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Mainz 2007 – Navara wins the Ordix Open
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21.08.2007 – With 762 players it is one of the biggest Rapid Chess Opens in the world. You will find a GM on place 188 in the final standings. At the top, after a long, nerve-wracking fight, was Czech Champion David Navara, who survived the final strech Indian onslaught of Harikrishna and Sasikiran to win the Ordix Open with 9.5/11 points.
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Adams' tactics pay off
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Michael Adams was made to sweat by Ivan Sokolov but emerged from their eleventh round game with tournament victory at the 5th Staunton Memorial staged by Dutch chess enthusiast Jan Mol at the historic chess venue of Simpsons in the Strand. Sokolov pressed for forty five moves but Adams held the draw with a mixture of first passive and then active defence. Adams avoided the argument in the opening and opted out of the sharp lines of the Queen’s Indian Defence but in doing so surrendering the centre. Adams conceded a lot of space and from an early stage he had a weak isolated pawn on d5. Sokolov pressed but Adams played very skilfully and always had a tactical resource whenever the pawn looked like it was about to fall.
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Van Wely falls to Jones
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Michael Adams is assured of at least a share of first place at the 5th Staunton Memorial as his main rival Loek van Wely was despatched by Gawain Jones in just 25 moves. Adams defeated Colin McNab to reach 8/10 a point clear of Van Wely and last year’s winner Ivan Sokolov. Van Wely is ranked in the world’s top 30 but he took some serious liberties playing black against Jones who has only recently qualified for the Grandmaster title and took the most notable scalp of his career so far.
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Mainz 2007 – Anand wins Rapid Final
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20.08.2007 – Vishy Anand won the Grenke Leasing Rapid World Championship, defeating Levon Aronian in the last game of their four-game match. Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Etienne Bacrot drew their match for third place, David Navara won the Ordix Open.
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Mainz 2007 – Anand and Aronian in the Rapid Final
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19.08.2007 – Rustam Kasimdzhanov made a brave effort to catch Levon Aronian in the preliminaries of the Rapid Chess Championship in Mainz, but in the end the Armenian held fast to qualify for the Sunday evening encounter, where he meets with Vishy Anand. The Ordix Rapid is under way with a record-breaking 761 participants.
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Mainz 2007 – Anand leads in Rapid World Championship
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17.08.2007 – With the Chess960 play finishing – Victor Bologan won the FiNet Open – the players at the Mainz Chess Classic return to regular unshuffled chess. In the Rapid Championship Vishy Anand used the Ruy Lopez to take a solid lead (2.5/3) ahead of his colleagues Levon Aronian, Etienne Bacrot and Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
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Speelman on Chess. Sunday August 19, 2007
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Many congratulations to the new British Champion: the Danish born Scottish IM Jacob Aagaard, who battled his way to tournament victory in Great Yarmouth last Friday, with the characteristically messy win as Black against Glenn Flear, below.
I left you last week with just that final round of the British to be played and everything up in the air, as Aagaard shared the lead with Stephen Gordon - to whom he'd just lost as White - ahead of six players on 7. Almost anything could have happened depending on the top six or seven boards. But in the event Aagaard completed an utterly topsy-turvy week, in which he'd won both his Blacks but lost both his Whites with the possibly "lucky" but certainly gritty win against Flear. Meanwhile a big battle between Gorden and Tony Kosten finished in a draw, Mark Hebden and Stewart Haslinger fought each other to a standstill and the defending champion Jonathan Rowson and David Howell moved up at the expense of Nick Pert and Simon Williams respectively.
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Barden on chess. Saturday August 18, 2007
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London's Staunton Memorial, now in its fifth year, is an evocative event for chess history. The Shakespearean scholar Howard Staunton was the best player in the world in the 1840s, and gave his name to what has become the universally accepted pattern for chess pieces. The tournament venue, Simpsons in the Strand, was a habitat for 19th century grandmasters, who could pass profitable hours by taking on amateurs for a shilling a game. Simpsons still displays a set and board on which the world champions Wilhelm Steinitz and Emanuel Lasker strutted their skills.
