Unive Chess from October 18: Michael Adams Top Seed

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

Hello everyone,

Get set for the traditional 17th Unive Chess Tournament to be held from October 18-26 in the town hall of Hoogeveen, Netherlands. The main Crown Group will see two talented juniors competing against two experienced players in a double round robin event. The first round is on 20th October.

The players are Michael Adams (England 2753), Wesley So (Philippines 2706), Loek van Wely (Netherlands 2693) and Robin van Kampen (Netherlands 2607). The 2012 champion at the event was Hikaru Nakamura. The additional events are Unive Open with a strong international field and two Amateur tournaments (morning and afternoon groups). These events will be held over nine rounds of Swiss system. (www.chessdom.com)

Top rated players in the Unive Open are: GM Rodshtein Maxim ISR 2664, GM L’Ami Erwin NED 2645, GM Krasenkow Michael POL 2640, GM Ernst Sipke NED 2573, GM Haslinger Stewart ENG 2543 and GM Moskalenko Viktor ESP 2520.

Tournament website

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Four-Nations Chess League: Guildford 1 Wins Title with Fressinet, Short, Edouard, Jones, Saddler, Kampen, Stefanova

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

Guildford 1 won the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL) on Monday finishing on 13 points out of 7 matches. The team, which had e.g. Laurent Fressinet, Nigel Short, Romain Edouard, Gawain Jones, Matthew Sadler, Robin van Kampen and Antoaneta Stefanova playing this year, scored one match point more than Wood Green Hilsmark 1 (with e.g. Vassily Ivanchuk, Michael Adams, Alexei Shirov and Luke McShane), according to a ChessVibes report.

The Four Nations Chess League (4NCL) is a team tournament (league) over three divisions in the UK. Over 850 players are taking part and there's over £10,000 in cash prizes on offer. It is held at different venues over various weekends. The first eight rounds were played over four weekends, and the final three rounds took place last Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Like the German Bundesliga, the 4NCL is a company and not connected to an official body. Different from the Bundesliga and other leagues is that each team must have at least one female player.

For the final, decisive weekend some teams flew in a few really strong players. Especially reigning champion Wood Green's line-up was impressive: in the last three rounds Vassily Ivanchuk, Michael Adams, Alexei Shirov, Luke McShane, David Howell, Jonathan Rowson, Pia Cramling, Alexander Baburin, John Emms, Andrew Greet and Nicholas Pert all played at least one game.

But it was not enough. Instead, Guildford 1 took the title, playing with Laurent Fressinet, Gawain Jones, Romain Edouard, Nigel Short, Matthew Sadler, Robin van Kampen, Antoaneta Stefanova, Mark Hebden and Stuart Conquest.

Guildford had won all of their matches and they went into the final weekend a point ahead of Wood Green, who dropped a match point on February 23rd in their match with Cheddleton 1. All games ended in draws there.

Last Saturday, both Guildford and Wood Green won their matches. Wood Green's Michael Adams, who played his last game in the Alekhine Memorial in St Petersburg only three days before, slowly outplayed Peter Wells in a double rook endgame.

However, everything came down to the final round, in which the big clash would decide everything. 4-4 was enough for Guildford, and that's what happened! At some point the score was 3.5-3.5 and David Howell needed to win against Nigel Short for the title. In the end the former World Championship Candidate held the draw, and thus secured the championship for his team. Read the complete report and games here.

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Basel Chess Festival 2013: Title Goes to GM Boris Grachev

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

Hi everyone,

Boris Grachev with Levente Vajda (left) and Robin Van Kampen (right)

The Russian Grandmaster Boris Grachev is the winner of the Basel Chess Festival 2013. Grachev scored 5,5/7, the same points as GM Levente Vajda, GM Robin Van Kampen, and GM Andrej Istratescu, but had better tiebreak score. Grachev started with quality 4,0/4, which allowed him to secure the title with three straight draws to the end, according to the latest chess news via Chessdom. Places 5-12 were shared by some of the top competitors of the Basel Schachfestival – GM Vachier-Lagrave, GM Alexandr Fier, GM Hrant Meklumyan, GM Romain Edouard, GM Ghaem Maghami, GM Yannik Pelletier, GM Vorotnikov, and GM Mateusz Bartel, all with 5,0/7.

Half a point behind them is the Tata Steel B 2013participant GM Maxim Turov, and the top untitled player of the championship Svetlin Mladenov.

Read more »

Max Euwe Memorial Chess Tournament R1 news!

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


Hi everyone,

Here is chess news from the first round of the Max Euwe chess tournament that witnessed only three games instead of the planned four on the first day. All because Stuart Conquest was supposed to fly in from London early on Monday morning, but due to dense fog on London City Airport his flight had to be cancelled. Conquest was still on the way to Amsterdam on Monday evening. The game that he was supposed to play on Monday against Keti Arakhamia will be played on the rest day on Thursday.

Peng, Socko, Cramling

Paul van der Sterren escaped in his first tournament game since 10 (!) years. The semi-retired Dutchman played his last tournament game in the Dutch Championship back in 2001. In the game against 76-year old Fridrik Olafsson from Iceland he had some problems to solve on the black side of a Nimzo-Indian. 

Fridrik Olafsson

The game between Zhaoqin Peng and Pia Cramling was balanced and the logical result was a draw. 

Robin van Kampen celebrated his 17th birthday today and seemed to have very good position against Monika Socko, but he could not find a way to win. 

“Well, I never play very well on my birthday,” said the youngest Dutch grandmaster. Tournament director Monique van de Griendt had a small present for Van Kampen: am Amsterdam travel guide. Robin was happy with the gift: “This is great, I always get lost in Amsterdam”.

You can follow the games live on the official website: www.euwetoernooi.nl. In the evening, at 20.00 GM Hans Ree wil hold a lecture (in Dutch) about Max Euwe.

(Left Photo: Robin van Kampen)

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