World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen is back in the lead at the Vugar Gashimov Chess Memorial 2014 after seven rounds in Shamkir.
Carlsen, playing Black, beat Hikaru Nakamura taking their personal score to 10-0. Basically, White did have an advantage, but passive play did him in. Carlsen now jumps into sole lead again at the tournament.
Teimour Radjabov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov easily drew a Catalan game as did Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana in a Gruenfeld struggle.
Vugar Gashimov Memorial Chess 2014: Carlsen Loses to both Caruana, Radjabov (Updated)
Hello everyone, The Vugar Gashimov Memorial Chess 2014 in Shamkir has hit the chess headlines like a bomb explosion. Not only did World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen lose to Fabiano Caruana but he set a sort of record by suffering his second straight loss the very next round to Teimour Radjabov. Round 1 and 2 began "normally" enough with the World Chess Champion beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Hikaru Nakamura. All other games were drawn in both the rounds. In Round 3, Sergey Karjakin worked hard to hold Magnus Carlsen to a draw and the latter was unable to convert a win. Nakamura, meanwhile, beat Mamedyarov.
Round 4 and 5 - Fabiano Caruana and Teimour Radjabov delight fans by beating World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in successive rounds. That's how tough chess can be at the top level. Photos: Official website.
Disaster struck for Carlsen in Round 4. Playing Black against Caruana, he was at the receiving end with a slight fumble allowing Caruana to grind out a win. Carlsen blundered a pawn and then couldn't prevent a collapse. The other games were drawn. This is Magnus Carlsen's first loss in classical chess after winning the world champion title in November, 2013. Today, in Round 5, the World Chess Champion was to face the horror of his second successive loss against Teimour Radjabov. Nakamura and Karjakin settled for a draw while Mamedyarov beat Caruana! The standings after Round 5 have Radjabov in lead with 3 points followed by Carlsen, Nakamura, Caruana, Karjakin all at 2.5 points and Mamedyarov at 2 points. *Games via Chess King soon The Vugar Gashimov Chess Memorial is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from April 20-30 and is divided into two groups. The A Group features six players: World Champion Magnus Carlsen (2881), Fabiano Caruana (2783), Sergey Karjakin (2772), Hikaru Nakamura (2772), and the two Azeri players Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2760) and Teimour Radjabov (2713). The B group includes ten players - top five from various countries and five from Azerbaijan.
Tomorrow is a rest day at Shamkir Chess 2014 tournament. There will be held an opening ceremony of a chess school in Shamkir. Synergy Group officials, media representatives and Shamkir Chess 2014 tournament participants will attend the ceremony. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov rapid world champion and blitz world champion Sergey Karjakin will show 10 sessions on the board at Zeka Youth Center. At 16:00 football tournament will be held with the participation of 4 teams. Competition with foreign players for team of World and national Grandmasters will play for the Azerbaijan national team. In addition, the organizers of the tournament consisting of the members of organizing committee Synergy Group, and journalists will compete as well.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
Just like in previous rounds of Norway Chess 2013, round 6 offered a lot of entertainment for the audience. We saw one pretty brutal win, one pretty boring draw, one exciting draw where none of the players ever seemed to get the upper hand, one nail biting draw where the worse side held on by the slimmest of margins and finally a totally exhausting end game squeeze where the relentless pressure eventually became too much for the defending side.
In other words, Hammer lost rather brutally to Aronian, Topalov and Wang Hao played a peaceful draw, Nakamura and Svidler both stayed in control in their sharp battle, Karjakin barely saved a draw against World Chess Champion Anand and Carlsen managed to bank another full point in a long grind against Radjabov.
In the first game to finish, Hammer ventured down a daring path in his Grünfeld game against Aronian, giving up a pawn in the hope that his a-passer should provide sufficient counterplay, only to realize that it simply wasn’t enough. Topalov vs Wang Hao was a Queen’s gambit where the tension in the center was resolved early with queens coming off resulted in a symmetrical pawn structure with no weaknesses in either camp. The game never became very exciting, and it finished uneventfully with a repetition and a draw on move 32.
Nakamura’s Ponziani against Svidler turned into a sharp, tactical battle already in the opening, leaving the mainlines. The game was a draw. Anand vs Karjakin started rather quietly, but sharpened up as the time control approached. Anand found a way to open the h-file and was close to beating Karjakin at some point, but the game went for a draw.