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Adams regains lead
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The battle between England number one Michael Adams and Dutch GM Loek Van Wely intensified again at the 5th Staunton Memorial being held at the historic chess venue of Simpsons in the Strand. Adams regained a share of the lead with a ninth round victory over Jan Werle and the pair are well clear of the field on 7/9. Gawain Jones put up a tremendous fight to draw with Ivan Sokolov ranked world number 44. Jones managed to hold a very difficult endgame a pawn down for over thirty moves after emerging from the opening, a Benko Gambit Declined, with a poor position.
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Bloodthirsty stuff
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The 5th Staunton Memorial continued in the same bloodthirsty fashion with once again only a short draw involving Jon Speelman prevented all six games ending decisively. It was Michael Adams who drew with Speelman playing black and he lost ground on Loek van Wely who ground out a win against the back marker Jovanka Houska. The game between Peter Wells and Jan Timman was very odd but went in favour of the Dutchman and there were two miniatures given below. The UK team now lags well behind the Dutch.
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Mainz 2007 – Aronian and Anand qualif for Chess960 Final
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16.08.2007 – Today one of them will win the world championship title – in Chess960, with shuffled pieces. Both the hot favourites Levon Aronian and Vishy Anand dutifully qualified, knocking Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Etienne Bacrot out of contention. The final will take place on Thursday, Aug. 16, at 6:30 p.m. local time (= 12:30 p.m. NY, 10:00 p.m. Chennai).
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Kingside, queenside...
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The British Women’s Championship was fiercely contested this year despite the absence of Harriet Hunt and Jovanka Houska. As reported earlier Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant from Edinburgh won with a score of 7/11 which was just enough to edge out Dagne Ciuksyte on 6.5. Susan Lalic’s challenge started brightly and she ended on 50%. Dagne Ciuksyte is a Lithuanian WGM who has settled in Ipswich and will be playing for England soon. She was undoubtedly a bit rusty having recently given birth to her first child and she lost her first two games including the tactical melee we saw last week against Charley Storey.
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Mainz 2007 – Levon Aronian leads in Chess960
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15.08.2007 – At the start of the Chess Classic in Mainz four world class GMs – Anand, Aronian, Bacrot and Kasimdzhanov – are battling it out in an extraordinary form of the game: Chess960, a Fischer Random variant where the pieces are shuffled at the start. But what are the rules and how can you replay these games?
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Too smart to swindle
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The 5th Staunton Memorial sprang into life in the seventh round at Simpsons in the Strand with only one drawn game from six. Michael Adams and Loek van Wely maintained their full point lead over the field with comfortable victories over Gawain Jones and Peter Wells respectively. Wells was on the cusp of a fine result but spoilt a great position against Ivan Sokolov in round six and was outplayed by Loek van Wely in the game below. Round seven results: Adams 1-0 Jones; Van Wely 1-0 Wells; Sokolov 1-0 Houska; McNab 0-1 L’Ami; Timman 0-1 Smeets; Speelman draw Werle
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Time to go for broke
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Michael Adams and Loek van Wely continue to make the running at the 5th Staunton Memorial being played at the historic chess venue of Simpsons in the Strand. The pair were the only winners in the fifth round as Van Wely outplayed Jan Timman and Michael Adams overcame Jovanka Houska in the game below. The Dutch players are comfortably ahead of the British with the combined scores of the six-player teams 16.5-13.5 in favour of the visitors.
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Chess serial killer 'slayed 49'
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A SUSPECTED serial killer has been charged with 49 MURDERS. Russian Alexander Pichushkin is accused of killing dozens of people over several years and marking his slayings on a chessboard. After his arrest last year, Pichushkin claimed that he had killed more than 60 people, but prosecutors said they had only gathered evidence to charge him with 49 murders. Pichushkin, 33, looked calm and aloof as he sat in the defendant’s cage of the Moscow City Court during a preliminary hearing today. The judge accepted his appeal for a jury trial and ruled that it should be open to the public. The trial is set to start on September 13 and Pichushkin faces life in prison if convicted.
