Norway Chess 2014: Carlsen, Caruana, Aronian, Topalov, Karjakin, Svidler Confirmed

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

Hello everyone,

Here is the latest chess news update via FIDE: Eirik T. Gullaksen of Bergensjakk.no stated that six players have been confirmed for the super-tournament Norway Chess 2014. World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, WCC Candidates Levon Aronian, Veselin Topalov, Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler are part of the 10-player field. The remaining four names will be announced later. The dates are 2-13th June.

As it was last year, the tournament will take place in different venues. So far confirmed are Inge Brigt Aarbakke factory hall in Bryne, Vågen Videregående Skole – High school in Sandnes, and the main arena in Scandic Hotel Stavanger Forus.

The organizers are making efforts to secure two additional venues. The players will be staying on the new Scandic Stavanger City hotel which will open its doors in May.

Kjell Madland, Norway Chess Chairman, said for Aftenbladet that former World Champion Viswanathan Anand will not participate this time, but is looking forward to come back for Norway Chess 2015.

Madland added that the first prize will be 100,000 EUR, as last year, and that possibly one spot in the tournament will be awarded to the winner of the “Nordic Challenge Tournament”.

The organizers have signed new partners for the next event, including the SR-Bank and Conventor AS.

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Thessaloniki Chess Grand Prix 2013 Round 6: Caruana, Kamsky, Dominguez in Joint Lead

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

Hi everyone, 

Fabiano Caruana and Gata Kamsky won their games in the 6th round of Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013 to join Leinier Dominguez in shared lead. Dominguez outplayed Hikaru Nakamura, but couldn't convert the winning position into the full point. Vassily Ivanchuk collapsed again and lost to Ruslan Ponomariov after only 19 moves and barely 75 minutes of play.

Ponomariov - Ivanchuk
Again the game of Vassily Ivanchuk finished quickly, as the legendary Ukrainian fell down to his compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov. Ponomariov kept his options open, with possibility to play on either of the flanks. Ivanchuk underestimated white's flexibility and carelessly castled long and lost. Replay the full game with Chess King. 

Ivanchuk apologised to Ponomariov - "I am sorry that I played this bad," and then resigned. Ponomariov said that after five draws in a row he wanted to play for a win. Yesterday he missed some chances against Grischuk and is happy that today he won so quickly.

On question about opponent's form, Ponomariov said that it would have been easier for Ivanchuk if this was a knockout event where - "...You lose and you go home, but here you have to stay until the end and suffer."

About the World Chess Championship match in Chennai, Ponomariov said, "Everyone is claiming that Carlsen is clear favorite to win the WCC match, but as you can see he also loses some games. Besides, the match is being held in India, so I don't think everything is so clear. Having been World Champion at the age of 18, I am always rooting for younger players, so I am Carlsen's fan in this match."

Caruana - Bacrot
The Italian Grandmaster refrained from Ruy Lopez and used the Scotch opening. He has pleasant memories about the system as he used it to defeat the great Vladimir Kramnik. Caruana said his preparation finished after 21.f3, where computer is giving advantage to white, and pointed that e5-e6 is a very dangerous threat. Eventually, Caruana ground down Black. Replay the full game with Chess King. 

Grischuk - Morozevich
The two Alexanders, who kept confusing our commentators used to mention the players by their first names, were involved in an interesting discussion of a Ruy Lopez sideline. Grischuk played the quiet 5.d3, and Morozevich answered with kingside fianchetto, carefully preparing the expansion with the pawns.

Black pieces started looming around the opponent's King, but the timely reaction in the center allowed white to weather the storm. Grischuk said that he played in a logical manner, he didn't see many alternatives, just kept going with the natural moves, bu Morozevich played creatively and kept posing challenges. The draw was recorded shortly after the time control.

Topalov - Kasimdzhanov
Another game with d3 in Ruy Lopez, only this time played on the 6th move. The setup was similar to Dominguez - Svidler, but Kasimdzhanov jumped his Knight to a5 instead of d4. He considered this to be a slight improvement. Topalov was satisfied after 12.b4 - "I like this structure. But sometimes this pawn can be a target for counterplay with a6-a5." He criticised 16.h3 and felt that is was unnecessary I saw something like he pushes d6-d5, I answer e4-e5, and his Knight jumps to g4. I am not sure if this was any good."

About the exchange 18.bxc5, Topalov said - "I was not afraid of advance c5-c4 because I always have this nice Bb4." 22.f4 might have been a little too ambitious as it allowed Kasimdzhanov to sacrifice a piece for two pawns and get the avalanche rolling. Rustam believed he was nearly winning after 24...Qxc2.

Apparently Topalov wasn't too concerned about the pawn mass, but later he admitted that he underestimated its potential. There was an interesting endgame with B+N+2P for white and R+4P for black. Kasimdzhanov was definitely pressing for a win, but with reduced material and accurate defence Topalov held a draw.