The last game to finish was another Carlsen vs Radjabov marathon, reminiscent of their 13th round battle in the London Candidates. The game saw yet one rather unassuming setup with white by Carlsen, with black taking on an isolani in the d-file quite early on, seemingly without any kind of problems. The isolani turned into two hanging pawns in the c- and d-file when white exchanged off his bishop for a knight on c6, and the battleground was set. However, Carlsen went for the long haul and eventually beat Radjabov.
Karjakin is still in the lead after 6 rounds, now only half a point ahead of Carlsen, who’s been going full steam ahead since round 4. Aronian’s win brought him up to shared 3rd with Nakamura, a full point off the pace of Karjakin, but half a point ahead of Anand and Svidler, who still have some chances to catch up with the guys in front. The rest of the field is probably too far behind by now to be considered real contenders for the tournament victory. (Read the full report by Hans Arild Runde at the official website.)
Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013 Round 5: Karjakin Loses to Carlsen, but Leads
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
The fifth round started relatively quiet, as the games Svidler-Anand, Nakamura-Topalov and Radjabov-Aronian all were drawn before 40 moves and without too many exciting moments. But then the round suddenly accelerated, as the games left were two very entertaining and interesting attacking battles. The remaining home spectators spontaneously applauded when the last game finished, as Norway after winning none out of eight games in the first four rounds had won two out of two games! Magnus Carlsen looked like the world’s top rated chess player again when he by firework tactics decided the games against the former tournament leader Sergey Karjakin, true enough after the Russian as white first had a better position. After Carlsen left the scene Jon Ludvig Hammer, by far the lowest rated player in this tournament, created his great moment as he following a mutual time trouble drama and safely won the endgame against Hao Wang. (The full report by Hans Olav Lahlum is available at the official website.)
Here is also a personal note by Hans Olav Lahlum who has given us great coverage of the Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013.
As agreed with the tournament organizer and the president of the Norwegian Chess Federation long time ago, I would be arbiter only for the first half of this tournament. In accordance with that agreement, and of course without any kind of controversies, I have already left this tournament and this city when you are reading this my fifth and final round report. I was happy to accept writing the first five round reports in between my arbiter working, when the excellent and hardworking president of our chess federation asked me to do so a few days before the start of tournament. And I feel today happy and somewhat relieved now having finished this work. Writing round reports from an intensive super tournament of course is a very interesting possibility, but also a demanding challenge for an almost retired chess player at my low international level. If the results have disappointed some of my readers I can only apologize to you, and then say to myself what a former leader of the political opposition so much more than a long time ago said to a former prime minister in Norway: “You did the best you were able to do. That is both your judgment and your excuse.” I was most happy yesterday to learn that my chess friend Hans Arild Runde has agreed to write reports about the four final rounds, and wish him all the best of luck with this work. Also of course best of luck to another chess friend, Arild Rimestad, who will take over my duties as deputy arbiter for the rest of the tournament. I plan to return both as arbiter and round report writer first during the Norwegian Championships at Lillehammer in June-July, and then during the Oslo Chess International 28.09-06.10 (if interested to be a participant, you can find much more information about that tournament on www.bergensjakk.no/oslointernational/). Meanwhile: Many thanks for now to my wonderful arbiter colleagues Anémone Kulczak and Karl-Johan Rist, and of course also to all the ten players for producing so many interesting and exciting games. In my very last lines for now, I feel that we all owe numerous thanks to the organizer for making this historic super tournament in Norway possible! I much hope there will be another one in 2014 or 2015, with or without a World Champion from Norway in the field – and if so I will be most happy to return.
Fide Chess Candidates 2013: Magnus Carlsen wins on Tiebreak (Final Report)
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE Candidates' Tournament in London on Monday after a bizarre finish of what has become a historic event for chess. Both the Norwegian and the other leader, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, unexpectedly lost their game in the final round, and so they remained tied for first place and Carlsen won on the second tie-break rule: higher number of wins. This means that in the next title match, World Champion Viswanathan Anand will face Carlsen. On the last day Levon Aronian of Armenia beat Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan while Boris Gelfand of Israel and Alexander Grischuk of Russia drew their game.
