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The Group C has some fresh new faces, none fresher than Caruana, who should already be a strong contender for the title. Negi did not have a great year last year, but what the heck when you are 15 and the world at your board ? Van der Weil will be interesting to watch here. Ushenina, Krush and Zhaoqin bring in the ladies charm and agression at the board. GM Group C GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko UKR 2651 GM Fabiano Caruana ITA 2594 GM Friso Nijboer NED 2559 IM Arik Braun GER 2541 GM Parimarjan Negi IND 2514 GM Dimitri Reinderman NED 2510 GM Efstratios Grivas GRE 2509 GM John van der Wiel NED 2496 WGM Anna Ushenina UKR 2486 GM Pontus Carlsson SWE 2481 WGM Irina Krush USA 2475 GM Zhaoqin Peng NED 2419 IM Mark van der Werf NED 2389 Dennis Ruijgrok NED 2330

The GM Group B is by no means less interesting. There are super Grand Masters, dangerous floaters, and teenagers looking to break through. Bacrot, Cheparinov, Short are very strong and will go all out. Humpy is riding on her successful year 2007. She needs to be watched. In fact Humpy - Yifan is a potential future rivalry. Yifan must have done some serious work the last few months. She's gained heavily in the January ratings list, so lets see if she can put up a fight, even though the opposition is pretty strong for her. Nepomniachtchi and Stellwagen need to be watched carefully. GM Group B GM Etienne Bacrot FRA 2695 GM Gabriel Sargissian ARM 2673 GM Ivan Cheparinov BUL 2670 GM Sergey Movsesian SLK 2670 GM Pentala Harikrishna IND 2668 GM Michal Krasenkow POL 2668 GM Nigel Short ENG 2649 GM Daniel Stellwagen NED 2639 GM Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2611 GM Koneru Humpy IND 2606 GM Erwin L’Ami NED 2577 GM Jan Smeets NED 2558 WGM Hou Yifan CHI 2502 IM Wouter Spoelman NED 2445

The focus will obviously be on the Kramnik - Anand rivarly and now that they are tied for the top spot in the world with exactly the same ELO points, this tournament will more or less serve as a tie-break. Topalov has lost a lot of the headlines to the top two, so he'll probably grab this chance to try and get some. Carlsen, Mamedyarov, and the ever dangerous Judit Polgar are others to watch. The Group A of the Corus Chess Tournaments reads like a Who's who in chess. Here's the list updated with the January 2008 Ratings. Note that Ivanchuk for example, appears second but is ninth in the world because he slipped by the time the Corus tournament was announced and the Ratings list was updated. Same with Leko and Aronian too and so on. Kramnik moved up. World Rank, Name, Country, Rating GM Group A 1 GM Viswanathan Anand India 2799 9 GM Vassily Ivanchuk Ukraine 2751 1 GM Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2799 3 GM Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 2780 8 GM Peter Leko Hungary 2753 6 GM Shakryar Ma

The 2008 Corus Chess Tournament at Wijk and Zee - A Preview The Category 20 chess tournament with average ELO 2741 will be held as usual at Wijk aan Zee from 11 to 27 January 2008. The venue will be the De Moriaan Community Centre and the Bar de Zon. The tournament will be held in different groups. All eyes will be on the premier GM A Group. But players in the GM Group B and GM Group C are no pushovers. In fact, any other city would be proud to host a tournament with players as strong as the ones in GM Group C. As an example, Magnus Carlsen first earned real publicity with his amazing show as a 13 year old kid at Wijk aan Zee. The GM Group A has almost all the top ranked players of the world. This tournament is the first of the Grand Slam events of chess. In addition to the GM Group sections, there is a Honorary tournament running in parallel. Victor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, and Lajos Portisch play in this section. Amazingly even this is a category 13 tournament.

The XIX Internation Open Villa de Roquetas chess tournament will be organized from January 2-6. Leading participants: 1 GM GRANDA ZUÑIGA Julio PER 2592 2 GM UBILAVA Elizbar ESP 2551 3 GM BARSOV Alexei UZB 2526 4 GM CIFUENTES PARADA Roberto ESP 2499 5 GM MEIJERS Viesturs LAT 2490 6 GM DJURIC Stefan SCG 2463 7 IM GAPONENKO Inna UKR 2440 8 IM COSSIN Sebastien FRA 2437 9 FM DOLEZAL Cristian ARG 2424 10 IM KOVACEVIC Slobodan SCG 2414

Results of the European Rapid Championships at Warsaw, Poland: 1 Aleksej Aleksandrov 2 Tomasz Markowski 3 Fernando Peralta 4 Wojciech Moranda 5 Adam Tukhaev 6 Mateusz Bartel 7 Vladimir Malaniuk 8 Hristos Banikas 9 Dimitros Mastrovasilis 10 Wojciech Przybylski 11 Csaba Balogh 12 Artur Jakubiec 13 Aleksander Miśta 14 Namig Guliyev 15 Mikhail Gurevich 16 Aleksander Moiseenko

The Obert International open Illes Medes is being held in Girona, Spain. The 9 round event started on 28 th December and finishes on 4 th January. Leading players are Bartel Mateusz, Victor Moskalenko, Rainer Buhmann, Lopez Martinez Josep Manuel, Narciso Dublan Marc, Aroshidze Levan, Czakon Jakub, Fluvia Jordi, Rasmussen Karsten, Rasmussen Allan Stig. Final Standings: 1 GM Lopez Martinez Josep Manuel ESP 7,5 2 GM Aroshidze Levan GEO 7,0 3 IM Czakon Jakub A POL 7,0 4 GM Narciso Dublan Marc ESP 7,0 5 FM Rasmussen Allan Stig DEN 6,5 6 GM Moskalenko Viktor UKR 6,5 7 GM Bartel Mateusz POL 6,5 8 FM Rombaldoni Denis A ITA 6,5 9 FM Terrieux Kevin FRA 6,5 10 IM Groetz Harald AUT 2321 6,0

The lead pairings, Williams vs Tahirov and Sengupta vs Gormally were drawn. Top seed Malakhatko continued his trek back from the shock first round defeat at the Hastings Chess Congress 2007 - 2008. There were some winners from the home team when Mark Hebden, Stuart Conquest, Nicholas Pert, Haslinger, Houska, and others won. Gormally was held to a draw by the young Deep Sengupta of India. The other two leading Indians, Satyapragyan and Roy Chowdhury, lost today to Neverov and Georgiev respectively. Leaders after 3 rounds: Chatalbashev, Falko, Haslinger, Gerogiev, Neverov, Flear, Hebden, Williams, Gormally, Tahirov, Sengupta, Conquest, Pert (2.5 Pts each) Malakhatko, Gawain Jones, Mamedov & others (2 points each)

University of Texas Dallas team won the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess championship also known as the "World series of College chess", at Miami. UT Dallas team won 5 rounds and drew the final round to win the gruelling tournament. Salvijus Bercys was the hero for the winning team on the last day. The coach Rade Milovanovic was proud of the achievement, which is understandable as one of the features was that Salvijus managed a victory with hardly any time left on his clock. Standings after round 6: 1 Univ. of Texas D- B 5.5 2 Univ. of Texas D- A 5.5 3 Univ. of Mary. BC A 4.0 4 Miami Dade College A 4.0 5 Univ. Catolica del Peru 4.0 6 Duke University 4.0 7 Yale A 3.5 8 Univ. of Texas - Brownsville 3.5 9 Harvard University 3.5 10 Univ. of Tor. A 3.0

GM Hiraku Nakamura and IM David Pruess finished first with 6 points out of the possible seven at the North American Open chess tournament 2007. Shabalov, Becerra and Kretchetov finished next with 5.5 points. Final Standings: 1 Hikaru Nakamura and IM David Pruess 6 3- GM Alexander Shabalov, GM Julio Becerra and FM Alex Kretchetov- 5.5 6-10- GM Varuzhan Akobian, GM Jesse Kraai, Denys K.Shmelov, GM Gildardo J. Garcia and IM Vladimir Mezentsev- 5

Five players were tied for the first place at the Groningen Chess Festival. Stelios Halkias won the title on tie-break. The final standings after round 9 in the Harmonie Open A category at Groningen 2007: 1 GM Halkias, Stelios 6.5 GRE 2 GM Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios 6.5 GRE 3 GM Ernst, Sipke 6.5 NED 4 GM Adly, Ahmed 6.5 EGY 5 IM Lobzhanidze, Davit 6.5 GEO 6 GM Banikas, Hristos 6.0 GRE 7 GM Li, Shilong 6.0 CHN 8 IM Hoffmann, Michael 6.0 GER 9 GM Nijboer, Friso 5.5 NED 10 GM Rotstein, Arkadij 5.5 GER 11 IM Swinkels, Robin 5.5 NED 12 IM Pruijssers, Roeland 5.5 NED 13 FM Burg, Twan 5.5 NED 14 GM Reinderman, Dimitri 5.0 NED 15 IM Simutowe, Amon 5.0 ZAM 16 IM Spoelman, Wouter 5.0 NED 17 IM Hendriks, Willy 5.0 NED 18 IM Van Oosterom, Chiel 5.0 NED 19 FM De Jong, Migchiel 5.0 NED 20 FM Clemens, Adrian 5.0 NED

In the very strong open tournament that is running in parallel, IM Ivan Salgado Lopez was placed first on tie break. Lopez stole a march over several strong GMs such as San Segundo, GRANDA ZUÑIGA, Li Chao, Pogorelov, Krivoshey and others.