Kamsky - Svidler
As usual, Gata Kamsky avoided theoretical discussion and started calmly with the English opening. In reply, Svidler set the reversed Sicilian Dragon. The play developed slowly with lots of maneuvering, but as the time was passing by, white attained better pawn structure. Black decided not to wait too long and started operating on the kingside. However, the position opened to white's benefit. The game still remained very complicated and Kamsky was not sure by how much he was better until he played 42.Rh2. Already after the next move Svidler resigned. Replay the game with Chess King.

Dominguez - Nakamura
We are already used to have Hikaru Nakamura playing the longest game of the day and closing the press center with the final interview. He surprised tournament leader Leinier Dominguez with the Scandinavian defence. In any case, the Cuban couldn't really prepare for the last two rounds because his computer has broken down. According to Nakamura, 7.Bd3 was a clever way to take advantage of black's move order. He also considered 8...e6 to be a mistake and said that he planned 8...Qa6 (recently played by tournament commentator GM Papaioannou), but he can't explain why he forgot about it. 10.Qg3 reminded black that he will have serious trouble to get the King into castle. Nakamura suggested that he should have dug in with Be7 and if Bf4 to play Qc8, where he is clearly worse but he could play on - "After 14.Qxf6 black is simply lost".

Nevertheless, the American put up a stubborn defence. It looked like Dominguez was trying to always be on the safe side, but he said he just played a normal game. The players have agreed that 34.f5 was premature and that it was better to start with preparatory 34.Ke3 and then f5 on the next move. Dominguez confirmed that the resulting endgame was winning but difficult to convert.

Nakamura said he was preparing to resign, but he changed his mind when white traded the Rooks with 46.Rg4 "because then suddenly black has drawing chances." Both players promoted to Queens and the resulting endgame is worthy of teaching manuals. It looked like white should be winning, but the magical dance of black pieces saved the draw for Nakamura who defended brilliantly.

The players have suggested possible improvements for white - probably 60.Kg7 instead of 60.h5 should win because black king cannot move closer. Also 61.Kg5 was mentioned by Nakamura. (Report by Goran Urosevic/official website).

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Zurich Chess Challenge Feb, 2013 to Feature Anand, Gelfand, Caruana, Kramnik

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

Hi everyone,

World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand, his most recent challenger Boris Gelfand, the former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and the rising star Fabiano Caruana will be competing in the second Zurich Chess Challenge, according to a press release.

From 23 February to 1 March 2013 they will face each other in a double round-robin tournament at the Savoy Hotel, Paradeplatz, Zurich. The games will be played with a classical time-control of 2 hours for 40 moves, 1 hour for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes plus a 30-second increment for the remainder of the game. In case of a draw before move 40, an additional exhibition game will be played (result not counting).

Following on from the 2012 Zurich Chess Challenge, which was a match between Kramnik and Levon Aronian, the main sponsor, Oleg Skvortsov of International Gemological Laboratories, Moscow, is making it possible for another highly attractive event to be staged by the Zurich Chess Club.

The 2013 tournament marks the sixtieth anniversary of the legendary Candidates’ Tournament, won by Vassily Smyslov, and will be a highlight of the chess calendar.

ParticipantsVladimir Kramnik (Russia, Elo 2795, #3 on the current World ranking list), Fabiano Caruana (Italy, 2786, #5), Viswanathan Anand (India, 2775, #6), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2751, #14).

SchedulePlay daily from 23 February to 1 March 2013 (free day: 26 February). Spectators are welcome.

Main sponsorIGC International Gemological Laboratoriesis a Russian institute providing gemological services, such as diamond grading reports, enhanced diamonds identification, man-made/synthetic diamonds and imitation detection as well as certification of diamonds, gemstones and jewelry in the Russian Federation. IGC is the Russian branch of GCI – a group of gemological laboratories located worldwide.

Co-sponsors

HVK International Private Limited, Mumbai, and the Savoy Chess Corner, Zurich.

Organization
Zurich Chess ClubFrom Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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5th Chess Masters Final in Sao Paulo, Bilbao with Anand, Carlsen, Aronian, Karjakin, Vallejo, Caruana!

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

Hi everyone,

Five of the eight best chess players in the world will compete in the 5th edition of the Chess Masters Final to be held in Sao Paulo and Bilbao from September 24 to 29.

These include reigning world chess champion Viswanathan Anand, World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, World No. 2 Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and Paco Vallejo.

Sao Paulo, Brazil's economic capital, will host the first half of the tournament from September 24 to 29. The second and deciding half will be played in Bilbao from October 8 to 13. Sao Paulo and Bilbao will, this year, once again host the Grand Slam Chess Masters Final, making both cities for the second consecutive year the world Chess capitals. The tournament will be played via a double half-robin league. The Brazilian megalopolis will host the first half from September 24 to 29 and the second and defining half will be played in Bilbao from October 8 to 13.


