Archive for May 8th, 2009

After scoring a narrow 4.5-3.5 win in the first two rounds, the FIDE World team turned on the heat on the second day, defeating the Azerbaijan selection by a resounding 8.5-3-5 points – with Vladimir Kramnik winning all three games, and Sergey Karjakin two. FIDE World now leads 13-7. Report with results and games (many still missing or incomplete) and some pictures from Baku.

At 13:00h CEST (Central European Summer time) the third round of the President’s
Cup in Baku starts, with Anand playing Shakriyar Mamedyarov and Shirov vs Radjabov.
The live feed from Baku is still plagued by occasional glitches, but the event
is exciting enough to bear with the organisers. You can watch the games on the
official site, on Playchess and with
our Flash client.

Chess players look more or less the same, in Beijing or in Dortmund. But step out of the playing hall and the picture changes. The locations where chess events are held range from the boring to the visually stunning. Dubai does not belong to the former category. Our report WGM Yana Melnikova has lovingly portrayed the city, while not neglecting the participants, in this spectacular pictorial report.

We all dream of reading an article in CBM, and then going out and winning a
game. Peter
Graf managed this feat, after enjoying an instructive video on the Modern
Defence by Andrew Martin in CBM 124. Read
this article in CBM 124 or actually watch
the video (in the original CBM version you can pause and analyse
with Fritz). And don’t forget to visit our CBM
blog.

The first round saw a well-prepared Shakhriyar Mamedyarov take a point from Alexei Shirov, who defeated Gadir Guseinov in round two. Anand defeated Vugar Gashimov to put the FIDE World team in the lead by 4.5:3.5 points. Before the games started the World Champion received his sixth Chess Oscar from the FIDE President. Live coverage was spotty. Illustrated report.