World's first Fide-rated blitz chess tournament on Jan 2

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hello everyone,


The world’s first ever FIDE-rated Blitz tournament will take place at the White Rock Hotel, Hastings on Monday 2nd January.

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FIDE are starting to collect rating information from blitz and rapidplay games starting 1 January 2012. The two new lists will be published 1 July 2012. The standardplay ratings will not be affected by the blitz or rapidplay results. The ratings of players who are already FIDE-rated will be used initially.

Depending on the number of entries, the tournaments will be sections of 10 with not more than 6 unrated players in each section. This means that each unrated player will be able to get a FIDE Blitz Rating on the night.

There will be no FIDE charge for rating blitz or rapidplay tournaments throughout 2012. The decision about charges for 2013, if any, will be made at the FIDE Congress in Turkey.

The K factor for all players will be 20. If a rated player plays more than 35 games in a period, then his new rating will be his Tournament Rating Performance for that period.

Entry fee: £2.00 if FIDE-rated, £5.00 if not FIDE-rated
Prizes: All entry fees will be returned as prizes
Rate of play: All the moves in 3 minutes, add on 2 seconds per move from the first move.
The Blitz tournament is part of the 87th Hastings International Chess Congress

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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Also see her personal blog at
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Indians Sengupta and Das win Hastings Chess Tournament

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hi Everybody,

In what was an exciting finish at the 86th Hastings International Chess, Indians Deep Sengupta and Arghyadip Das were the joint winners of the 2010/11 Hastings Masters. GM Romain Edouard had gone into the last ninth round maintaining his lead of the previous two rounds. But Das played a super game to beat him!

GM Deep Sengupta and IM Arghyadip Das

Here is the official website where you must read the delightful reports by FM Steve Giddins. You can replay all the games played in the Masters' Section here. We found these nice photos at the official website too.

Oksana Neverova playing in the Christmas Afternoon tournament, the wife of three-time winner of the Masters GM Valerij Neverov.

Local Hastings club players Francis Rayner and Jude Lenier playing white in the Pairs at The Pig in Paradise.

IM Thomas Rendle and Lateefah Messam-Sparks who won the tournament.

Here is a nice game from Round 9. You can run the moves through our pgnplayer or watch in flash below.


PGN: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 Nc6 6 Bg5 e6 7 Qd2 a6 8 O-O-O Nxd4 9 Qxd4 Be7 10 f4 b5 11 Bxf6 gxf6 12 e5 d5 13 Be2 Bb7 14 f5 fxe5 15 Qxe5 Bf6 16 Qg3 Qb8 17 Qh3 d4 18 fxe6 Qf4+ 19 Kb1 dxc3 20 exf7+ Kf8 21 a3 h5 22 Rhf1 Qe5 23 Bd3 Qg5 24 Qd7 Bxg2 25 Rde1 Be7 26 Rf5 Qh4 27 Rfe5 Rd8 28 Qc7 Rxd3 29 cxd3 1–0

Masters 2010-11 Prizelist

1st=	£2,000	GM	Sengupta Deep		7 pts
+ Golombek Trophy		IM	Arghyadir Das		7pts
	£1,200
3rd	£750	GM	Romain Edouard		6.5
		GM	Andrei Istratescu		6.5
4th	£500	GM	David Howell		6.5
		GM	Danny Gormally		6.5
5th	£350	IM	Rao Prasanna		6.5
		GM	Valeriy Neverov		6.5	£341.67
6th	£250
7th	£200
	£2,050
Highest Placed Female	£200		Gerhana Chkartina		5
Highest Placed Non GM/IM	£200		Upadhyaya Anwesh
			Michael White
			Adam Ashton
			Robert Eames			£40
Best FIDE Performance U2200	£200		Gerhana Chkartina		2.73
Alan Hustwayte Prize>=2200	Trophy		Rao Prasanna		2.55
Horntye Best Game Prize			Deep Sengupta
British Qualifier 1			Michael White		5.5
British Qualifier 2			Jovica Radovanovic		5	T-B
Norms			Rao Prasanna		GM
			Gerhana Chkartina		WIM

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com

Hastings Chess Congress R6: Edouard, Howell, Shyam, Prasanna tie for lead

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hastings - A tradition in chess

Hi Everybody,

The chess fun at the Hastings Chess Congress just got exciting with a four-way tie for the lead with one French, one British and two Indians! GM Edouard Romain, GM David Howell, IM Shyam Sundar and 16-year-old Prasanna Rao are leading with five points each after six rounds.

You can check the official website here. Just don't miss FM Steve Giddins' absolutely heart-warming reports!

Ranking after six rounds

#	Player	Pts	Nat	Rtng	Perf	TB
1	GM EDOUARD, Romain	5.0	FRA	2636	2659	+0.24
2	GM HOWELL, David W L	5.0	ENG	2611	2717	+0.76
3	IM SHYAM, Sundar M	5.0	IND	2439	2633	+1.39
4	IM PRASANNA, Rao	5.0	IND	2400	2690	+2.15
5	GM ISTRATESCU, Andrei	4.5	ROU	2616	2595	-0.12
6	GM KOTRONIAS, Vasilios	4.5	GRE	2591	2494	-0.53
7	GM GORMALLY, Daniel W	4.5	ENG	2470	2536	+0.52
8	IM RENDLE, Thomas E	4.5	ENG	2400	2544	+1.22
9	GM HEBDEN, Mark L	4.0	ENG	2560	2408	-0.89
10	GM SENGUPTA, Deep	4.0	IND	2558	2407	-0.94
11	GM NEVEROV, Valeriy	4.0	UKR	2522	2481	-0.24
12	IM DAS Arghyadip	4.0	IND	2476	2344	-0.81
13	ANWESH, Upadhyaya	4.0	IND	2426	2366	-0.33
14	IM WOHL, Aleksandar H	4.0	AUS	2424	2509	+0.71
15	IM BATES, Richard A	4.0	ENG	2370	2512	+1.14
16	IM BELLIN, Robert	4.0	ENG	2367	2378	+0.20
17	FM ASHTON, Adam G	4.0	ENG	2330	2377	+0.43
18	FM EGGLESTON, David J	4.0	ENG	2307	2533	+1.79
19	FM RADOVANOVIC, Jovica	4.0	SRB	2276	2336	+0.43
20	GRIFFITHS, Ryan Rhys	4.0	IRL	2267	2385	+0.72
21	HANSSEN, Gunnar Berg	4.0	NOR	2218	2390	+1.17
22	SERGIENKO, Vladislav	4.0	UKR	2133	2369	+1.84

Here is a great game from Round 5. You can run the moves in flash below or check in pgnplayer!

PGN: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Bf4 Bg4 7.Qb3 Qc8 8.Nd2 e6 9.Ngf3 Be7 10.O-O O-O 11.Ne5 Nxe5 12.dxe5 Nd7 13.Qc2 g6 14.h3 Bf5 15.Bxf5 gxf5 16.Nf3 Kh8 17.Ng5 Qc4 18.Qd2 Nc5 19.Rad1 Rac8 20.b3 Qa6 21.c4 dxc4 22.Qe2 Bxg5 23.Bxg5 Ne4 24.Qh5 Rg8 25.Bh4 Rg6 26.f3 Qxa2 7.g4 Nc3 28.Rf2 Qxb3 29.Rd7 Rf8 30.Be7 Qb5 31.Rfd2 fxg4 32.Bxf8 gxf3+ 33.Kh2 Qb6 34.R7d4 Ne2 35.Qxf3 Nxd4 36.Qe3 Nf3+ 0-1

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com