The last edition of the Grand Slam masters Final, first shared by Sao Paulo and Bilbao (the championship's fixed venue) was held from September 25 to October 1 in Brazil and October 5 to 11 in the Biscayan capital. Norway's Magnus Carlsen, number 1 in the world chess rankings, walked away with the title of champion on that occasion.

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Sparkassen Chess Dortmund: Caruana Wins on Tiebreak Ahead of Karjakin

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

Hi everyone,

Fabiano Caruana has won the 2012 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting ahead of Sergey Karjakin on the basis of tiebreak score. Caruana and Sergey both scored 6.0 points in the tournament that ran from July 13-22 in Germany. Ten players competed in the round robin tournament.

Fabiano Caruana

Five players went into the last round with 5.0 points each! Four out of five German national chess players who had won the gold at the 2011 European Team Chess Championship also took part in the event.

Final standings:1-2. Caruana Fabiano ITA 2775 and Karjakin Sergey RUS 2779 – 6.0
3-6. Ponomariov Ruslan UKR 2726, Kramnik Vladimir RUS 2799, Naiditsch Arkadij GER 2700 and Leko Peter HUN 2730 – 5.5
7. Meier Georg GER 2644 – 4.0
8. Fridman Daniel GER 2655 – 3.5
9. Bartel Mateusz POL 2674 – 2.0
10. Gustafsson Jan GER 2629 – 1.5

Replay the very nice Caruana-Kramnik game with Chess King.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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Making Chess Glamorous, Exciting: The Guardian on Andrew Paulson

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




Hi everyone,

The Guardian report on Andrew Paulson who is gearing up to give chess a jazz new look makes an interesting read. Here is an excerpt.

Chess impresario hopes to bring back the Fischer v Spassky glory days

Andrew Paulson, a 54-year-old American businessman who has spent most of the past 15 years in Russia, is committed to reversing this decline. In a remarkable financial coup, he has persuaded Fide, the international governing body of chess, to hand him the media and marketing rights to the world championship for the next 10 years.

Suddenly, this chess enthusiast who admits to being a "patzer" – a player of no great ability – has become the game's potential king. "The characters in the chess world are fascinating," he says at Simpson's in the Strand, a famous chess coffee house in the 19th century and a possible venue for a new grand prix tournament to be staged in London next year. "When I first dove into the chess world, I felt incredibly comfortable with these people. It was like being back in college. These were passionate, eccentric, but deeply committed. They see themselves as the keepers of the holy grail."


Paulson, who ran publishing businesses in Russia and remains a director of an internet company based in Moscow, did not set out to become a major player in the chess world. He met Fide's controversial president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, by chance last September, and says he immediately realised chess had huge untapped commercial potential.


How did he convince Fide to let him take over marketing of the game? "Their fundamental error was that they were trying to get sponsors for [single] events. I said to them, 'No. If you give me all of the events connected to the world championship, I can reconceive this as a whole.' Then we're not selling an event, we're selling chess. We're selling chess as an idea, as a symbol, as a metaphor."


His company, Agon, is about to release the results of a YouGov poll on chess in the US which he says proves how extensive is the interest in the game. Fourteen per cent of adults play at least once a year; and the percentage is higher if you add the number of children playing regularly. Even more striking is the fact that two-thirds of American adults have played chess at some point in their lives.


Design group Pentagram is developing a new visual identity for the world championship, using the tagline "The best mind wins", and Paulson has commissioned a short film drawing on footage from the Fischer-Spassky match and from movies which have featured chess, notably From Russia with Love. He wants chess to be seen not as some nerdy pastime, but as central to the culture of both east and west.


Paulson claims he will shortly be unveiling long-term sponsorship deals with half a dozen companies in different sectors. They will provide the €6m (£4.8m) a year it will cost to finance the new biennial world championship series, which will incorporate grand prix events in leading cities, a world cup, a candidates tournament between the top eight players emerging from those earlier competitions, and then an extended title match between the challenger and the holder.


Paulson is allowed to choose one wildcard entry to the candidates tournament, and it is a testimony to the fact he intends to reintroduce some showmanship into chess that he has already sounded out Kasparov for what would be a sensational comeback. Kasparov, who will be 50 next year, has so far rejected the idea, but Paulson hopes he can be persuaded to change his mind.


As his play in exhibition matches shows, he remains a formidable opponent, and his return to competitive chess would generate widespread interest. "I see one of my goals as making chess a spectator sport," says Paulson. "You can make it interactive now. There are so many resources that can be brought to bear to make the watching of a chess event fun for individuals and for groups."


He also hopes to get chess back on television!

Also read Chess Blog post:Agon Appoints Pentagram to Reposition Chess for the World Stage! (Updated)

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