Archive for March 14th, 2010

We have been reporting quite extensively on the European Individual Championships, but contrary to urban legend we have been neglecting the female players. After the first seven rounds it is time to make amends. We do so with a look at a number of games, we offer you some tactical puzzles, and bring you a large number of uncaptioned pictures – and ask you to identify the players.

The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament began with a shock: top seed Magnus Carlsen played 1.a3 in his blindfold game against “Mr Amber” Vassily Ivanchuk and lost. Carlsen went on to lose the rapid game as well. Former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, playing for the first time, also won 2-0 against Boris Gelfand. Big report with pictures from the opening ceremony.

So far two candidates have declared their intention to run for President of the European Chess Union: the President of the Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici, and the Bulgarian IM and manager Silvio Danailov. GM Robert Fontaine from Europe Echecs spoke to both candidates. Danailov also revealed that at the World Championship match against Anand Topalov will not accept or offer draws.

So far two candidates have declared their intention to run for President of the European Chess Union: the President of the Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici, and the Bulgarian IM and manager Silvio Danailov. GM Robert Fontaine from Europe Echecs spoke to both candidates. Danailov also revealed that at the World Championship match against Anand Topalov will not accept or offer draws.