Francisco Vallejo Pons won the Cuidad de Pamplona chess event. In a rather short tournament, he edged ahead of Wang Yue and Jobava Baadur by half a point to win the title. Beliavsky and Movsesian were winners today over Rodshtein and Khamrakulov respectively. Vallejo Pons vs Wange Yue, the very strong pairing was drawn. Results of Round 7: GM BELIAVSKY, Alexander G 2646 1 - 0 GM RODSHTEIN, Maxim 2615 GM SARGISSIAN, Gabriel 2673 ½ - ½ GM JOBAVA, Baadur 2644 GM MOVSESIAN, Sergei 2670 1 - 0 GM KHAMRAKULOV, Ibragim S 2604 GM VALLEJO PONS, Francisco 2660 ½ - ½ GM WANG, Yue 2703 Final Standings after Round 7 Vallejo Pons - 4.5 Wang Yue, Jobava Baadur - 4 Beliavsky, Movsesian - 3.5 Rodshtein, Sargissian - 3 Khamrakulov - 2.5

Harikrishna beat in form Godena in the second round of the Reggio Emilia tournament. All the other games were drawn. Results of second round: Gashimov vs Ni Hua 0.5 - 0.5 Korchnoi vs Almasi 0.5 - 0.5 Marin vs Navara 0.5 - 0.5 P Harikrishna vs Godena 1-0 Tiviakov vs Landa 0.5 - 0.5

Alexander Morozevich won the Russian Superfinals 2007. He finished with a win over Inarkiev and a 2800 + performance. The only other contestant for the title, Grischuk drew with Svidler. Thus Morozevich finished a full point ahead of Grischuk. In the women's section, there was a four way tie for the first place between Tatiana Kosintseva, Ovod, Tairova and Korbut. Round 11 main results (Will be updated soon): Men Morozevich beat Inarkiev Grischuk drew Svidler Tomashevsky drew Jakovenko Timofeev drew Dreev Sakaev beat Amonatov Vitiugov beat Rychagov Women Korbut lost to Ovod Stepovaia beat Tairova Pogonina lost to Tatiana Kosintseva Shadrina drew Nadezhda Kosintseva Kovalevskaya drew Matveeva Giriya beat Gunina Final Standings Men Morozevich 8 Grischuk 7 Tomashevsky 6.5 Women Tatiana Kosintseva 7 Ovod 7 Tairova 7 Korbut 7

The pace of upsets subsided somewhat in the second round of the Hastings Chess Congress Tournament. But the Indians continued their rampage. Deep Sengupta beat fifth seed Nidjat Mamedov, Saptarishi Roy Chowdhury drew Stuart Conquest, S Satyapragyan drew against Pert Nicholas. In other notable games, Farhad Tahirov beat Jovanka Houska. Mark Hebden was held to a draw by Andrew Greet. JONES,Gawain beat Poobalasingam to rise up in the standings list.

The Rilton Cup has started. Top players are Wojtaszek, Kotronias, Berg, Lars Bo Hansen, Cicak, Tiger Hillarp Persson, Robert Fontaine, Nybäck Tomi, Agrest, Cramling, Pontus Carlsson, Åkesson Ralf and others. Leading standings after Round 3: GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw, GM Nybäck Tomi, GM Cramling Pia, GM Åkesson Ralf - 3 points Cicak Slavko, GM Agrest Evgenij, GM Carlsson Pontus, IM Lindberg Bengt, GM Kotronias Vasilios, GM Berg Emanuel, GM Hillarp Persson Tiger, IM Berczes David, GM Bellon Juan ESP - 2.5 points

The rating list for January 2008 has been published a bit early this time. As expected Anand and Kramnik are tied for the first place with 2799. Topalov moves to number three. Big gainers are Svidler, Carlsen, Karjakin and Cheparinov. Svidler in fact jumped into the top five in style. He is about to lose some serious points from the Russian Superfinals event though. But that event will be rated only in the next list. Shirov too moves deeper into the top ten. Mamedyarov is already firmly entrenched in the top ten. In the women's section, Koneru Humpy of India is gaining on Judit Polgar of Hungary. The difference between them is now only 95 points. No one has dared come nearer in recent times. Hou Yifan is also bound to challenge these two very soon. Zhu Chen is probably coming back to her full form. She is now fourth and is one of the fastest movers. She has gained in the last six rating lists consecutively ! Probably for the first time, the top ten active players in the ladies sect

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS-A is leading at the 2007 PAN AM INTERCOLLEGIATE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP. IM Daniel Fernandez and IM John Bartholomew lead in the individual standings. Davorin Kuljasevic, who recently made a GM norm in the tournament where Ray Robson made news headlines, also plays. More details here: http://www.bocachess.com/2007PanAm.htm

Six rounds of the North American open have been completed. GM Alexander Shabalov is leading the strong field with 5.5 points. He has won all his games except one. GM Hiraku Nakamura and GM Varuzhan Akobian along with IM David Pruess. FMs Alex Kretchetov and Jake Kleiman are ranked high in a strong field. Nakamura was held to two draws by IM Joshua Friedel and GM Jesse Kraai. No results of a few rounds of Irina Krush have been published. The top 20 after round 6: 1 GM Alexander Shabalov 5½ 2 GM Hikaru Nakamura 5 3 GM Varuzhan Akobian 5 4 IM David Pruess 5 5 GM Ildar Ibragimov 4½ 6 GM Julio J Becerra 4½ 7 FM Alex Kretchetov 4½ 8 FM Jake Kleiman 4½ 9 GM Nikola Mitkov 4 10 GM Jesse Kraai 4 11 GM Gildardo J Garcia 4 12 GM Dashze Sharavdorj 4 13 IM Vladimi Mezentsev 4 14 FM Slava Mikhailuk 4 15 Denys K Shmelov 4 16 FM Robby Adamson 4 17 Dennis Monokroussos 4 18 GM Anatoly Y Lein 4 19 FM Matthew Beelby 4 20 Rodelay Medina 4

The Hastings Chess Congress tournament has started and will last until 6th of January, 2008. There was a big upset in the first round. Top seed Vadim Malakhatko was beaten by Sebastian Bogner. The seeds 2-5 were also held to draws. This includes Gawain Jones who drew Simon Knott. Sanity was restored by seeds 5-9 who beat their opponents as expected.

The strong Reggio Emilia tournament has started. There were two winners today: Mihail Marin beat Sergei Tiviakov and Zoltan Almasi beat Pentala Harikrishna. Gashimov vs Godena, Korchnoi vs Landa, Navara vs Ni Hua were drawn.

Six rounds of the Pamplona chess tournament have been completed. The leaders are: 1. Vallejo Pons, Francisco 4 2. Jobava, Baadur 3½ 3. Wang Yue 3½ 4. Khamrakulov, Ibragim 3½ 5. Rodshtein, Maxim 3 6. Movsesian, Sergei 2½ 7. Beliavsky, Alexander 2½ 8. Sargissian, Gabriel 1½

The 8th round of the A section of the Harmonie open has been completed. The top ten in this tournament are: 1 Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios 6.0 2 Ernst, Sipke 6.0 3 Li, Shilong 6.0 4 Adly, Ahmed 6.0 5 Banikas, Hristos 5.5 6 Halkias, Stelios 5.5 7 Rotstein, Arkadij 5.5 8 Lobzhanidze, Davit 5.5 9 Hoffmann, Michael 5.5 10 Nijboer, Friso 5.0

