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Friday, December 6, 2013
Antalya World Chess Team 2013: Russia wins Title, Board 4 Gold for Nepomniachtchi, Board 2 Silver for Karjakin, Reserve Board Bronze for Vitiugov
Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hello everyone,
Russia has won the World Chess Team Championship 2013 in Antalya, Turkey. Ukraine had lead the chess championship team standings from the first, but they ran into the Russian brick wall in the eighth round. Russia beat Ukraine, took the lead and won the title by beating Egypt in the last round. (Photos: Anastasiya Karlovich/official website)
On top of the world: The Russians
The team of Russia – Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Nikita Vitiugov – scored 15 match points (7 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss) and took the gold medal. The other medals were divided on first tiebreak of game points, as China and Ukraine both finished with 14 match points (7 wins, 0 draws, 2 losses). Silver went to China with 23 match points and bronze to Ukraine with 22 match points.
This is the fourth World Team Championship title for Russia. Besides the one in 2013, they have won the gold in 1997, 2005, and 2010. This is the first time Kramnik, Karjakin, and Nepomniachtchi are part of the winning team. For Vitiugov, this is a second title, while it is the third title for Grischuk.
The winning captains: Xu Yun (China), Yury Dokhoian (Russia) and Olexandr Sulypa (Ukraine)
Board Medals were as follows:
Board One 1. Levon Aronian 2. Hikaru Nakamura 3. Vassily Ivanchuk with TTCF Vice President Askin Keles
Board Two 1. Anton Korobov 2. Sergey Karjakin 3. Ding Liren
Board three 1. Daniel Fridman 2. Alexander Onischuk 3. Yue Wang
Member of Appeals Committee Petr Pisk presented the awards to successful players on Board 4 1. Ian Nepomniachtchi 2. Xiangzhi Bu 3. Yuriy Kryvoruchko
Chief Arbiter Anastasia Sorokina presented the awards to successful players on reserve board 1. Varuzhan Akobian 2. Yu Yangyi 3. Nikita Vitiugov
Final standings (teams)
1 Russia 15 2 China 14 3 Ukraine 14 4 USA 10 5 Armenia 10 6 Netherlands 9 7 Germany 8 8 Azerbaijan 7 9 Turkey 3
Record 7th Russian Chess Title: Peter Svidler goes 'Wheeeeeeeee' with Joy
Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hello everyone,
From left: Peter Svidler, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nikita Vitiugov
Peter Svidler has become the Russian National Chess Champion 2013 thereby creating a Russian chess record of having won the title seven times. Svidler picked up the title after beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the tiebreak. Svidler tweeted "wheeeeeeeee" right after winning the title as congratulations poured in! Svidler has previously won the title in 1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2008 and 2011.
In the last round, Ian Nepomniachtchi was able to capitalise on a blunder by Vladimir Kramnik to catch up with Svidler as the latter drew a game with Sergey Karjakin. Svidler and Nepomniachtchi then faced each other in a 15-minute rapid playoff which was won by Svidler 1.5-0.5. Also, Nikita Vitiugov was able to beat Vladimir Kramnik for the third spot on a better tiebreak score.
Meanwhile, hope you also read the Chess Blog earlier post:
This was Valentina Gunina's second title at the Russian Chess Super Finals.
The Russian Chess Championship Super Final 2013 for men and women was held from 5th to 14th October at the State Historical and Architectural Museum in Nizhny Novgorod. Both events were held according to the round robin system with 10 players each. The total prize fund for both groups is 6 million RUB (approx 138,000 EUR).
Final Standings: 1. Peter Svidler 6.5 2. Ian Nepomniachtchi - 6.5
Gibraltar Chess Festival 2013: Final Tiebreak + Closing Ceremony Video
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
The recently-concluded Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2013 was won by Russian Grandmaster Nikita Vitiugov. Here is the final video of the 2013 Festival (via the official website) with the play-off between Chanda Sandipan (India), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Nigel Short (England) and the eventual winner Nikita Vitiugov (Russia) who is also interviewed. Also included: images of the closing ceremony, hosted by Stuart Conquest and Emil Sutovsky and Elisabeth Pähtz at the piano.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012 Hi everyone,
GM Nikita Vitiugov has won the traditional Gibraltar Chess Festival that took place on 21-31 January, 2013, after defeating Nigel Short in a dramatic tiebreak in the last round. The tournament was intense with several players tied for first at half-time. Eventually, the title was decided by a tiebreak among four players after the final round.
In the knockout matches for the title, Vitiugov was paired against Sandipan and Short against Vachier-Lagrave. Both Vitiugov and Short won their first games with black and could advance to the final encounter without much trouble.
The final match between Nigel Short and Nikita Vitiugov started around 18:45 local time. These games would decide who takes home the first prize of £20,000 and who keeps the shared 2nd-4th place, so the stakes were quite high. In the first game, the Russian GM managed to win impressively, showing great technique with almost no time on his clock. The second game was very tense, but Nikita managed to keep cool and draw to get the sole first place in this strong event.
Congratulations also to Chinese GM Zhao Xue for winning the top female prize of £12,000. She drew her last round game after nearly five hours of play against Vassily Ivanchuk and achieved a score of 7½/10. In October 2011 Zhao Xue won the FIDE Women's Grand Prix tournament at Nalchik, Russia with the massive score of 9½/11. Her greatest success before Gibraltar 2013 in an individual event was winning the 2002 Under-20 World Junior Girls Chess Championship.
Reggio Emilia Chess R7: Nakamura draws with Caruana, holds on to clear lead
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hello everyone,
The chess news from Reggio Emilia in Round 7 is that Vassily Ivanchuk blundered away the point to Nikita Vitiugov but Hikaru Nakamura drew quickly with Fabiano Caruana and maintained his 4-point lead while Alexander Morozevich and Anish Giri also drew their game. The 54th Torneo di Capodannno is being held from December 27th-January 6th, 2012.
Reggio Emilia 2011 | Round 7 Standings 1 Hikaru Nakamura 2758 15.0 2 Alexander Morozevich 2762 11.0 3 Anish Giri 2714 9.0 4 Vassily Ivanchuk 2775 8.0 5 Fabiano Caruana 2727 8.0 6 Nikita Vitiugov 2729 5.0 From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
Reggio Emilia Chess R1-Morozevich, Nakamura begin with wins
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
The 54th edition of Reggio Emilia's Chess tournament - 54th Torneo di Capodanno - has begun. The main event includes current Italian national champion Fabiano Caruana, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Morozevich, Hikaru Nakamura, Nikita Vitiugov and Anish Giri. The 54th edition of Reggio Emilia’s tournament also has a parallel chess event with three Italian chess stars competing against three strong WGMs from Eastern Europe.
The interesting first round saw two decisive games with Caruana blundering away the game to Morozevich in time trouble and Vitiugov losing to Nakamura. .
In the women's tournament, De Rosa beat Chierici, Marina Brunello lost to Guramishvili and Iva Videnova lost to Anna Sharevich. You can access the official website at this link.
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12th Women's World Chess Champion
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Member of Appeals Committee Petr Pisk presented the awards 
Chief Arbiter Anastasia Sorokina presented the awards to successful players on reserve board 1. Varuzhan Akobian 2. Yu Yangyi 3. Nikita Vitiugov
