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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

World Chess Cup 2013 Round 1 Game 2: Polgar, Volokitin, Nepomniachtchi Knocked Out

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013

Hi everyone, 
All the players are checked before they enter the playing hall.

Just as on day one there were plenty of fireworks on the second day of the FIDE World Cup in Tromsø. Thirteen players won their matches with a 2-0 score (not counting Alexander Moiseenko, whose opponent could not come to Tromsø).

While some victories with impressive results could be expected from top players such as Aronian, Kramnik, Grischuk, Nakamura and Dominguez, there were also a few 2-0 results produced by players with ratings lower than their opponents.

Russian GM Daniil Dubov managed to outplay experienced and higher rated Ukrainian GM Sergey Fedorchuk. American GM Ray Robson didn’t leave any chances for Ukrainian GM Andrei Volokitin by winning 2-0. One of the most surprising results for those who compare the ratings of opponents happened in the Nepomniachtchi-Wei match. The youngest participant of the event, Chinese GM Yi Wei (a nominee of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov), defeated Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi 1.5-0.5.

The participants of the upcoming Women’s World Championship match Hou Yifan and Anna Ushenina are doing well so far. Anna Ushenina defeated Peter Svidler in his favorite Gruenfeld and Hou Yifan drew the second game against Alexei Shirov. The reigning and former Women’s World Champions will proceed to the playoff stage on Tuesday.

Judit Polgar, the strongest female player in the history of chess, lost out on a number of winning chances, drew against Cuban GM Isan Reynaldo Ortiz and lost the match. A total of 28 matches were undecided after two games at the classical time control and 56 players will continue to fight at 3 p.m. local time on August 13.
Russian GM Alexander Morozevich lost his first game, but managed to equalize.

Rising star from Russia GM Daniil Dubov defeated GM Sergey Fedorchuk 2-0 as well. GM Michael Adams made a second draw against Wan Yunguo of China. The strongest Chinese GM Wang Hao outplayed his compatriot Liu Qingnan. An unexpectedly quick elimination for Ukrainian GM Andrei Volokitin. Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk outplayed Polish IM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who upset him with a draw the day before.

The FIDE World Cup is a knockout which starts with 128 players and runs from August 10 to September 3rd. The top two players will qualify for the next FIDE Candidates Tournament which will take place in March 2014 and determine the challenger for the World Championship match in 2014.

The time control for each two-game match is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. If the score is equal there are two rapid chess tiebreak games, played at a rate of 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds per move. If the score is still equal then two accelerated games will be played, with a time control of 10 min + 10 sec. If the score is still equal two more games will be played at 5 min + 3 sec. If the winner is still not determined then a final Armageddon game with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, with a 3 sec increment after move 60, will be played. In this game Black has draw odds (i.e. he wins if the game is drawn).

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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Ukraine Chess Championship Begins with Ruslan Ponomariov as Top Seed

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,
 
Ruslan Ponomariov
The 81st edition of the Ukrainian National Chess Championship has begun today and would run till August 7 at the President Hotel in Kiev. Twelve players are competing in the event with Ruslan Ponomariov being top seed. He is also the defending champion. Vassily Ivanchuk is not taking part in the event. With the average elo of 2666 this is the strongest Championship ever in the history of independent Ukraine.

Players:
Ruslan Ponomariov 2726
Alexander Moiseenko 2706
Andrei Volokitin 2704
Zahar Efimenko 2694
Pavel Eljanov 2693
Alexander Areshchenko 2691
Anton Korobov 2683
Evgeny Miroshnichenko 2632
Sergey Fedorchuk 2630
Yuriy Kuzubov 2629
Alexander Zubov 2621
Yuri Vovk 2584

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Friday, January 6, 2012

Motorbike and cash as prizes for Andrei Voliktin at Donostia Chess Festival!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hello everyone,

We are not sure if this is a first when it comes to chess prizes. But a 'speedy' congratulations to GM Andrei Volokitin for winning the Donostia Chess Festival! 
 
 Volokitin on his electric bike | All photos © David Llada and Anastasiya Karlovich


The latest chess tournament news via Fide is that Andrei Volokitin has won the very unique Donostia Chess Festival. In the final match he defeated Viktor Laznichka by 2:0. The match was very tough and pressure became so high that Czech player just simply forgot about time in one of the games where he played with Black.

The rook ending was equal and few moves earlier Andrei Volokitin proposed a draw which was declined by Viktor Laznichka. After the accident with time Czech Grandmaster was not able to concentrate on the other game anymore and blundered an exchange few moves later. Andrei Voliktin grabs 20,000 euro prize and a big motorbike.

In the B-group two leaders Antoaneta Stefanova and Reynaldo Vera made a quick draw which suited their tournament position. Few more players, who were half a point behind, managed to win in the last round and joined the group of the prize-winners. As a result Sergey Fedorchuk became a winner of the C-group.

Check for more details at Donostia Chess Festival. The interesting event was held from December 28th-January 5th, 2012 in Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. The playing system included 64-player knock-out, matches of two games played simultaneously!

Players Gashimov, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Moiseenko, Bacrot, Naiditsch, Dominguez and Vachier-Lagrave were some of the top players at the event.


From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
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