Now, its Grischuk's turn to make the Russian Superfinals interesting. With just one more round to go, he is within reach of Morozevich. Grischuk beat Rychagov in an exciting rook vs rook plus bishop endgame. Tomashevsky, the only other guy with realistic chances for the title lost today to Inarkiev. Sakaev beat Dreev with the black pieces in the only other decisive game. Morozevich seemed to lack interest after his loss yesterday. Amonatov in fact had chances to convert the game into win but he let Morozevich slip away to an opposite color bishop endgame where Amonatov had an extra pawn. In the women's section, decisive games were again the order of the day. Kovalevskaya, Tatiana Kosintseva, Ovod, and Gunina won their games against Tairova, Shadrina, Giriya, and Pogonina respectively. Results of Round 10: Men Inarkiev, Ernesto - Tomashevsky, Evgeny 1-0 Dreev, Alexey - Sakaev, Konstantin 0-1 Jakovenko, Dmitry - Vitiugov, Nikita Svidler, Peter - Timofeev, Artyom ½-½ Amonatov, Fa

Just when you thought Morozevich did the impossible by winning six games in a row, he made the other impossible possible. Now, Tomashevsky too has a chance of winning the title. Until yesterday, it seemed impossible that anyone will catch up. The veteran Alexey Dreev, who seems to be on a second wind inspired form, beat Morozevich in 49 moves of a Sicilian. And that too with black. Well, color doesn't really matter when Moro is on the board. Tomashevsky beat Amonatov and he is just half a point adrift now. Grischuk beat Timofeev to climb up to the third spot while Inarkiev beat Vitiugov. In the women's section, Tatiana Kosintseva continued her slide by losing to Gunina. Her sister made up for the dismal day by beating Kovalevskaya with the black pieces. Giriya beat Matveeva and Shadrina beat Stepovaia. The women's drawing quotient has been very low in this tournament. Standings after Round 9: Men Morozevich - 6.5 Tomashevsky - 6 Grischuk - 5.5 Dreev - 5 Women Tairova - 7 Ko

Tournaments to be held in the near future: Hastings Chess Congress - 28 December 2007 to 6 January 2008 (David Howell,Stuart Conquest, Glenn Flear, Danny Gormally, Valeriy Neverov, Mark Hebden, Nicholas Pert,Safarli Eltaj Nidjat, Mamedov, others ). Contact Stuart Reuben. 50th Torneo di Capodanno Reggio Emilia - December 29th 2007 - January 6th 2008 (Almasi Zoltan, Landa Konstantin, Harikrishna Pentala, Gashimov Vugar, Navara David, Tivjakov Sergej, Ni Hua, Korchnoi Viktor, Marin Mihail, Godena Michele) 6th Parsvnath International Open Chess Tournament New Delhi, 12-20 January 2008 http://www.delhichess.com/

Vallejo Pons continues to lead after the fourth round of the Pamplona chess tournament 2007. Standings after Round 4. 1. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2660 3 2. Beliavsky, Alexander G g SLO 2646 2½ 3. Wang Yue g CHN 2703 2 4. Movsesian, Sergei g SVK 2670 2 5. Jobava, Baadur g GEO 2644 2 6. Rodshtein, Maxim m ISR 2615 2 7. Khamrakulov, Ibragim S g ESP 2604 1½ 8. Sargissian, Gabriel g ARM 2673 1

The Moro magic continued into the 8th round of the Russian Superfinals of chess. Morozevich beat Svidler and with black and in 38 moves in a Sicilian Najdorf game. Morozevich's rating performance is a whopping 2900 now. The others seem to be tiring now with only one other game which saw a result when Timofeev beat Rychagov with the black pieces. Timofeev has salvaged a lot of points right at the end in what was otherwise a disastrous tournament for him. In the women's section, the competition is cut-throat. No moro-like performance from anyone. But there were 5 decisive games out of 6. The big upset of the round in this section was Stepovaia beating Tatiana Kosintseva. Results of the 8th round: Men Grischuk, Alexander - Sakaev, Konstantin ½-½ Dreev, Alexey - Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½ Amonatov, Farrukh - Vitiugov, Nikita ½-½ Svidler, Peter - Morozevich, Alexander 0-1 Rychagov, Andrey - Timofeev, Artyom 0-1 Inarkiev, Ernesto - Jakovenko, Dmitry ½-½ Women Tairova, Elena - Girya, O

Chessvibes.com has published a two part interview with Garry Kasparov, arguably the greatest chess player of all time. In the first part, he talks about politics and his views on Vladimir Putin. In the second part, he discusses his chess career and how chess is a small issue compared to the situations he faces taking on Putin. For more details, check www.chessvibes.com

A preview of the January ratings and a few observations I made. I'm not yet sure if the World Cup results will be included. If yes, then a lot of other changes are possible. Kramnik and Anand will probably be tied for the World No.1 position. Big loser on points, no marks here for the correct guess, yes, Ivanchuk losing more than 30 pts (has already started to make up for it, though) Topalov moves to clear third with 2780. Mamedyarov gains smart points and he is likely to be fourth on the list. Big movers up - Karjakin, Cheparinov, Svidler and Carlsen. Sasikiran moves up a bit. Among the ladies, Koneru Humpy is inching up on Judit Polgar, even though she is not yet a match in class. She will be at 2612. Polgar loses a couple of points. Hou Yifan gains impressively.

Roustam (Rustam?) Kamsky, the father of the World Cup Champion 2007, Gata Kamsky has reappeared on the chess scene. In a letter appealing for "moral and financial support" from the US federation and the mayor of New York, Bloomberg, Kamsky has written a long letter justifying the actions that the Kamskys took right from the days of the Soviet Union to his defection, quitting chess and playing again. This appeal is apparently to garner support for Gata to prepare to win the World Chess Championship of chess. In the letter, the senior Kamsky accuses Kasparov and Karpov of trying to sabotage his son's career. The letter is available on the chess blog of Fernando Arrabal here : http://chessarrabal.blogspot.com/

Banikas upset the in-form Li Shilong at the Groningen Chess festival in the fourth round. Standings after Round 4: 1 GM Banikas, Hristos 3.5 GRE 2 GM Ernst, Sipke 3.5 NED 3 GM Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios 3.0 GRE 4 GM Nijboer, Friso 3.0 NED 5 GM Reinderman, Dimitri 3.0 NED 6 GM Li, Shilong 3.0 CHN 7 GM Adly, Ahmed 3.0 EGY 8 IM Lobzhanidze, Davit 3.0 GEO 9 IM Hoffmann, Michael 3.0 GER 10 IM Simutowe, Amon 3.0 ZAM

Morozevich won again, this time against the very strong Grischuk. Svidler was shocked by Tomashevsky. Jakovenko beat Amonatov and Timofeev beat Sakaev with the black pieces. Morozevich now boasts a performance rating of 2867, which is pretty unusual after seven rounds. Grishuk resigned in just 27 moves when he was about to lose a piece for nothing. Tailender Timofeev finally earned a full point beating another trailer, Sakaev in 39 moves of the Semi-Slav. The women section was full of decisive results. Elena Tairova beat Pogonina and jumped into the lead (jointly with Korbut.) Tatiana Kosintseva was held to a draw by Ovod. Results of Russian Chess Championship - Round 7 Morozevich, Alexander - Grischuk, Alexander 1-0 Tomashevsky, Evgeny - Svidler, Peter 1-0 Vitiugov, Nikita - Dreev, Alexey ½-½ Jakovenko, Dmitry - Amonatov, Farrukh 1-0 Inarkiev, Ernesto - Rychagov, Andrey ½-½ Sakaev, Konstantin - Timofeev, Artyom 0-1 Results of Russian Chess Championship Women - Round 7 Korbut, Ekat

The Turkish Chess Federation, following the example of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, wants to give Women's chess a bold face. They attempt this by organizing the first Women's super tournament sponsored by İş Bankası. The total prize money is $ 16, 000. The Turkish Chess Federation is also making an attempt at bringing up a Women dream team for the future and aim to win medals at future olympiads. The tournament will be a round robin and starts on the 10th of March 2008 (arrival) and will finish on 20th March 2008 (departure). There will be eight invited players and the best two Turkish women player, according to the FIDE ElO List. Notable absentees this year are Judit Polgar - does not play in Women events. Koneru Humpy - Second strongest female ever Alexandra Kosteniuk - Pregnancy and children. The event will still be a pretty strong one. The following players are confirmed for the 2008 edition: 1 Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2531 2 Zhu Chen GM QAT 2531 3 Zhao Xue WGM CHN 2530 4 Hou

The Chess Festival at Groningen, The Netherlands has started. Li Shilong is creating waves with a 100 % score after the first three rounds in the Harmonie A section. World Junior champion Ahmed Adly of Egypt is also participating. He is currently lying at the 10 th position. Standings after 3 rounds 1 GM Li, Shilong 3.0 CHN 2 GM Banikas, Hristos 2.5 GRE 3 GM Halkias, Stelios 2.5 GRE 4 GM Nijboer, Friso 2.5 NED 5 GM Ernst, Sipke 2.5 NED 6 IM Brandenburg, Daan 2.5 NED 7 IM Hoffmann, Michael 2.5 GER 8 GM Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios 2.0 GRE 9 GM Reinderman, Dimitri 2.0 NED 10 GM Adly, Ahmed 2.0 EGY

Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain is in the lead after 3 rounds of the Ciudad de Pamplona chess tournament. He was held to a draw by the experienced Beliavsky. Khamrakulov was the lone winner today. He beat young Maxim Rodshtein. The other two games were drawn. Top seed Wang Yue was held to a draw, the third straight time. He has been fairly active this year and it remains to be seen if he can whip himself into action soon. The local players are stealing the thunder for now. Round 3 on 2007/12/24 GM KHAMRAKULOV, Ibragim S 2604 1 - 0 GM RODSHTEIN, Maxim 2615 GM JOBAVA, Baadur 2644 ½ - ½ GM WANG, Yue 2703 GM BELIAVSKY, Alexander G 2646 ½ - ½ GM VALLEJO PONS, Francisco 2660 GM SARGISSIAN, Gabriel 2673 ½ - ½ GM MOVSESIAN, Sergei 2670 Merry Christmas break on 2007 12/25 CIUDAD DE PAMPLONA - MAGISTRAL Ranking after round 3 1 GM VALLEJO PONS, Francisco 2660 ESP 2½ 2 GM BELIAVSKY, Alexander G 2646 SLO 2 3 GM KHAMRAKULOV, Ibragim S 2604 ESP 2 4 GM WANG, Yue 2703 CHN 1½ 5 GM MOVSESIAN, Serge

Alexander Morozevich broke away to become the sole leader after the sixth round of the Russian Chess Superfinals. Today, he beat the tailender Artyom Timofeev with the black pieces. Timofeev gave up on the 36th move when he was about to lose a piece and his king under attack by Moro's marauding pieces. Grishchuk, Svidler, and Dreev were other winners over Tomashevsky, Vitiugov, and Jakovenko respectively. Dreev is clearly in good form and after this round, is performing above his rating expectation. Vitiugov dared to take the poisoned pawn on the King side of a Sicilian game and was duly punished. He did have his chances to survive, but eventually, Svidler asserted his class to prevail. Grishchuk vs Tomashevsky was a Queen's Indian defence game in which Grishchuk's doubled rooks on the "a" file did the damage to give him a winning edge which he converted to win in 45 moves. It is interesting to note the performance ratings of the men in this tournament. No one has

The young but strong Maxim Rodshtein of Israel beat a very strong Gabriel Sargissian in the second round of the Ciudad de Pamplona tournament. Local hero Francisco Vallejo also won over Jobava Baadur. Vallejo Pons forced Baadur to resign after 69 moves when the Georgian was a clear piece down in a slightly complicated end game where Baadur made several seriuos mistakes to lose a knight for almost nothing. The Rodshtein vs Sargissian game was a roller coaster. Rodshtein capitalized on a faulty simplification effort by Sargissian and later won an exchange. But he could not capitalize on it. But Sargissian gave the young Israeli another chance by making inaccurate moves and resigned the game again an exchange down. The other two games were drawn fairly early out of the opening in 21 and 30 moves. Results of Round 2 on 2007/12/2 GM RODSHTEIN, Maxim 2615 1 - 0 GM SARGISSIAN, Gabriel 2673 GM MOVSESIAN, Sergei 2670 ½ - ½ GM BELIAVSKY, Alexander G 2646 GM VALLEJO PONS, Francisco 2660 1 - 0 GM

The 5th round of the Russian super finals are over. Tomashevsky and Morozevich are the leaders with 3.5 points each. In the women's section, Pogonina is the sole leader with an impressive 4/5. She now boasts a rating performance of over 2630 for the tournament. Morozevich again teased and taunted to get another win, this time against Sakaev. But he took 59 moves to wrap it up in a slav defence game. Alexey Dreev was a winner over the relatively inexperienced Inarkiev. In the women's category, Tairova, Korbut and Nadezhda Kosintseva won over Kovalevskya, Ovod and Gunina respectively. Russian Chess Championship Round 5 Tomashevsky, Evgeny - Timofeev, Artyom 1-0 Amonatov, Farrukh - Rychagov, Andrey ½-½ Morozevich, Alexander - Sakaev, Konstantin 1-0 Vitiugov, Nikita - Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Jakovenko, Dmitry - Svidler, Peter ½-½ Inarkiev, Ernesto - Dreev, Alexey 0-1 Russian Chess Championship Women Round 5 Pogonina, Natalija - Shadrina, Tatiana ½-½ Korbut, Ekaterina - Kovalevska

Garry Kasparov, the retired chess genius turned politician, gave his views on Putin winning Time Magazine's Person of the year on the official "The other Russia" website. He also invited the Russian leader to a duel in speaking or writing in Russian. Putin had earlier criticized Kasparov for speaking in English to reporters after being arrested. Kasparov claims that Putin blocks all the Russian that he speaks or writes. More on this on the official site : http://www.theotherrussia.org/2007/12/19/kasparov-on-the-time-person-of-the-year-award-for-vladimir-putin/ Announcement of Person of the Year by Time Magazine : http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/

The first round of the CIUDAD DE PAMPLONA tournament started with a well-deserved win for veteran Alexander Beliavsky against Gabriel Sargissian. Beliavsky capitalized on an early advantage to prevail against Sargissian. The other winner was local favorite Francisco Vallejo Pons against the last seed, Ibragim Khamrakulov. Top seed Wang Yue of China was held to a draw by promising Maxim Rodshtein of Israel. CIUDAD DE PAMPLONA - MAGISTRAL Round 1 on 2007/12/22 SNo. Name Rtg Res. Name Rtg 1 GM WANG, Yue 2703 ½ - ½ GM RODSHTEIN, Maxim 2615 2 GM KHAMRAKULOV, Ibragim S 2604 0 - 1 GM VALLEJO PONS, Francisco 2660 3 GM JOBAVA, Baadur 2644 ½ - ½ GM MOVSESIAN, Sergei 2670 4 GM BELIAVSKY, Alexander G 2646 1 - 0 GM SARGISSIAN, Gabriel 2673 Round 2 Pairings 2007/12/23 GM RODSHTEIN, Maxim 2615 - GM SARGISSIAN, Gabriel 2673 GM MOVSESIAN, Sergei 2670 - GM BELIAVSKY, Alexander G 2646 GM VALLEJO PONS, Francisco 2660 - GM JOBAVA, Baadur GM WANG, Yue 2703 - GM KHAMRAKULOV, Ibragim S 2604

The games of the Seventeenth edition of the Internation Ciudad De Pamplona started on 22 December 2007. There are several strong grand masters participating in this event. The main players in order of their ratings are: 1 GM WANG Yue 2703 CHN 2 GM SARGISSIAN Gabriel 2673 ARM 3 GM MOVSESIAN Sergei 2670 SVK 4 GM VALLEJO PONS Francisco 2660 ESP 5 GM BELIAVSKY Alexander G 2646 SLO 6 GM JOBAVA Baadur 2644 GEO 7 GM RODSHTEIN Maxim 2615 ISR 8 GM KHAMRAKULOV Ibragim S 2604 ESP The previous top three of this popular event are: Year, First place, Second Place, Third Place 1990 Leonid Yudasin Viktor Korchnoi Zsuzsa Polgar 1991 Leonid Yudasin Miguel Illescas Zsuzsa Polgar 1992 Joel Lautier Miguel Illescas David García 1993 Jordi Magem Andrei Sokolov Felix Izeta 1994 Alexander Morozevich Vadim Zvjaginsev Jordi Magem 1995 Jordi Magem Julio Granda Miguel Illescas 1996 Zoltan Almasi Jonathan Speelman Zurab Azmaiparashvili 1997 Miguel Illescas Ulf Anderson Julio Granda 1998 Alexander Morozevich Michal

Vassily Ivanchuk won the XX Carlos Torre Memorial tournament at Merida, Yucatan. In the finals, he beat India's Pentala Harikrishna 3-1, winning the last two games after being tied 1-1. Ivanchuk continues his habit of collecting points at the non-prime events and losing heavily in the leading tournaments. Whatever, but works ! Earlier, in the semi-finals Ivanchuk beat Alexander Graf and P Harikrishna beat Jesus Nogueiras. The knock out style tournament had started with 16 players. The format was similar to the recently held World Cup chess tournament. Two games first and then tie-breaks if required.