A Hollywood blockbuster couldn’t have had a more dramatic scenario with the hero of the story going down just before the end, only to emerge as the winner after all. This is what happened in rounds 12-13 with Carlsen losing his lead to Kramnik on Friday and then recovering on Sunday, and it also happened in a thrilling final round. The Norwegian unexpectedly lost his white game against Peter Svidler, but because Vladimir Kramnik also went down against Vassily Ivanchuk, Carlsen won the tournament anyway. It was quite a fitting scenario for April 1st, except that this is what really happened!
The day started quietly with a draw between Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk. Facing the Grünfeld, which he included in his own repertoire last year against Anand, Gelfand tried the 5.Bd2 variation. Grischuk was “surprised by 11.Bc4” but reacted well and about the position after 17.f4 he said: “White at maximum can get a very slight advantage but Black can get a winning position if something goes wrong for White.” Already with 18…b4 Black “more or less forced the draw”, according to the Russian. Joining the live commentary, Grischuk said: “I’m quite happy to finish my game early so that I can enjoy this!”
Then, the game between Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov finished in favour of the Armenian. “In general after the opening I got a big advantage and it was very difficult to play for Black,” said Aronian. Radjabov, who finally went for a proper King’s Indian – the defence with which he has had so many successes – managed to trap the white queen in the early middle game, but Aronian got two rooks for it and combined with the presence of opposite coloured bishops, his attack on the king was just too strong.
But, of course this last round was all about the other two games: Vassily Ivanchuk versus Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen versus Peter Svidler. Because Carlsen was leading on tie-break, Kramnik basically had to outperform him in the final round to emerge as the winner: he needed a win if Carlsen drew, or a draw if Carlsen lost. It all went quite differently. Kramnik, playing black, got under serious pressure right out of the opening, while Carlsen didn’t get much of an opening advantage playing white.
To keep all options open, Kramnik played the Pirc Defence, and Ivanchuk responded with simple, healthy developing moves. However, the Ukrainian (again!) needed quite some time to make his moves in this game, so even though he was building up an advantage, the Carlsen fans weren’t sure at all about the situation. Would Ivanchuk lose on time again...?
Meanwhile, Carlsen himself was using lots of time himself – too much time. After making his 27th move, the Norwegian had only 5 minutes left for 13 moves, and 2 moves later his clock was down to 1 minute and 20 seconds. It was a situation Carlsen hadn’t been in before in all previous rounds! It must have been around this time that the home page of Norway’s biggest newspaper online, vg.no, crashed (like several chess servers) due too the high number of visitors trying to follow the games.
Carlsen only barely made the time control – he made his last three moves in about nine seconds, knocking over some pieces in the process and losing precious seconds there. After the dust had cleared, he found himself in a completely lost ending. Svidler had simply played an excellent game, while Carlsen had succumbed under the pressure and the tension. “I was trying to equalize and then Magnus perhaps overestimated his position,” said Svidler.
“I was spending too much time in the middle game on reasonably good moves but also on not too difficult moves. (…) I definitely overestimated my position. Additionally, I just couldn't calculate very well today and then you have to spend a lot of time, that’s the way it is. Obviously not as much time as I did, because it became a serious liability at the end, but it's not easy. From early on there were lots of things to calculate on every move,” said Carlsen at the press conference, while Ivanchuk and Kramnik were still playing.
Before leaving the press room, Carlsen asked whether he could get the position of that last game on the laptop that was available. By that time Ivanchuk had made the time control, and he had a winning position. Carlsen said: “I think this cannot possibly go wrong,” and right at that moment Kramnik resigned his game, and with it his fight for first place. Carlsen was congratulated by his manager and by Svidler, and immediately gave a few interviews to mostly Norwegian press.
Meanwhile, Ivanchuk and Kramnik arrived in the press room to comment on their game. “I had to play for a win, to burn bridges in a way, because of course I didn't think that Magnus was going to lose. I thought I got what I wanted at some point. It was an interesting position but terribly complicated. Somewhere around 20…Nhf4 I liked my position and then somehow I lost a bit of concentration because I didn’t know what to do,” said Kramnik, who also kept an eye on the other game.
“The problem was that Peter [Svidler]’s position was already promising but not yet so clear so I didn’t know what to do, whether to play for a draw… Somehow I got a bit lost between watching that game and trying to understand what I should do. Then I made a few awful decisions and I was unlucky that I had to make a tough decision on move 40, not 41.” In time trouble the Russian missed an important tactic, and then his position was lost. Ivanchuk agreed that the position was at some point drawish. “But I noticed that my opponent started to play a bit risky and he gave me chances.”