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A last twist for Gordon
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A last round of almost excruciating tension climaxed with the Glasgow based Danish GM Jacob Aagaard, who had led throughout, capturing the British Championship held at Great Yarmouth College. This was the fourth time in successive years that the title has gone north of the border. For most of the afternoon it seemed like the barman would be serving pints of Greenfields real ale as co-leader IM Stephen Gordon from Oldham, playing for the Championship and the GM title, was in the ascendancy against Tony Kosten while Aagaard was in serious trouble against Glenn Flear. However in the fifth hour of play fortunes swung dramatically and it was double scotches all round yet again.Aagaard won and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant from Edinburgh overcame Simon Fowler to make it four British Ladies titles in her last four attempts.
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Even 16-Year-Old Prodigies Sometimes Have Off Days
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A week ago, Magnus Carlsen, a 16-year-old from Norway, won the Biel International Chess Festival, one of the strongest tournaments of the year. It was the biggest triumph of his career.
The day after Biel, on a whim, Carlsen flew to Tromso, Norway, to play in the Arctic Chess Challenge, a tournament open to anyone. In Round 1, Carlsen, ranked No. 17 in the world, played Brede Hagen, a Norwegian ranked thousands of places below him.
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Gordon closes in
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There was yet another twist in the British Championship as the leader Jacob Aagaard was defeated by IM Stephen Gordon in the tenth round at Great Yarmouth College. Gordon reached 7.5/10 to share the lead with the Danish GM who now represents Scotland. Going into the last round there are eight players in the mix including defending champion Jonathan Rowson who is trying to make it four titles in a row. There is a distinct chance of an Englishman winning for the first time since 2000 with the young Grandmasters Stewart Haslinger and Nick Pert plus the old guard of Mark Hebden, Glenn Flear and Tony Kosten all tied for third half a point behind Aagaard and Gordon.
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Chess with Errol Tiwari
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In 38 days, on September 12, FIDE Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik will begin his title defence in picturesque Mexico City against seven of the strongest chess players on the planet. Chess players will know that Kramnik defeated Garry Kasparov for the title in London 2000, and has defended it successfully ever since. This time around, Kramnik will be tasked to prove he is better than India's Viswanathan Anand, a former FIDE world champion himself, who is renowned for his speed and accuracy in the attack.
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Perils of a chair leg
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The 5th Staunton Memorial roared away at Simpsons in the Strand with a novel way of determining the pairings. The event sponsor Jan Mol distributed two sets of numbers one to six to the twelve players. Players with the same number were then handed two remote controlled cars to be raced, with the winner playing white. Loek Van Wely, who once famously wrote off his sports car on the German Autobahn while travelling back from a match, sent his toy into a chair leg which gave Michael Adams the white pieces in their individual game. However, the England number one did not feel inclined to attack the Sicilian Defence and the game was a short draw. Scottish GM Colin McNab produced the game of the day to exploit errors by his opponent Ivan Sokolov...
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World Chess Federation to Build Hotels in Russia
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The world’s second largest chess federation (FIDE) intends to build hotels in 165 countries. All hotels are said to be in the shape of chess figures. FIDE plans to build 150 hotels and chess centres within the nearest four years. According to FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, at the first stage nearly US$1 billion is to be allotted for bringing the plans to life. The total cost of the project is estimated at US$50 billion. It is already known that a number of chess centres and hotel complexes will first appear in Chisinau (Moldova), People’s Republic of China, and such Russian cities as Samara, Yekaterinburg, and Khanty-Mansiysk.