India dominated the Asian Junior Chess Championship 2007. In a tournament without the Chinese, it was a cakewalk for the Indian players. In the boys section it was 10/10 for India and in the Girls section only Pourkashiyan and Shamima Akter managed minor placings. P Karthikeyan was placed first on tie-break while Mary Ann Gomes dominated the girls section right from the start. The only GrandMaster in the field, Parimarjan Negi could only finish fourth. Final Standings of the Asian Junior Chess: Boys: 1 Karthikeyan P 2340 IND 7 36 2 Ashwin Jayaram 2478 IND 7 34 3 IM Shyam Sundar M 2241 IND 6½ 34 4 GM Negi Parimarjan 2514 IND 6½ 33½ 5 Lalith Babu M R 2350 IND 6½ 33 6 Purushothaman T 2252 IND 6½ 32½ 7 Vishnu Prasanna 2297 IND 6 37½ 8 Saravana Krishnan P 2261 IND 6 29 9 IM Sethuraman S P 2427 IND 6 29 10 10 Udeshi Aditya 2355 IND 5½ 30½ Girls: 1 WIM Gomes Mary Ann 2262 IND 8½ 43½ 2 Padmini Rout 2226 IND 7 35 3 WIM Kiran Manisha Mohanty 2263 IND 6 30½ 4 Priya P 2129 IND 5½ 27 5 WIM Soumya S

Olga Giriya upset the more fancied Kovalevskaya with the black pieces while Tatiana Shadrina beat Valentina Gunina in the fourth round of the Russian Superfinals Chess in the Women's section. All the remaining games were drawn. All Round 4 Results: Russian Chess Championship Women Round 4 (December 22, 2007) Kosintseva, Tatiana - Korbut, Ekaterina ½-½ Sicilian Najdorf Variation Tairova, Elena - Matveeva, Svetlana ½-½ French Tarrasch Stepovaia, Tatiana - Pogonina, Natalija ½-½ Sicilian Rossolimo Shadrina, Tatiana - Gunina, Valentina 1-0 French Defence Kosintseva, Nadezhda - Ovod, Evgenija ½-½ Ruy Lopez Schliemann Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina - Girya, Olga 0-1 Sicilian Labourdonnais Standings after round 4: 1. Pogonina, Natalija (2462) 3½ 2. Kosintseva, Tatiana (2492) 3 3. Matveeva, Svetlana (2433) 2½ 4. Tairova, Elena (2391) 2½ 5. Ovod, Evgenija (2386) 2½ 6. Korbut, Ekaterina (2443) 2½ 7. Stepovaia, Tatiana 2375 2 8. Shadrina, Tatiana (2379) 2 9. Kosintseva, Nadezhda (2469) 1 10. Kov

No big surprises in round 4. The top seeds seem to have settled down to their usual business. Especially, Morozevich who beat who beat Rychagov in 50 moves with the black pieces. The leader board after round four has five players with 2.5 points each. And three of them already have lost a game ! Never seen such a tournament with swinging fortunes so early. The leaders are : Evgeny Tomashevsky , Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grischuk, Nikita Vitiugov, and Farrukh Amonatov. Round 4 Results (Men): Grischuk, Alexander - Jakovenko, Dmitry ½-½ Sakaev, Konstantin - Tomashevsky, Evgeny 0-1 Rychagov, Andrey - Morozevich, Alexander 0-1 Svidler, Peter - Inarkiev, Ernesto ½-½ Dreev, Alexey - Amonatov, Farrukh 0-1 Timofeev, Artyom - Vitiugov, Nikita 0-1 Standings after Round 4(Men): Evgeny Tomashevsky , Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grischuk, Nikita Vitiugov, and Farrukh Amonatov - 2.5 Sakaev, Rychagov, Inarkiev, Svidler, Jakovenko - 2 Dreev - 1 Timofeev - 0.5

Note: At the time of writing this report, Ivanchuk beat Graf in the first game of the semi-finals and the other semi-final first game was drawn. The semi-finals seem to have been reached and the following seems to be the situation: Vassily Ivanchuk 2787 vs Alexander Graf 2576 P Harikrishna 2668 vs Jesus Nogueiras 2549 There is a local presence in Nogueiras. The full quarter-final results: Ivanchuk beat Almeida 1.5-0.5 Graf beat Quezada 1.5- 0.5 Nogueiras beat Cordova 2-0 Harikrishna beat Meier 1.5-0.5

Today is a rest day for the Russian Superfinals participants. The no-holds barred contests resume from tomorrow. So far, we have seen enterprising chess from the youngsters and some tremendous comebacks from Svidler and Morozevich. Let the trend continue !

Game 1 results of the Quarterfinals: Tregubov – Meier 1-0 Cordova – Zapata 1-0 J.Gonzalez – Almeida ½–½ Bruzon – Ivanchuk 0-1 Harikrishna – G.Hernandez 1-0 Nogueiras – Dominguez ½–½ H.Hernandez – Graf 0-1 Quezada – Leon Hoyos 1-0 Now, I'm a bit confused about the games on 20th Dec 2007. Ivanchuk seems to have drawn his game against Bruzon and won another game against Omar Almeida Quintana, and both with white ! And he's supposed to have won a game against Bruzon yesterday. Whats going on here ? Why oh why do you (Ivanchuk) play in these places and make things difficult for us ? Oh ok, to gain back the rating points you just lost, you say ? OK OK. Someone please help ! One more result I have is of P Harikrishna beating Georg Meier. A weird game where black resigns in a position that he can hold and just a few moves before the end, he was kind of better ! Once again folks, what's going on ? !

There were no real surprises on day 3 unlike day 1 and 2 in the Russian Championship superfinals mens section. Morozevich crushed Tomashevsky with the black pieces. The class of players like Svidler and Moro can be seen in the games after losing. They simply come back stronger. If you have ever observed other players who are not that sure of themselves in other tournaments, they lose a game, they will desparately try to draw the next. The the difference is the class ! OK and back to the results and Jakovenko beat Timofeev. The remaining games were drawn with Amonatov holding the strong Svidler. The women's section was an all clobbering day with 6/6 results. No, draw is not considered a decent result :-). Thousands of threads on the Sofia rule, how to eliminate draws and many such. A notable win was Matveeva's over N. Kosintseva. The results: Men Tomashevsky, Evgeny - Morozevich, Alexander 0-1 Vitiugov, Nikita - Sakaev, Konstantin ½-½ Inarkiev, Ernesto - Grischuk, Alexander ½-½

This tournament takes place at the growing chess town of Mérida, Yucatán, México from 15th-23rd December 2007. The tournament includes a knock out phase. The leading players are: GM Ivanchuk Vassily, GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro, GM Dominguez Perez Lenier, GM Harikrishna Pentala, GM Tregubov and others. Games of round two are here: http://www.okantomi.com.mx/torre2007/w2/tfd.htm If the above link does not work, then try this one - http://www.idey.gob.mx/ct2008.htm

Peter Svidler, probably angered by his strange defeat to a low ranked player yesterday, beat Alexey Dreev in only 36 moves in a show of dominance to come back into the reckoning. The shock of the day was the defeat of Alexander Morozevich at the hands of Nikita Vitiugov. While no one in this tournament can really be called weak, Vitiugov is certainly not in Morozevich's class yet. But maybe this is his break out moment ? In other games, Sakaev upset Jakovenko and Grischuk beat Amonatov. The tournament is pretty amazing since these young guys don't seem to think much about the exploits of players like Svidler and Morozevich at the very top of world chess. More exciting games sure to come !

The results of this tournament are very hard to get. But anyway, here are some highlights of the second round of the women's section. Tatiana Kosintseva seems to have started her rampage with a win over Olga Girya. But her sister Nadezhda, lost quite unexpectedly to Elena Tairova. Tairova is no pushover herself, but she had a bad patch tournament a while ago. Its a good sign probably that it has not continued. In other games, Shadrina beat Matveeva in a very long game lasting 84 moves and Pogonina defeated Korbut in a miniature. Anyone volunteering to translate the official site that is Russian ? Any idea about Kosteniuk's activities ?