Carlsen then returned to the press room to answer questions in his new status as tournament winner. He said: “I never expected to lose and I didn't really have any expectations for the other game. That didn’t make sense to me since I couldn’t do anything about it. (...) I didn't really want to resign before I was sure that Ivanchuk would win!”
The tournament winner felt that until the 11th round he “played the best chess for sure”. “At the end everyone got tired, the quality got lower and anything could happen. But overall I think I did pretty well and I deserve to win.” Carlsen said he was “very impressed” by Kramnik’s comeback in the second half of the tournament. About his match against Anand, he said: “I think it’s going to be very interesting, a great event but it’s a long time ahead so we’ll see what happens.”
The final standings are as follows: 1. Carlsen 8.5 points (5 wins), 2. Kramnik 8.5 points (4 wins), 3-4. Svidler and Aronian 8 points, 5-6. Grischuk and Gelfand 6.5 points, 7. Ivanchuk 6 points and 8.Radjabov 4 points.
The FIDE Candidates' Tournament took place March 14th-April 1st, 2013 at IET London, Savoy Place. It was sponsored by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and organized by AGON and the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
(Report by Peter Doggers/Pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich)
Fide Chess Candidates R14: Magnus Carlsen Wins Tournament, Qualifies to Challenge Vishy Anand in Nov, 2013
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
Breaking Chess News: Magnus Carlsen has earned the right to challenge World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand later this year. The tournament ended with a crazy quirk of fate.
Carlsen won the the Fide Chess Candidates 2013 a few minutes back in an exciting last round. Both Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen went into the last round with equal scores. If both were to win their last-round games, Carlsen would have qualified on the basis of the tiebreak as he had more wins. Carlsen would also have qualified if both drew, or both lost. Kramnik would have qualified if he were to win and Carlsen were to draw or if he were to draw and Carlsen were to lose. No one expected both Kramnik and Carlsen to lose their last round games this Monday to Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Svidler respectively!
The illustrious line-up in London included Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov, Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Boris Gelfand and Vassily Ivanchuk.
Fide Chess Candidates 2013 R13: Carlsen beats Radjabov, in Joint Lead with Kramnik
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
In yet another truly dramatic 13th round of the FIDE World Chess Candidates' Tournament Magnus Carlsen (Norway) caught Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) in first place. Carlsen, who ground down Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) in 89 moves, is now first on tie-break because of his higher number of wins. Kramnik had a promising position against Boris Gelfand (Israel) but couldn't get more than a draw. Alexander Grischuk (Russia) and Levon Aronian (Armenia) drew as well, while Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) lost yet another game on time against Peter Svidler (Russia).
In the 13th round “giant killer” Vassily Ivanchuk returned to his bad habit in this tournament of handling the clock terribly. It’s hard to believe but it’s true: the Ukrainian's flag fell for the fifth time! It must be said that in this game the final position was lost. “It was a new experience for me. When he played 27…Rd7 he looked away, and after I played 28.a4 and pressed the clock, he lost about half a minute trying to figure out which move I made,” said Svidler.
The game was a French Advance, and the Russian grandmaster played concrete moves from the start. “If I do nothing Black will develop very naturally so I went 11.Bg5 and 12.Be3 asking questions with every move.” Then, on move 15, Svidler went for pawn sacrifice. It was “one of those moments” where he thought: “If I don’t play this I will kind of regret it forever.” After 23.Re1 he was “very happy for a while” until he realized that Black has 23…Nd6 there. Svidler then showed an amazingly complicated computer line which his seconds told him about after the game. “Good luck finding that. There’s absolutely no one who can find that out at the board!”
Ivanchuk didn’t spot it, again spent too much time and after White’s 37th move his flag fell. “I saw White’s ideas but I didn’t know what to do. From the opening my position wasn’t very comfortable,” the Ukrainian said. At the press conference GM Danny King asked him the question that needed to be asked: how can you explain to yourself the masterpieces you played against Radjabov and Carlsen, and at the same time losing on time in five games? Ivanchuk: “Everything has happened. I don’t like to focus too much on my lost games. I’d like to forget them as quickly as possible and soon start a new tournament.” On his game against Kramnik tomorrow, he said: “For me it’s not important, it’s just a normal game.”
