 in the next list)
Wang Hao 2684

Women

Xie Jun 2574
Hou Yifan 2549 (and still climbing fast)
Zhao Xue 2523

Kamsky vs Topalov, Anand vs Kramnik announced

So who will you be watching ? US rooting for Kamsky we know, India for Anand. Topalov and Kramnik have global appeal too of course.

Any predictions ?

Vishy Anand wins Morelia leg

Vishy Anand won the Morelia half of the Morelia-Linares tourney.

First Half standings:

1. Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2799 4½
2. Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2755 4
3. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2780 4
4. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2739 3½
5. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2733 3½
6. Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2735 3
7. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2751 3
8. Lékó, Peter g HUN 2753 2½

Nepomniatchi leads after the eighth round at Aeroflot

Russian prodigy Ian Nepomniatchi is the sole leader at Aeroflot after the eighth round. While he beat GM Le Quang Liem, the others leaders fell back after drawing their games.

One very interesting progess is the level of play by 13 year old Hou Yifan. She has gathered 4.5 points so far and has played very strong GMs, most of them just around 2600 or above that mark ! Watch out for her. She will soon be in the top 100 of the world and should challenge Judit Polgar in just a couple of years.

Aeroflot Open Moscow

Round 8 Standings:

1 Nepomniachtchi, Ian GM RUS 2600 6.5
2 Motylev, Alexander GM RUS 2644 6.0
3 Dreev, Alexey GM RUS 2633 6.0
4 Volokitin, Andrei GM UKR 2674 5.5
5 Guseinov, Gadir GM AZE 2617 5.5
6 Rodshtein, Maxim GM ISR 2614 5.5
7 Timofeev, Artyom GM RUS 2664 5.0
8 Amonatov, Farrukh GM TJK 2649 5.0
9 Predojevic, Borki GM BIH 2641 5.0
10 Asrian, Karen GM ARM 2621 5.0

Morelia Linares Chess: Anand leads after the Fifth Round

World champion Vishy Anand leads after the fifth round of the Morelia Linares chess tournament.

Standings after 5th round:

1. Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2799 3½ 2892
2. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2739 3 2836
3. Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2755 2½ 2760
4. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2780 2½ 2742
5. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2733 2½ 2767
6. Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2735 2 2692
7. Lékó, Peter g HUN 2753 2 2682
8. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2751 2 2676

Linares Past Winners

Past winners at Linares

* 1990,92,93,97,99,2001,02 Garry Kasparov
* 1998,2007 Viswanathan Anand
* 1991,1995 Vassily Ivanchuk
* 1994 Anatoly Karpov
* 2000 Vladimir Kramnik / Garry Kasparov
* 2003 Péter Lékó / Vladimir Kramnik
* 2004 Vladimir Kramnik
* 2005 Garry Kasparov / Veselin Topalov
* 2006 Levon Aronian

Morelia Linares starts this week

The eagerly awaited annual Morelia Linares chess tournament of 2008 starts this week.
Players are:
V Anand 2799
V Topalov 2780
A Shirov 2755
P Leko 2753
V Ivanchuk 2751
L Aronian 2739
T Radjabov 2735
M Carlsen 2733

We will try to give some live comments as the tourney progresses.

Timofeev wins Moscow Open 2008

Artyom Timofeev won the Moscow Open chess tournament of 2008.

1 GM Timofeev Artyom RUS 2664 7.5
2 GM Riazantsev Alexander RUS 2628 7.0
3 GM Volkov Sergey RUS 2623 7.0
4 GM Efimenko Zahar UKR 2638 7.0
5 GM Lastin Alexander RUS 2604 7.0
6 GM Jobava Baadur GEO 2643 7.0
7 GM Inarkiev Ernesto RUS 2681 7.0
8 GM Kazhgaleyev Murtas KAZ 2594 7.0
9 GM Moiseenko Alexander UKR 2643 7.0
10 GM Kurnosov Igor RUS 2577 7.0

Aronian, Carlsen win Corus Chess

Teenage sensation Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian jointly won the Corus Chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee.

Details soon to follow.

Update after Round 7

Results of round 7

Aronian, Levon - Radjabov, Teimour 1-0 King's Indian Defence
Ivanchuk, Vassily - Kramnik, Vladimir ½-½ Petroff's Defence
Topalov, Veselin - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ Ruy Lopez Closed
Adams, Michael - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Ruy Lopez Modern Steinitz
Polgar, Judit - Anand, Viswanathan 0-1 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Gelfand, Boris - Lékó, Peter ½-½ Catalan
Eljanov, Pavel - Van Wely, Loek * Slav Defence (Game is still going on)

Standings after Round 7

Magnus Carlsen - 5
Vladimir Kramnik - 4.5
Levon Aronian - 4.5

Bobby Fischer dead

The legendary Bobby Fischer, arguably one of the greatest ever chess players died on January 17 th 2008. He was pronounced dead at a Reykjavik iceland hospital.

Rated by many as the very best ever chess player, Fischer was a recluse and took on the US government in bitter fights.

Judit, Kramnik and Van Wely win

Judit Polgar played a brave game to beat Gelfand with black pieces. Topalov was ground down by Van Wely who seems to be in fine nick. At least he is creating chances for himself. There is this feeling that his training with Kramnik is working, and working very well. Kramnik beat Eljanov in his normal efficient, no nonsense style.

Round 4 results :

Group A

Carlsen, Magnus - Aronian, Levon ½-½ Ruy Lopez Centre Attack
Radjabov, Teimour - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Gruenfeld Russian
Lékó, Peter - Ivanchuk, Vassily ½-½ Caro Kann
Van Wely, Loek - Topalov, Veselin 1-0 Old Benoni
Kramnik, Vladimir - Eljanov, Pavel 1-0 English Opening
Anand, Viswanathan - Adams, Michael ½-½ Queens Indian
Gelfand, Boris - Polgar, Judit 0-1 Catalan

Group B

Bacrot, Etienne - Movsesian, Sergei ½-½ QGD Ragozin
Harikrishna, P - Spoelman, Wouter 1-0 Queen's Pawn Opening
Cheparinov, Ivan - Nepomniachtchi, Ian 1-0 Anti-Meran Gambit
Short, Nigel D - Koneru, Humpy ½-½ Petroff's Defence
Sargissian, Gabriel - L'Ami, Erwin ½-½ English Four Knights
Hou Yifan - Stellwagen, Daniël ½-½ Sicilian Scheveningen
Krasenkow, Michal - Smeets, Jan ½-½ Slav Defence

Group C

Braun, Arik - Van der Werf, Mark 1-0 Semi-Slav Defence
Caruana, Fabiano - Reinderman, Dimitri ½-½ Sicilian Early a7-a6
Carlsson, Pontus - Ruijgrok, Dennis 1-0 Ruy Lopez Breyer
Van der Wiel, John - Peng Zhaoqin ½-½ Sicilian Paulsen
Li Shilong - Negi, Parimarjan 0-1 Queens Gambit
Krush, Irina - Grivas, Efstratios 0-1 Dutch Staunton Gambit
Ushenina, Anna - Nijboer, Friso 0-1 Sicilian Alapin