World Champion V Anand of India and V Kramnik of Russia battle it out for the world championshiop title in 2008. The details have just been announced. The winner of this match will play the winner of Kamsky and Topalov in a bid to find a solid world champion. When: From October 11 – 30, 2008 Where: Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn Overall Prize fund: 1,5 Million Euro Patron: German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück Main sponsor: Evonik Industries AG As per the announcement on the official site , the match will consist of twelve games, played under classical time controls, in the period from October 11 to October 28, 2008. If there is a tie at the end of these games a tiebreak will be played on October 30, 2008. The prize fund, which will be split equally between the players, is 1,5 million Euro (approximately 2,1 million US Dollars) including taxes and FIDE licensee fees. More details on this link - http://www.uep-worldchess.com/ Click the News link on

The 2007 edition of the Asian Junior Chess Championship is underway and the half way stage has been crossed. While the Boy's section is close and GM Parimarjan Negi is among the leaders, Mary Ann Gomes is threatening to become the runaway winner of the Girls section. For more details on Results, Parings and Reports, see the Venus Chess Academy website - http://www.venuschessacademy.org/

Koneru Humpy is already a strong Grand Master of chess in the open section (including men). Her rating has soared to 2606. She is set to rise even higher in the January 2008 ratings list to be announced shortly. She expresses her views on her chess and how she would prefer to play in the men's team than the women's teams. Interview on latestchess - http://latestchess.com/showInterview.php?id=7

Fischer (or mostly likey a scamster in Fischers' garb) has come back in the news again. An auction was placed on the Canadian website of Ebay of his latest edition of his book written decades back. Mig at Chessninja.com says he got a mail from a reader saying the auction has been withdrawn and this appears to be just a scam. More on this on the Chess Dirt on Chessninja.com - http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/

V Anand, the recently crowned world champion, is craving for another chance to play Kasparov. Anand, who is preparing for the Corus chess at Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands) tournament to be held in January considers playing a match against Kasparov as one of his dreams. More about this on the Rediff site - http://www.rediff.com/sports/2007/dec/19chess.htm And to put your memories to a jog, here is the Game 10 of the World Championship match at the World Trade Center in 1995. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e96IovA3WbU Anand never really got another shot at Kasparov in a match. He was pretty young in 1995 and combined with Kasparov's vicious tactics, he never really had any chance.

The Russian superfinals got off to an explosive start with Andrey Rychagov beating fancied Peter Svidler. Rated almost 200 points below Svidler, Rychagov converted an advantage of a rook and knight endgame with an extra central pawn to win in 51 moves. Morozevich played his usual brand of chess to completely outplay Jakovenko but could not finish smoothly. They settled for a draw in 69 moves. There were wins by Farrukh Amonatov against Artyom Timofeev and Evgeny Tomashevsky against Nikita Vitugov (with Black) while Grishchuk drew his game against the solid Alexey Dreev. In the women's Russian superfinals, there were four first round winners, Svetlana Matveeva won against Tatiana Stepovaia, Natalija Pogonina beat Olga Girya, Elena Tairov defeated Tatiana Shadrina and Ekaterina Korbut beat Valentina Gunina. The two Kosintseva sisters drew their match in just 9 moves. The official site in Russian - http://russiachess.org/content/blogcategory/93/385/

The incredibly strong Russian Superfinals starts today. The field includes Alekseev, Grischuk, Dreev, Morozevich, Svidler, Timofeev, Tomashevsky, Jakovenko and other strong contenders. The tournament will be over 11 rounds and Alekseev is the defending champion.

Gata Kamsky won the World Cup Chess tournament 2007 being played at Khanty Mansiysk. What was expected to be a fiery battle in the end fizzled out into a draw by the 35th move. However, Kamsky was the one bound to break into a smile as he won $ 120 000. Shirov managed $ 80 000 in the end. Shirov did provoke Kamsky to fight a complicated battle. He offered a knight in the middle game but Kamsky declined it with his customary cool way and went on to sacrifice an exchange and then advance the dangerous e-pawn. The draw was agreed when Shirov could no longer prevent the perpetual thanks to Kamsky's queen. Kamsky now meets Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria for a chance to meet the winner of Vishwanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. The eventual winner is to be considered the absolute World Champion.

In my attempt to better understand chess openings and to practice correct principles, I found a nice way to train. It is good only if you can bear the pain of defeat. I cannot win a single game in my life. It is almost assured. The reason is however much I may improve I will run into a chess program which is a monster. It is strong enough to beat Kramnik and Anand combined ! For example, look at this game I recently played. It was against Fritz playing at the unleashed strength of 3062 :). The one positive point in this game is that I think I was plus around the 20th move when I replayed the game with the Infinite analysis engine on ! A note is in order here. Black is Fritz at 3062 and White is me. So it is 0-1 in favor of the engine.

Magnus Carlsen is back in Norway after making a brave bid for the title. It is heartening to see that he is just a normal kid who likes to do usual stuff that kids his age do. His father talks about him helping out already in preparing cookies for Christmas and skiing around the beatiful slopes around their town ! It is always nice to see balanced individuals also achieving success so early in their life. One hopes things continue the same way. On the other hand, Henrik Carlsen, Magnus's father talks about a prospective healthy rivarly developing. Magnus and Karjakin will soon be the top juniors with 2733 and 2732 respectively. They will be juniors for 3 more years ! Wonder if they will enter the pure senior ranks at 2800 :-). Nothing is impossible for these naughty kids who spoil adult players' chess parties. You can read more on Henrik Carlsen's thoughts on Magnus performance and other articles here: http://blog.magnuschess.com/

Gata Kamsky of USA held on to his lead against Alexei Shirov of Spain in the finals of World Cup Chess 2007 being held at Khanty Mansiysk. The final is a four game affair with normal time, then rapid, blitz games to break a tie. Today's drawn game: The winner here meets Veselin Topalov for a chance to challenge the winner of Anand and Kramnik. The results so far are as follows: Game 1 - Draw after a brief struggle. Shirov cannot break the solid Kamsky's defence. Game 2- Kamsky wins a thrilling game which could have swung either way. Shirov had chances only if Kamsky made minor errors but Kamsky displayed his strength of will to prevail Game 3- Is again a draw. Shirov tries for 41 moves before the peace treaty is signed. Tomorrow, Shirov must win with black pieces to tie the match and move to the tie-breaks. On current form, Kamsky is expected to at least draw and hang to his lead and hence win the title, but with the Alexei "Fire on the board" Shirov, you never can be

Shirov beat Karjakin to move to the finals of the World Cup Chess that is now on at Khanty Mansiysk. The winner plays Topalov later. Karjakin was probably trying to take the games to the blitzs. With white, he could not make headway against Shirov, who in fact had the upper hand by the end. But with Shirov and the white the tables were turned and he played an amazingly accurate endgame to triumph. Experience won against teens, but only in the semi-finals. The finals promise excitement - the steady Kamsky vs the "Fire on the Board" Shirov.

Karjakin and Shirov go to war in a set of rapid and blitz games for a place in the finals of the World Cup Chess 2007 at Khanty Mansiysk. Karjakin is well known for his rapid and blitz skills. His style of play is also clean and less prone to errors. But Shirov is no push over. His immense experience will come handy. The difference between the winner and loser in tomorrow's games very significant. In addition to this, the finals will be of four classical time games followed by tie-breakers.

R B Ramesh of India won the Commonwealth Chess Championship of 2007. The official web site strangely lists K Rathnakaran as first but the declaration on the home page shows Ramesh as the winner. We will wait for more clarification on this front. Several more famous names finished further down in the order including GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Gawain Jones of England finished 26 th ! India's Dronavalli Harika finished fifth, notable performance in the open section, though it is hardly a surprise given her high rating. For results, pairings, cross-table, go to http://www.delhichess.com/Commonwealth07_Pairing.asp

Magnus Carlsen of Norway suffered an agonizing defeat against Gata Kamsky of the USA in the semi-finals of the World Cup Chess at Khanty Mansiysk. The wily Kamsky, a looming threat after the initial rounds, won an exchange in the middle game to triumph. The tournament nevertheless has been a success for Carlsen in his father's own words. See http://blog.magnuschess.com/ . Carlsen is bound to be disappointed but the humble dad-son duo have made Norway proud. We hope it is just a step for Carlsen to overcome and achieve greater deeds. The other semi-final between Karjakin of Ukraine and Shirov of Spain was drawn in 33 moves. They will play the rapid and blitz tie-break games tomorrow for a place in the finals. The winner meets Kamsky.

Sergey Karjakin beat a determined Alekseev to join Carlsen, Shirov and Kamsky in the semi-finals of the World Cup Chess. The winner of this tournament meets Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. The semi-finalists already have won quite a bit. They automatically get selected for the new Grand Prix series for the coming year. They also win at least a minimum $ 50,000 In the semi-finals to be played tomorrow, Carlsen takes on the wise old Gata Kamsky of the USA. In the other semi-finals, Karjakin plays Shirov of Spain.

Three semi-finalists were identified before the rapid and blitz games begin tomorrow. That means only Karjakin and Alekseev battle it out tomorrow for the remaining last four place. Carlsen held Cheparinov comfortably with black to advance. Shirov did one better by beating young Jakovenko again today while Kamsky beat Ponomariov with his usual grit. This is consistent with our predictions before this round.