Alexander Grischuk and Levon Aronian drew a Slav/Catalan in 38 moves. “I think I got a comfortable advantage out of the opening. Black has of course decent chances to equalize but he has to play very accurately because White has a positional advantage in the centre,” said Grischuk, who thought that Aronian’s 12…a5 was “very ambitious”. White got a nice endgame advantage with the bishop pair and more active rooks, but somehow Grischuk misplayed it. “White has to be precise and it will be long suffering for Black,” he said. A tactical phase followed and Aronian could save the half point. At the press conference Grischuk said that he did play for a win: “Of course I lost a big part of my motivation but it’s not every day that I can play against such a brilliant player like Levon!”
Moving on to the two key games of the round, Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand were the first to finish. This encounter started as a Fianchetto Grünfeld and the former World Champion came up with a new idea as early as move five – something that’s very rare in chess. “It’s amazing how many ideas he’s introducing, maybe more than all of us together!” said Gelfand. “At least I got a game, I got a game,” said Kramnik, who needed to keep all options open: going for a solid draw or playing for a win, depending on the developments in Radjabov-Carlsen.
London Chess Candidates R2: Aronian, Radjabov First to Score Wins
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov went into shared first place in the second round at the FIDE World Chess Candidates' Tournament in London on Saturday. Aronian won against Boris Gelfand, who blundered material. Radjabov outplayed Vassily Ivanchuk, who eventually lost on time in what should be a lost position any way. Magnus Carlsen got no opening advantage against Vladimir Kramnik and the two quickly drew. Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler also split the point, but not before both players had had an advantage in the game.
In December Magnus Carlsen of Norway beat Garry Kasparov’s record of the highest ever elo rating. Being 62 points ahead of Russia’s number one Vladimir Kramnik, the Norwegian is the clear favourite in all the polls. Because of this, and perhaps his temporary side-career as a model for G-Star, on Friday Carlsen was asked by one journalist whether he felt he could make the game “more attractive, more sexy”. The top seed replied: “I drew both of my games in a total of less than three hours and an average of 30.5 moves so… that’s going to change the game a lot!” According to Kramnik, his opponent made “the wrong opening choice”. “I consider it just harmless. In fact after ten moves there was not much to play for. It happens sometimes in modern chess.” Carlsen: “I guess the opening line in question is not very dangerous for Black but I had had some hopes beforehand that I could be able to press a little bit. Many times also with White against Vladimir I’ve been doing quite badly so at least equality is an improvement for me!”
Big Chess Show 2013: Candidates' Opening Ceremony Today
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
The big chess show of 2013 is here. Today is the opening ceremony of the World Chess Candidates Tournament being held in London
London from March 15-April 1. The event has been announced by FIDE and AGON – the World Chess Federation’s
commercial partner.
The London Candidates will be the strongest tournament of its kind in history. The Prize Fund to be shared by the players totals €510,000. The winner of the Candidates will become the Challenger to Viswanathan Anand who has reigned as World Champion since 2007.
Format: The Candidates is a double round-robin tournament with four rest days.
Venue: The IET at 2 Savoy Place
Address: 2 Savoy Place, London WC2R 0BL
Tickets will be available on the official website and at the venue.
Players:
Levon Aronian (ARM)
Magnus Carlsen (NOR)
Boris Gelfand (ISR)
Alexander Grischuk (RUS)
Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR)
Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)
Teimour Radjabov (AZE)
Peter Svidler (RUS)
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the president of FIDE, said: “FIDE is happy that this major tournament will take place in London and that UK chess fans will be able to see the greatest chess players live. We support AGON’s efforts to bring important chess events to the great cities of Europe.” Andrew Paulson, the founder of AGON, said: “I am pleased to confirm that the 2013 Candidates Tournament will take place in a great venue on the banks of the River Thames and be broadcast online to a global audience.”
The World Chess Championship Cycle is the pinnacle of chess and consists of nine events over two years. The Championship Match between Viswanathan Anand and the winner of the Candidates Tournament will take place in November, 2013. The commercial rights for the World Chess Championship Cycle were accorded to AGON by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in February 2012.
Candidates Chess London March 14 - Pairings ad Curtainraiser
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
The Guardian has carried a super curtainraiser on the upcoming Candidates Chess matches in London from March 14. Most fans are betting on World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen to win the tournament and obtain the chance to challenge Viswanathan Anand for the world title. Here is one of the best articles with a preview and analysis of this must-watch historic event!
Chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen enters endgame for world title
22-year-old grandmaster labelled greatest ever player hopes to earn right to play for world championship at London tournament Stephen Moss in Oslo
Magnus Carlsen has been described as the greatest chess player of all time. Photograph: Fred Jonny for the Guardian
Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen is the Tiger Woods of chess. In a good way. Just as Woods, before his fall, established an iron grip on golf, so Carlsen, at the age of 22, has made himself supreme in his own more esoteric field. He became world No 1 while still a teenager, and is now officially rated the strongest player of all time.
What he is not, however, is world champion. That title has been held since 2007 by India's Viswanathan Anand, a great player but 20 years older than Carlsen and now rated only No 6 in the world. The time may be ripe for the young genius, and, in a three-week tournament that starts in London on Thursday, Carlsen and seven other top grandmasters will compete for the right to challenge Anand for his crown later in the year. (Continue reading here.)
Meanwhile, the official website of the event has details of the venue and profiles of the players as well. You can access the site here. In the extended post, you can read the full pairings for all the rounds of the Candidates Chess matches 2013.
Norway Chess May 7-18 with Carlsen, Kramnik, Aronian, Radjabov, Karjakin, Anand, Topalov, Nakamura, Hao, Hammer
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
How about a chess summer 2013 in Norway? You won't say 'no' if we tell you the list of players who have already confirmed their participation in the Norway Chess super-grandmaster event along with the the Stavanger Open. Stavanger Chess Club invites all Norwegian and international chess players to participate in Stavanger Open NGP 2013 – an open tournament parallel to Norway Chess.
Player FIDE-rating: (Feb. 2013) Magnus Carlsen 2872 Vladimir Kramnik 2810 Levon Aronian 2809 Teimour Radjabov 2793 Sergey Karjakin 2786 Viswanathan Anand 2780 Veselin Topalov 2771 Hikaru Nakamura 2767 Wang Hao 2743 Jon Ludvig Hammer 2629 Average rating: 2776,0
Have you seen the promo video with Magnus Carlsen?
GM Chess Video: How a Grandmaster Explains a Blunder!
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Here is an interesting chess video: How a Grandmaster explains a blunder by his opponent. We are going to say nothing more, just watch! It's of course Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan at the Tata Steel Chess in an official post-game interview video. Czech GM David Navara had blundered his piece against Radjabov in the Tata Steel 2012 Chess tournament in the third round.
Okay, take a look at the game - spot the blunder - and return to the video! Tata Steel Chess 2013 is going to be held from January 11-27 in Wijk aan Zee.
Three other players will qualify for the respective Blitz or Rapid Finals from the Semi Finals to be held between the 1st and 4th July 2012. From Alexandra Kosteniuk's www.chessblog.com Also see her personal blog at www.chessqueen.com
Tal Chess Memorial Round 5: Morozevich in Sole Lead After Aronian Self-Destruct; Carlsen Beats Radjabov
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Alexander Morozevich - Leading at Tal Chess Memorial 2012
The Tal Chess Memorial witnessed two decisive games in the fifth round. Alexander Morozevich defeated Levon Aronian with black pieces and moved into the sole lead with 4 points. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen scored his first victory against the earlier co-leader Teimour Radjabov.
Tal Chess Memorial - Teimour Radjabov Leads With Perfect Score After Two Rounds
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Teimour Radjabov - leading in Moscow
Teimour Radjabov won his second game in a row to become sole leader at the Mikhail Tal Chess Memorial in Moscow after two rounds. He beat Luke McShane with the Black pieces.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Kramnik defeated Alexander Grischuk. Also, Alexander Morozevih allowed Magnus Carlsen to escape! Evgeny Tomashevsky and Levon Aronian drew their game as did Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. The latter played a long chess game lasting seven hours and 107 moves.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
We know where Viswanathan Anand will be heading after meeting Boris Gelfand in Moscow for the world chess title this year in May! He will be attending the Kings Chess Tournament 2012 that is scheduled to take place in Medias, Romania, from 23rd of June to 4th of July.
The world number one rated player Magnus Carlsen and the main contender to enter the 2800 club Teimour Radjabov will also participate in the event. Sergey Karjakin and Vassily Ivanchuk are also confirmed participants, while the organization will announce one Romanian player in the coming days.
The Kings tournament (known before as Bazna Kings and Medias Kings) will be one of the main closed events of the year. Currently with 5 participants announced the average rating is 2790 ELO!
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Best chess wishes to you! Alexandra Kosteniuk
12th Women's World Chess Champion
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