THE WEEK IN CHESS 723 15th September 2008 by Mark Crowther

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1) Introduction

My thanks to Bill Townsend, Brian Stephenson, Christian Sanchez, Evgeny Klavir, Frank Berry, Georgios Souleidis, Guillermo Gomez, Ivo Knezovic, John Saunders, Kallai Gabor, Bela Lengyel, Luiz Roberto Da Costa Jr, Marcelo Pagano, Miklos Orso, Sean Hewitt, Peter Svidler, Sebastian Gattenloehner, Thomas Henrich and everyone else who helped with the issue.

The Bilbao Grand Slam final was won by Veselin Topalov who was a convincing winner of the event in the end. There was a system of 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw which I'm not a fan of, its an ugly system which had only the small effect of promoting Carlsen up a couple of places and I think none on the wat the players competed. The win for Topalov should promote him to world number one in the October rating list (according to http://chess.liverating.org/). I'm really enjoying the chess at the moment and I think the fact that its not really possible to say who is the number one is part of that. Only 7 Elo points separate the top 5 players in the world in the next list, Topalov, Morozevich, Carlsen, Ivanchuk and Anand an insignificant gap and the order was significantly affected even by the final round at Bilbao, its going to be interesting to see how the fight continues. Anand's decision to play Bilbao so close to his match against Kramnik next month may come back to haunt him. I think he was right to play an event and I think he believes in the concept but he probably should have chosen a slightly less difficult event. I do believe it helps to play at least some chess close to a match however getting a beating as he did here may not. Players chose openings against Anand in several rounds where he couldn't play his best understanding of the position as he will be saving those for Kramnik. Its another big week of chess elsewhere (not least the final match of the women's world championship) too and there are nearly 4000 games in the issue. I'm probably going to cut out a number of the weakest events if the number of games each week remain at these ridiculously high levels. I simply can't check all the games from events properly and there may be more errors in identifying players than I would like.

Hope you enjoy this issue.

Mark

2) Grand Slam in Bilbao

The Chess Grand Slam Final took place in Bilbao 1st-13th September 2008. Three points for a win and one for a draw rules are in effect. Veselin Topalov confirmed clear first place when he beat Vassily Ivanchuk in the final round. Topalov won the most games and lost the least, for a dominant performance. Carlsen and Aronian tied for second place after Aronian blew a great position and lost against Radjabov. If I understand the regulations Carlsen took second by virtue of beating Aronian twice in the competetion. This win for Radjabov also had the effect of relegating world champion Viswanathan Anand to dead last.

Time control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and another 60 minutes to finish the game.

Players were not allowed to agree draw without arbiter's permission. In case both players request it to him, the arbiter will make his decision after consulting with a technical assistant.

Official site for the event: http://www.bilbaofinalmasters.com. On the spot reports from http://www.chessvibes.com. Videos also from http://www.europe-echecs.com and http://www.chessclub.com/. Some commentary at: http://www.chessok.com/, Playchess.com and http://www.chessdom.com/ and a gallery of photos by Fred Lucas

There is an unusual scoring system of three points for a win and one for a draw. Rightly or wrongly I'm going to stick with 1, ½ and 0 in the actual results part of the table.

Both the official and a normal table are given below. The used the unusual scoring system of three points for a win and one for a draw. Rightly or wrongly I'm going to stick with 1, ½ and 0 in the actual results part of the table. I think Carlsen took second from Aronian due to head to head results. [Regulations in English say: In case of tie for third to sixth places, the following tie-breaks will be applied: 1. Traditional scoring. Players get one point for each game won and 0.5 points for each game in draw. (tied) 2. Particular result (based on traditional scoring). (I'm presuming this means head to head scores) 3. Koya system (based on traditional scoring). 4. Sonneborn-Berger (based on traditional scoring) ] I'm open to correction. The only effect three points for a win had was of being a tie-break amongst those tied for second on 5 points under the normal system.

