Archive for May 13th, 2009

This popular team championship is being held from May 10–17 in the idyllic – and very healthy – Slovenian town of Rogaska Slatina. The men’s section has four players per team, the women’s two. Time controls are 90/40 + 30/rest with 30s increment per move. After four rounds the Hungarian and Croatian men lead, while in the women’s section it is all about Slovenia 1 and 2. Illustrated report.

The Super-GM tournament in Sofia with six players has started today. On the first day of this double round robin event Alexei Shirov beat Vassily Ivanchuk with the black pieces. 18-year-old Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen beat Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov in 36 moves. Wang Yue and Leinier Dominguez Perez drew their game. Results and games.

In round five defending champion Yury Shulman and Varuzhan Akobian broke from the pack to take the joint lead. Akobian easily outplayed GM Jaan Ehlvest, who tried a dramatic queen sacrifice but was foiled by the cool defence of his 25-year-old opponent. Gata Kamsky, Hikaru Nakamura Alexander Onischuk and Robert Hess are half a point behind the leaders. Big illustrated report.

In February the World Chess Federation announced that it had an offer from Universal Event Promotion GmbH to stage the 2009-2011 World Champion cycle – to the tune of 3.5 to 4 million Euros. Now FIDE has announced that the parties had “not reached a final agreement.” UEP blamed it on “different agendas relating to organisational sovereignty and commercial rights.” Press releases.

The Sparkassen Chess-Meeting is the most important traditional chess tournament
in Germany. It is also a favourite of former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik,
33, who has won it a record eight times. This year the average
rating is 2744 (and the average age 25.7 years), and Kramnik has the likes of Magnus
Carlsen and Peter Leko snapping at his heels. Make a note: July 2–12 2009.

He won the British Championship at 21, but in his mid-20s GM Matthew Sadler
turned his back on chess, preferring a larger and more stable income in the
IT world to the vicissitudes of life as a chess professional. Our Playchess
lecturer Dennis Monokroussos won’t let him go without a look at a Sadler brilliancy
in a QGA game against Spanish GM Illescas. Be there to watch at 9 p.m. ET.

This popular team championship is being held from May 10–17 in the idyllic – and very healthy – Slovenian town of Rogaska Slatina. The men’s section has four players per team, the women’s two. Time controls are 90/40 + 30/rest with 30s increment per move. After four rounds the Hungarian and Croatian men lead, while in the women’s section it is all about Slovenia 1 and 2. Illustrated report.