Magnus again showed his brilliance in beating Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov at the World Cup Chess being held at Khanty Mansiysk. In the first game of the quarter-finals, playing a risky game in which both Kings were exposed, Carlsen simplified the position to a won ending. However, he made some mistakes but Cheparinov missed the right continuations. Alexei Shirov beat Dmitry Jakovenko with authority. Jakovenko misplayed the middle game to give Shirov the advantage. Shirov drove home the advantage to win. Jakovenko resigned when he was a piece down for a pawn. The other two games, Karjakin - Alekseev and Ponomariov - Kamsky were drawn. Karjakin did not press with the white pieces and the game was a draw by the time the middle game was reached. Ponomariov had good advantage but made mistakes. Kamsky too showed his determination. His fighting spirit is his main weapon. Tomorrow Kamsky gets to try with the white pieces.

The Commonwealth Chess Championships 2007 have reached the half way stage with a chaotic start. None of the top 3 seeds are among the leaders. Himanshu Sharma leads with a 100 % win record. Earlier Jones Gawain was shocked by S Arun Prasad in the 5th round. Several youngsters with recent international exposure have scored wins or draws against fancied opponents. The top seed Surya Shekar Ganguly and 3rd seed Abhijit Kunte trail the leader by a point. Last year's winner, Nigel Short is not playing this year. India's leading chess prodigy and the second youngest grandmaster ever, Parimarjan Negi has shown impressive form dropping just a draw so far. Leading sixth pairings : IM Arun Prasad S 2423 IND 4½ 5 IM Himanshu Sharma 2408 IND IM Kamble Vikramaditya 2374 IND 4½ 4½ GM Negi Parimarjan 2514 IND GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2585 IND 4 4½ GM Reefat Bin-Sattar 2482 BAN GM Kunte Abhijit 2547 IND 4 4 IM Wohl Aleksandar H 2415 AUS The sixth rounds are on right now. Live games can be foll

The Quarter finals of the World Cup Chess have started. Carlsen-Cheparinov Karjakin-Alekseev Jakovenko-Shirov Ponomariov-Kamsky Carlsen, Karjakin, Shirov and Ponomariov are my picks. There were two 1. d4 Nf6 and two 1.e4 e5. Nice balance ! The last 8 players are mostly teens or early twenties guys and two veterans. Carlsen must now be one of the favorites to win. He already has a lot of experience at the top levels of chess. Cheparinov is a determined fighter and his results in the past year have been spectacular. According to discussions on blogs: Carlsen leads by +2-1=1 against Cheparinov in their head-to-head clashes. This includes a win to eliminate Cheparinov in one of the previous editions of the World Cup of Chess. The winner of the World Cup will not only qualify to play Topalov in Bulgaria, but the last four will also be eligible to be picked up for the FIDE Grand Slam of chess. We'll keep you updated.

Peter Svidler of Russia and Levon Aronian of Armenia were shocked by Gata Kamsky and Dmitry Jakovenko respectively in the World Cup Chess tournament being held at Khanty Mansiysk. Svidler - Kamsky drew their first rapid game. In the second rapid game, Svidler lost from a plus position. Jakovenko played accurately to outplay Aronian. Alekseev completely outclassed Bareev in both the rapid games to advance to the quarter-finals. A lot of goodies not even counting the huge prize money awaits the quarter-finalists. It is said that the top four may be invited to the premier Grand Slams of chess.

Only three seats remain for the Quarter Final flight. Today the rapid and the blitz games will be played. Aronian takes on Jakovenko, Svidler battles it against Kamsky and Alekseev against Bareev. Aronian, Svidler are the favorites in the first two matches but Kamsky and Jakovenko are no pushovers having progressed so far. It’s a toss up between Alekseev and Bareev – youth vs experience.

Chess News in 2019: World Top Five 1. Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 2989 2. Levon Aronian (ARM) 2973 3. Shakriyar Mamedyarov (AZB) 2972 4. Chiu Wei (CHN) 2961 5. Sahaj Grover (IND) 2954 The King's Gambit is unsound. Computers have proved that black wins by force in 56 moves. If the last piece of the puzzle is solved, computers will be able to prove the French Defence is also unsound. It loses in under 89 moves. The Petroff Defence is indeed a draw. It is a draw by perpetual in 68 moves or 76 moves depending on the variation on the 36th move. Bobby Fischer - Boris Spassky world championship match held. Fischer wins 12.5 - 9.5 Vishwanathan Anand announces his retirement after a long reign at top level chess. He is currently ranked 14th with a rating of 2918. China win the Chess Olympiad for the third time in succession. India again had to be content with the second position. USA finished third. Hou Yifan was the star performer for China. She won the Gold medal on the third board with a 9/10 s

The following players advanced to the Quarter finals of the World Cup Chess at Khanty Mansiysk. Sergey Karjakin Ivan Cheparinov Ruslan Ponomariov Alexei Shirov Magnus Carlsen The winner of this tournament takes on Veselin Topalov. The winner of the ensuing match will play the winner of Anand-Kramnik world championship match that will be held next year. Carlsen reached the quarter finals in spectacular style, improving upon his 10th position as a 15 year old. His rival Michael Adams pushed hard and was dominating the proceedings but again as in the first game, time played a big factor. Carlsen found a surprising saver to draw this dangerous game. Karjakin's advance too has been smooth but not as heavily advertised. Karjakin beat back a determined Nisipeanu today. Cheparinov beat Wang Yue of China with black pieces. Yue took his chances by playing a very risky opening against the solid but enterprising Bulgarian. Ponomariov won the second game of the pre-quarterfinal match against Sa

Boris Spassky (GM) and Magnus Carlsen (GM) What are Carlsen's chances of matching the achievements of Boris Spassky ? Well, we'd like to hear from you. Here are the comparisons so far. Carlsen has the same kind of skills in terms of general style, which is comfort in both attacking and defending. Spassky could attack as well as play well in a simplified and boring game. Boris Spassky Magnus Carlsen Date of Birth 30 Jan 1937 30 Nov 1990 Nationality Russia, later France Norway Started Chess at Five (War time) Five (Peace time) (Tournament at Eight Trained by Vladimir Zak Alexander Tolush Igor Bondarevsky Henrik Carlsen Simen Agdestein Grandmaster at 18 13 Significant Achievements World Junior Champion USSR Champion World Champion Gold European Team Championships 13 Olympiad medals Winner Santa Monica Winner Linares Winner Leiden Joint Winner Bugojno Corus Wijk and Zee Group C Winner European U-14 Bronze Norwegian Champion Winner Biel 10th Place World Cup Second at Linare

Carlsen-Leko from an earlier tournament Teenage prodigy Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Alexei Shirov of Spain, and Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine won the first games of the 4th round at the World Chess Cup. The other 5 games, Alekseev - Bareev, Karjakin - Nisipeanu, Cheparinov - Wang Yue, and Svidler- Kamsky were drawn. Carlsen outplayed his experienced rival in a minor pieces endgame. For a while, Carlsen had the advantage of two bishops and also of an extra pawn. In a major time scramble, Carlsen held his nerve to win convincingly. Shirov played a vintage-Shirov game to beat the hapless Akopian while Ponomariov crushed India's Sasikiran. Kamsky seems to be getting stronger by the day. We feel that he will be a major force to reckon with very soon again ! He seems to be peaking at the very appropriate moment. Svidler could not make any progress against the fighting spirit of Gata Kamsky.

Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine was knocked out in the 3rd round of the World Chess Cup at Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania beat him in an edge-of-the-seat thriller. The score was a close 3.5-2.5. Almost as close as it can get. India's Krishnan Sasikiran advanced with a 4-2 win after both the normal and rapid games were drawn. Sasikiran won the last two games. Levon Aronian won 3-1 against Ernesto Inarkiev. Arorian remains one of the strong favorites to win now that the two top seeds, Ivanchuk and Mamedyarov have been knocked out. Svidler beat Rublevsky of Russia to advance. Svidler too will be one more firm favorite. Evgeny Bareev knocked out Alexander Grishchuk, in what must be a significant upset. Although Bareev was one of the very top players a few years back, he has dropped way behind in rankings. Sergey Karjakin was another player to advance with a facile 3-1 win over Etienne Bacrot of France.

There are some interesting pairings for round 3 rapid games. Obviously the most interesting is the Ivanchuk (Ukraine) - Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu (Romania). Ivanchuk should still be the favorite but you never know. Sasikiran probably missed a win in an ending which he should have won with accurate play in the 2nd game of the 3rd round. He takes on the hero of the second round, Macieja Bartolomiej. Levon Arorian, surprisingly plays Ernesto Inarkiev of Russia to try and advance to the next round. Sergei Rublevsky and Peter Svidler too fight it out in the extended games tomorrow. Svidler is the firm favorite here. Alexander Grischuk - Evgeny Bareev will be another slugfest with Grischuk expected to win. Karjakin and Bacrot have stayed true to their rating and brought the situation to a 1-1 so far.