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A classy finish
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Stewart Haslinger of Southport celebrated becoming England’s most recent Grandmaster by defeating Jacob Aagaard and opening up the British Championship in the eighth round held at Great Yarmouth College. Haslinger defended the Ruy Lopez patiently and accurately and took his chance when it arose. Haslinger now shares the lead with Aagaard on 6.5/8 with three to play. The defending champion Jonathan Rowson will find it tough to win a fourth successive title after misplaying the Benko Gambit and losing to Stephen Gordon. This result put Gordon in with a great chance of securing the GM title. The ninth round sees an all Lancashire clash on top board between Gordon and Haslinger...
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Second Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromso
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07.08.2007 – The Norwegian island town of Tromso lies well within the Arctic Circle, which means that this time of the year the sun never sets. Tromso is playing host to a strong GM tournament from August 4th-12th, 2007. Top seed is Magnus Carlsen, who rushed in from his victory in Biel and did not have a great start here (3.0/4, place ten). Two other GMs, Macieja and Lie, lead with 4.0/4...
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Aagaard steams on
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Jacob Aagaard’s dominance of the British Championship continued as he despatched another of his challengers in the seventh round held at Great Yarmouth College. Simon Williams became Aagaard’s sixth victim when, after trying to attack, he found himself first becalmed and then gradually forced back. The Danish GM, now a Scottish resident reached 6.5/7. Only Stewart Haslinger remains within a point of the leader. Haslinger looked impressive again as he followed up a smooth victory over GM Stuart Conquest with the rapid defeat of a second England international Danny Gormally. Gormally sacrificed a pawn but never got it back and ruined his position in the process. Like Aagaard, Haslinger’s fine play at Great Yarmouth has pushed his rating to the required 2500 level and ensured he will receive the Grandmaster title...
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Ponomariov wins XXII Torneo Villarrobledo
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07.08.2007 – You may be forgiven if this comes as a surprise to you. The 22nd edition of the rapid chess event took place in Villarrobledo, a city in the heart of the Spanish wine-growing area. Participants included Veselin Topalov, Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov. The event was won by Ruslan Ponomariov, on tiebreak ahead of Dreev and Topalov...
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An ill wind for Radjabov
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The Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen won the Biel Chess Festival crushing his rival Teimour Radjabov the world’s highest ranked junior play in the last round. Carlsen needed a win in their last round and playing white, threw caution to the wind and was rewarded when Radjabov, ranked world number 9, was unable to find the best defence.
The American Alexander Onischuk joined Carlsen on the winning score of 5.5/9 but the youngest won a Blitz play off to take the title...
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Lubomir Kavalek
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Magnus Carlsen won the elite grandmaster group at the 40th chess festival in the Swiss city of Biel last week. The brilliant 16-year-old Norwegian grandmaster had to beat the top-rated Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in the last round to catch Alexander Onischuk, a Maryland grandmaster and former U.S. champion. They shared first place in the tournament with 5 1/2 points in nine games, but Carlsen prevailed in the playoff 3 to 2. Radjabov, Alexander Grischuk of Russia, Judit Polgar of Hungary and Yannick Pelletier of Switzerland finished a half point behind the winners...
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On Big Screen, the Right Play Can Help Advance the Plot
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In “The Seventh Seal,” the 1957 film directed by Ingmar Bergman, who died last week, a game of chess between a knight and death is one of the central plots and one of the most memorable images in film history. That chess has cropped up again and again in movies, as well as in paintings and literature, is hardly surprising...
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Danish pasting
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The British Championships at Great Yarmouth College continued to provide entertaining chess in the fifth and sixth rounds. A stunning combination from the Edinburgh based Danish GM Jacob Aagaard overwhelmed England international Nick Pert in thirty moves to reach 5/5, a point clear of the field and set up a battle with defending champion Jonathan Rowson who looked far from convincing in defeating Steve Barrett, one of the amateur players who has made a big impact.
Aagard’s 12th move was such a surprise that the audience in the commentary room and online only found the idea after IM Andrew Martin had given them 24 guesses. Here is the position. If Black plays quietly 0–0–0, g4 and e4 will push him the board so what happened next?
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