Archive for August 13th, 2009

Tragedy! I blundered while a Rook ahead, had to go into a pawn-up Q ending, picked the wrong path despite a 16-minute think & had to settle for a draw against a ‘C’ player.

Now, my margin of error is gone & I need to beat my remaining opponents (1917 & 1501-rated) to win on tiebreaks.

• java-replay & zipped PGN of last night’s games
• Annotated replay of last Week’s draw vs. HaimPilosof
• Complete WCL section PGN for rounds 4, 5

Update 8/15 @ 12:29 a.m. – Two games added, to complete the 6th Round PGN.

Tragedy! I blundered while a Rook ahead, had to go into a pawn-up Q ending, picked the wrong path despite a 16-minute think & had to settle for a draw against a ‘C’ player.

Now, my margin of error is gone & I need to beat my remaining opponents (1917 & 1501-rated) to win on tiebreaks.

• Annotated java-replay& zipped PGN of last night’s game.
• Annotated replay of last week’s draw vs. HaimPilosof.
• Complete WCL section PGN for rounds 4, 5

The Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø ended last Sunday, with four players sharing the top score of 7.0/9 points. One of them, a 14-year-old lad, stood to make a GM norm. But to do so Ray Robson had to hold the Swedish Champion GM Emanuel Berg to a draw in the final round, with the black pieces. To compound matters Berg was desperate to win. Pictorial report by Misha Savinov.

Older readers will remember that Nigel Short played Jan Timman in 1993 for the right to meet defending World Champion Garry Kasparov (Short won). Today Nigel is 44, and Jan 57. Thes are playing in the Scheveningen and round robin groups of the Staunton Memorial, and both are dominating. England and Holland are tied 12.5:12.5 in the team event. Rounds 1-5 report.

“The first to draw blood today was Peter Leko who celebrated the arrival of his wife Sophie in Jermuk by beating Sergey Karjakin,” the official tournament bulletin tells us. Armenia’s top GM Levon Aronian did it without the his Australian girlfriend turning up in Jermuk, to stay in the lead with Leko. Vassily Ivanchuk also won to join Cheparinov half a point behind the leaders. Round four report.

There’s a veritable log jam at the top of the crosstable after six rounds of play – twelve players with 5.0/6 points, followed by nineteen in hot pursuit, with 4.5 points. On top of the table with the best tiebreak score is (who else?) Alexander Morozevich. Best female player so far is (who else?) Hou Yifan. The event is full of interesting players and faces.