The normal time games of round three are over. Ivan Cheparinov hammered the nail in Mamedyarov's coffin by drawing the second game. The draw was agreed when he had a slight plus. Alexei Shirov uncorked his tactical machine gun from a seemingly quiet position. Adams advanced in his ruthlessly efficient style. Carlsen gave himself a nice present around birthday time by moving into the round of 16, while Gata Kamsky is efficiently disposing off lesser ranked players, even though his opening preparation is not yet top notch. Ponomariov did not have to go through the second game noose this time. But the first game was almost that noose. One Chinese player moved to the elite 16. We feel this is a sign of the times to come. Watch out for the domination that is inevitable. The following players advanced without having to play the rapid and blitz games. Ivan Cheparinov Alexei Shirov Michael Adams Evgeny Alekseev Magnus Carlsen Gata Kamsky Vladimir Akopian Dmitry Jakovenko Ruslan Ponomariov

Ivan Cheparinov shocked second seed Shakriyar Mamedyarov in the first game of round three at the World Cup at Khanty Mansiysk. One very interesting fact is that Cheparinov is also the training partner of Veselin Topalov. If at all Cheparinov goes all the way, one wonders what kind of a battle will Topalov vs Cheparinov ? Mamedyarov had several chances to save the game. But with both the kings pretty much exposed, both had their chances and Cheparinov took his chances. Mamedyarov resigned in a hopeless position. It remains to be seen if Mamedyarov brings his famed fighting skills to battle when he also the advantage of the white pieces. Other winners on this day were Kamsky with a technical grind of the equally technically-skilled Kiril Georgiev (yes, of Bulgaria !). Michael Adams beat Zhou Jianchao, Dmitry Jakovenko beat Zoltan Almasi, Wang Yue beat countryman Bu Xiangzhi. Magnus Carlsen turned 17 today. Happy Birthday big boy.

The tie-break day saw most of the favorites advancing. The winner of the World Cup will be challenged by Veselin Topalov for a right to challenge the winner of the Vishwanathan Anand - Vladimir Kramnik match. The newly crowned blitz world champ, Vassily Ivanchuk scraped past Alexander Galkin of Russia. Magnus Carlsen thrashed Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany 2-0 in the rapid games to advance. Other big stars to advance on the tie-break day were Ruslan Ponomariov, Krishnan Sasikiran of India and Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria. However, another favorite, Rustam Kasimdzhanov was knocked out by Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria. Official results are available here : http://cup2007.fide.com/results.asp Live games can be followed here: http://cup2007.fide.com/round.asp

Garry Kasparov the energetic chess champion (is still a force on the chess servers), was released today from jail. Hordes of reporters have been thronging his residence and we can expect another set of interviews, press releases, press conferences. Kasparov has chosen the United States media as his chosen voice, and it remains to be seen if he uses that weapon yet again. Earlier, Kasparov refused food and water fearing that it may be poisoned. So, it was a two-in-one. Hunger strike and safety from poison ! Kasparov used his knight fork yet again.

The rapid games will be fought today. Today's games are no less interesting. Witness the prominent names involved today - Vassily Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen, Arkadij Naiditsch, Ruslan Ponomariov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov. In some ways, its interesting to watch these games live on say, playchess.com. One reason is that the games are faster and pretty accurate from a patzer's point of view. The second reason is that the confusion of having to follow several games does not exist.

Susan Polgar is in India to promote the documentary "My Brilliant Brain". The National Geographic Documentary " My Brilliant Brain " is being aired worldwide except in the United States. Susan has made several appearances in her tour to India and gave many interviews. One wonders if she could also present her more talented sister, Judit Polgar's brain :-) Susan Polgar is doing a lot to promote chess in the United States. Have the results at the World Youth Chess 2007 got anything to do with this ? In any case, there are pointers to a revival in interest in the US. Also, the performances by the younger generation is getting better. One of the girls won the first ever age group medal at the Youth chess championships.

Anatoly Karpov was today denied a chance to visit Garry Kasparov in jail. Kasparov will be released on Thursday but it was a noble gesture by one ex-world champion towards another. Karpov openly agreed that he does not believe in Kasparov's political ideology, but that doesn't mean he can't be human enough. It is nice to see Karpov in the limelight these days. He is playing again and also doing something for social causes. Using one's clout never harmed anyone. Especially if it can benefit another by at least getting attention. Wonder what would have transpired between them if they had really met ! Gruenfeld or the Slav ? :-)

The normal time games have been completed. The shock of the tournament is that Teimour Radjabov has been knocked out in amazing fashion by the lower-rated Bartolomiej Macieja of Poland. 2-0 ! Ivanchuk has been held 1-1 by Alexander Galkin. This performance is nothing short of an upset already. The rapid games are next and anything can happen. But Ivanchuk is a seasoned player at the shorter versions. If you want evidence, you just have to go back to last week when he won the World Blitz championship, edging out India's V Anand. Other favorites such as Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Alexei Shirov of Russia, Peter Svidler of Russia and Michael Adams of England also advanced to the round of 32.

Chess World Rankings Open Rank Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year 1 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2801 21 1969 2 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2787 20 1969 3 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2785 21 1975 4 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2769 0 1975 5 Leko, Peter g HUN 2755 21 1979 6 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2755 19 1977 7 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2752 11 1985 8 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2742 9 1987 9 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2741 14 1982 10 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2739 11 1972 11 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2736 21 1968 12 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2732 25 1976 13 Adams, Michael g ENG 2729 16 1971 14 Alekseev, Evgeny g RUS 2716 17 1985 15 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2715 23 1983 16 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2714 25 1990 17 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2714 9 1974 18 Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2713 5 1971 19 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2710 23 1983 20 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2708 9 1976 21 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2705 5 1983 22 Wang, Yue g CHN 2703 27 1987 23 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2695 7 1983 24 Karjakin, Sergey g UKR 2694 11 1990 25 Bu, Xiangzhi g

After Round 9 of the World Youth Chess Cup 2007, Ivan Popov leads in the blue-riband Under 18 open event with 7.5 points. Katerina Nemcova is leading the girls under 18 by a point with 8 points. CHIRILA Ioan Cristian and TSATSALASHVILI Keti lead the Under 16 sections of the open and the girls sections respectively. You can view the results for all sections on the following link on chess results: http://chess-results.com/tnr8920.aspx?art=0&lan=1&flag=30&datatyp=2&mm=-1&m=-1

The second rounds have started in earnest. Ruslan Ponomariov and Teimour Radjabov have lost thier first rounds. Ruslan of Ukraine lost to Wang Hao of China and Radjabov lost to Bartlomiej Macieja of Poland. Radjabov played the controversial 3 ... f5 in the Jaenisch Variation of the Ruy Lopez. He probably prepared it specially for this event, but trying it against an established grandmaster is an altogether differerent story. The opening may not have been the main reason for the defeat as the neat combination that Hao uncorked in the middle game. Other notable results were Evgeny Bareev beating Loek Van Wely and Alexander Galkin holding Vassily Ivanchuck to a draw. Chessy ! More information here on the official web site with the blessings of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: http://www.ugra-chess.ru/eng/main_e.htm

The World Youth Chess Cup 2007 is heading towards the crucial last rounds. Every version of the World Youth Chess seems to be losing its strongest players. The reason for this is that many of the teenagers are already top players in the World. Examples are Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov and others. It is debatable if the parents of such stars should allow them to continue at their age level before letting them swim among the sharks such as Vishwanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. But players like Carlsen and Radjabov have proved that they can handle the stress of the topmost level of chess. Some have struggled, the most recent case being that of Zaven Adriasian scoring a zero in a field that was not even the best. Ironically, Zaven had recently won the World Junior Championships. One hopes that this is just an isolated case. One other junior star and a former World Junior champion Shakriyar Mamedyarov. Shak is already a star at the world level and has proved that he is more than a ma

Some interesting matchups in the second round at the World Cup Chess at Khanty Mansiysk. Bareev, Evgeny vs Van Wely, Loek Jakovenko, Dmitry - Khalifman, Alexander Carlsen, Magnus - Naiditsch, Arkadij Rublevsky, Sergei - Navara, David Georgiev, Kiril - Kasimdzhanov, Rustam These games should be well fought. All of the above players have some significant achievements and some of them are already big stars.

The World Cup took off with a few surprises in the first round. Nigel Short was soundly beaten by the teenaged David Baramidze. The other big seed to bite the dust was Pavel Eljanov. A few prominent names struggled against lower rated players. Rustam Kasimdzhanov was taken to the edge by a teenager in a hurry to climb the ELO stairs. Rustam finally beat G. N. Gopal in rapid games after overcoming the amazing resistance that Gopal put up. Offical Website - http://www.ugra-chess.ru/eng/main_e.htm