3) Women's World Championship

The World Women's Championship 2008 takes place in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria (Russian Federation), 28th August - 18th September 2008 with a prize fund of 450,000 USD. FIDE and the organisers have stressed that events in Ossetia shouldn't have any impact on the event but a number of players have chosen not to participate. These include all the Georgian players (Maia Chiburdanidze, Lela Javakhishvili, Sopio Gvetadze, Maia Lomineishvili, Sopiko Khukhashvili and Nino Khurtsidze), Tea Bosboom Lanchava, Karen Zapata, Marie Sebag, and Irina Krush all of whom lost by default in the first round and also it looks like Ekaterina Korbut didn't make it either. Two pairings seem to have no players in attendance so there will be byes in round 2.

Sudden Death Playoff regulations: White shall receive 6 minutes, Black shall receive 5 minutes, without any addition. The winner qualifies for the next round. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces qualifies for the next round.

Official site: http://nalchik2008.fide.com

http://www.chessdom.com/ has live blog coverage.

4) Russian Championship Higher League

The 61st Russian Championship Higher League took place in Novokuznetsk 3rd-14th September 2008. There were 6 qualifiers from this event who go forward to the Superfinal - the top 3 obviously, and from the big tie on 7/11 (according to reduced Buchholz) - Maslak, Lastin, and Riazantsev. The Superfinal will also include Morozovich, Grischuk, Tomashevsky (top 3 in '07), and Svidler along with Jakovenko and Alekseev as top 3 by rating who did not qualify otherwise. Opening ceremony 2nd October 1st round on the 3rd. I didn't have chance to check the table below (created from the games) against the official table to see if there were any incorrect results in the games section.

Official site: http://www.rcc2008.org/eng/index.htm

5) European Union Championships, Liverpool

This years European Union Championships takes place in Liverpool, England 9th - 18th September 2008. The prize fund is 30,000 pounds with 6000 pounds first prize.

Official site:  http://www.liverpoolchessinternational.co.uk            

6) Serbian Team Championship

The 1st Serbian League for men and women took place in Subotica 1st-13th September 2008. NSK Ddor Novi Sad (Emil Sutovsky was top board) won the men's event.

Official site: http://www.serbiachess.net/

7) US Chess League

The 2008 season of the US Chess League started 25th August 2008. The third round took place on 8th and 10th September 2008.

Official site: http://www.uschessleague.com/

8) 10th Trieste International Festival

The 10th Trieste International Festival took place 31st August - 7th September 2008. Sergei Tiviakov edged out Marin Bosiocic on tie-break after both finished on 7/9. Additional games from the final two rounds now available.

Official site: http://www.sst1904.com/pagine/index.html - Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr15025.aspx?lan=2

9) AFOCS 12th Open chess tournament

The AFOCS 12th Open chess tournament 2008 (Men) took place in Abu Dhabi 6th-11th September 2008. Zurab Sturua edged out Bassem Amin, Alexander Chernin and Eltaj Safarli all of whom finished on 7.5/9. Game file isn't complete and I'll return to it when it is.

Official site: http://www.abudhabichess.com/ and Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr15697.aspx?lan=2

10) Herzliya International Open

The Herzliya (Israel) International Open Chess Tournament took place 2th-12th September 2008. Konstantin Lerner took clear first place.

Official site: http://www.herzliyachessclub.com/

11) 3rd XtraCon EMT

The 3rd XtraCon EMT took place in the Skovbo Chess Club in Borup 5th-16th September 2008 over two weekends. Kaido Kulaots and Jon Ludvig Hammer finished on 7/9.

Official site: http://www.skovboskakklub.dk/

12) Edami-CosmoCaixa Barcelona

The category XII Edami-CosmoCaixa tournament took place in Barcelona 8th-14th September, 2008. Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez won with 6/9 half a point clear of the field.

Official site: http://www.edami.com/home03.aspx?ID=157

13) First Saturday September

The First Saturday tournaments take place 6th-18th of September 2008. GM-IM-FM events.

Official site: http://www.firstsaturday.hu

14) 23rd Parla International Open

The 23rd Parla (Spain) International Open took place 6th-14th September 2008. Isam Ortiz Suarez took first place on tie-break from Renier Vazquez Igarza on tie-break after both finished on 7.5/9. Games from the final round not yet available.

Official site: http://www.clubdeajedrezparla.com/ - Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr15755.aspx

15) Epetium Open

"Epetium Open 2008" tournament took place in Stobrec, Croatia 26th July - 2nd August 2008. Urso Krstic edged out Drazen Curic on tie-break after both finished on 6/7. News: Ivo Knezovic.

Official site: http://www.crochess.com/turniri/split/stobrec_08.htm

16) 130th New York State Championship

The 130th New York State Championship took place in Colonie, near the New York State capital Albany, August 29th to September 1st 2008. Bill Townsend reports:

The Open section contained few surprises as the two top rated players tied for first. IM Alex Lenderman and IM Justin Sarkar both scored 5.5-0.5, drawing each other in round four and winning all their other games. Although both players were New Yorkers, the New York State Chess Association tries to avoid co-champions so Lenderman was declared New York State Champion on tie-breaks because his opponents performed better than Sarkar’s.

Tied for third with 4.5-1.5 were masters Yefim Treger and Michael Thaler. Tied for fifth with 4-2 were: FM Igor Nikolayev, Evan Rabin, FM Alec Getz, Steven Taylor, Yevgeni Nahutin and Ben Dean-Kawamura. It’s interesting to note that, as opposed to previous years, of all players named were New Yorkers, with the exception of Nahutin who is from Ontario.

The thing that caused the most comment at the event was not who was there, but rather who wasn’t. This is the first New York State Championship that I can remember where there were no grandmasters playing. Nobody was quite sure of the reason for this - one of the organizers thought that it might be because there was no "two day" option for the Open section. Perhaps the GMs who usually play had other commitments: for example that weekend defending champion GM Hikaru Nakamura was coming in second at an invitational tournament in Montreal. In spite of this the tournament had a good turnout: 194 players competed in the four sections, up slightly from last year’s total.

The New York State championship is the longest running annual tournament in the U.S., and possibly the world, having started in 1878 and been held almost every year since then. There are many famous players on the list of New York State Champions, such as world champion Jose Capablanca (1910) and 5th World Correspondence Champion Hans Berliner (1953). More recently GMs Gata Kamsky (2005), Hikaru Nakamura (2004, 2007) and Joel Benjamin (nine(!) times between 1985 and 2002) have been state champions.

The event was directed by Steve Immitt and Bill and Brenda Goichberg. Full crosstables for the event are posted at the Continental Chess website, the address is: http://www.chesstour.com/nysc08r.htm

17) Bundesliga 2008-9

The Bundesliga in Germany will be broadcasting all the games of this strong event next season. The dates for next season are as follows: 4th-5th October 2008 25th-26th October 2008 29th-30th November 2008 12th-14th December 2008 (Here the official seventh round will be played. Although some will be played at other times) 31st January 2008 - 1st February 2009. 28th February - 1st March 2009. 28th-29th March 2009.

Official site: http://www.schachbundesliga.de

18) II ROMGAZ Open

The II ROMGAZ Open takes place in Bucharest 11th-19th September. Evgenij Miroshnichenko and Dmitry Kononenko both have started with 5/5 in this 9 round swiss.

Official site: http://www.turneulregilor.com and the results at: http://chess-results.com/tnr15672.aspx?lan=2  

19) I Tancats Magistrals Vila de Canovelles

The I Tancats Magistrals Vila de Canovelles tournament takes place 8th-14th September 2008. GM and IM groups.

Official site: http://www.flancderei.com/index.php/archives/tag/i-tancat and results and games at: http://chess-results.com/tnr15849.aspx?tnr=15849&art=2&lan=2&flag=30&m=-1  

20) Leicester

There were two all-play-all event in Leicester, England 23rd August - 7th September 2008. 12 year old Brandon Clarke won the A tournament.

Official site: http://www.leicesterchess.co.uk