Chess Satranç ajedrez échecs schaken Schach scacchi escacs xadrez şah шахматы šahmaty

In the 6th game of the Spassky vs Korchnoi 2009 match, Spassky has a comfortable position up to move 31. In the diagram, Spassky has just played 32. Bd6 which is a huge blunder. Can you find the sequence? Also, what happens if the game goes 32 ...Nxe3 33 Qxc7. Find the one and only one continuation without the help of machines! Enjoy the full game here:

1 Carlsen 2810 2 Topalov 2805 3 Anand 2790 4 Kramnik 2788 5 Aronian 2781 6 Gelfand 2761 7 Gashimov 2759 8 Wang Yue 2751 9 Ivanchuk 2749 10 Mamedyarov 2741

London Chess Classic Round 1 - Carlsen vs Kramnik Carlsen has matured so much in the last 4-5 years that he now conciously chooses to enter complex positions against one of the strongest players ever. Carlsen understands the nuances of the game with mind boggling depth. More than brilliant moves, his subtle quiet looking moves are breath-taking. Here's an example: Here, Kramnik was already suffering and was in a lost position at this level. It is not easy for an ordinary GM to convert this win over Kramnik. But Carlsen is a VS (Very Super) GM. The position is after Kramnik's 40 ... Nb3, which is a blunder at this level. Carlsen goes 40. Be2 Qb1 42. Bc4 Rxa3 43. Ne2 Ra2 44. Bxf7+ Kxf7 45. Qc4+ Kf8 46. Rb7 Rxe2+ 47. Qxe2 Qa1 48. Rxb3 Qa5 1-0 A combination of squeezing the Queen and mate threats does it. Kramnik loses huge material. Carlsen is home and how! With this win, Carlsen has deservedly cemented his place at the top of the Live Chess Ratings list. Watch the amazing display

Teenage sensation, Magnus Carlsen plays the in form Vladimir Kramnik at the London Chess Classic which starts today (actual games start tomorrow) In other matchups, Luke Mc Shane takes on England top Nigel Short and young David Howell tests his skills against experienced spider, Adams. The remaining encounter is an Oriental one - Nakamura vs Ni Hua.

A confident GM Gelfand completely dominated GM Karjakin in the Semi-finals of the World Cup. In the diagram, White has just played 25. h4. Karjakin was already in a spot of trouble, having to deal with an encroacher and a pawn deficit. His best tries probably were 25 ... Na6 26 Be1 Be8 27 h5 or 25 ... Qc8 26 f3 Be8 27 h5 Nc6. Am I wrong or am I wrong? Karjakin inadvertently chooses the suicidal 25 ... h5 and after 26 Bxg6, its quick death. Check out the full game here:

A rare Opening puzzle. In the World Cup Semi-finals, Karjakin belted out a novelty (in a Two Knights 4. d4 exd4 5. e5 - Max Lange Attack) on the 11th move. Gelfand immediately offered a piece sacrifice with 11 .... Ra6. Can Karjakin play 12 Bxd5 Qxd5 13. Re7 (Bishop en prise?) Can one hold on to the piece? What do you think of this rare opening puzzle? Karjakin survived this shock but went on to lose the game. Psychological war won! Watch the interesting game in full here:

GM Humpy is known for her tenacity. She recently spearheaded the Snowdrops against the Old hands in the Czech Coal Chess Match and beat them handily. Here is a sample of her endgame skills against the experienced veteran GM Hort. In the diagram, Humpy has laid a clever trap for Hort with 73. Kb2. Hort falls for it and goes for a potential pawn grab with 73 ... Kg3 74. Rc3! Kg2 75. Ra3!! The point. Horror of horrors! Humpy polishes it off with 76. Rxa7 Kxh3 77. Kc3 Kxg4 78. Kd2 Kh3 79. Ke2 g4 80. Kf1 Kh2 81. Ra2+ Kh1 82. Ra4 h3 83. Kf2 1-0 Painful for Hort. Follow the full game here:

IM SP Sethuraman from Chennai is just 15 and won the World U-16 title recently. GM Abhijeet Gupta is also very young but is outplayed by his younger opponent. Sethuraman plays with the flair worthy of a GM, a title which he will acquire very soon. In the position, Sethuraman harasses the black Queen and wins it by force. What will you play after 37 Rd8. Solution: Black must play 37 ... Qf5 and hope to survive the material deficit and inferior position. He will at least have a Queen swap. Whereas, in the game, Black lost the Queen after playing 37 ... Qc6? Sethu has the brillant stroke 38 Bd6, which serves double purpose. After 38 ... Re8 39 b5! Black loses the Queen for a Rook and the game. Watch this exciting upset here

Mamedyarov made a routine looking move to lose to Karjakin in the World Cup Chess Quarter finals. The blunder is at move 49 with ... Rb2. Karjakin wins with mate threats.

IM Himanshu Sharma blundered when he was about to hold GM Arun Prasad to a draw at the Indian Premier Chess Championship. GM Prasad found this amazing killing sequence: 45. Qf2 Bxf2 46. Rxe4 Bxe4 47. Kxf2 Bxf5 48. c6 Bc8 49. Bf7 g5 50. Be8 Kg7 51. Bd7 Ba6 52. c7 Kf6 53. c8=Q Bxc8 54. Bxc8 Ke5 55. Kg3 h5 56. h4 1-0 Here's the full game.

It was as good a start as can be for the Indian Chess Players at the World Cup at Khanty Mansiysk. The much lower rated Sriram Jha and Abhijit Kunte held higher rated Grischuk and Shirov to draws. In other matches involving Indian players, Abhijit Gupta held Vitiugov, Ganguly beat Filippov, Negi upset Milov and Chanda beat Kobalia. Sasikiran was held to a draw by L'Ami. Official Site

A case of the tail wagging. Kosteniuk, who finished at the bottom, beat topper Carlsen at the World Championship blitz. No reason to be alarmed though since it was a 3 mins+2 sec game.

The Top List for US Chess Players according to the US Chess Federation (Source: www.uschess.org) 1 Nakamura, Hikaru (12641216) NY USA 2824 2 Onischuk, Alexander (12625186) VA USA 2773 3 Kamsky, Gata (12528459) NY USA 2770 4 Seirawan, Yasser (10509459) WA USA 2711 5 Akobian, Varuzhan (12740522) CA USA 2705 6 Shulman, Yury (12741541) IL USA 2696 7 Ehlvest, Jaan (12514557) NY USA 2691 8 Christiansen, Larry M (10460921) MA USA 2663 Shabalov, Alexander (12544264) PA USA 2663 10 Hess, Robert L (12749774) NY USA 2655 11 Kaidanov, Gregory (12543746) KY USA 2643 12 Benjamin, Joel (10102511) NJ USA 2628 13 Ibragimov, Ildar (12576446) CT USA 2619 14 Kudrin, Sergey (11257585) CT USA 2618 Friedel, Joshua Edward (12593986) NH USA 2618 16 Robson, Ray (12847250) FL USA 2614 17 Stripunsky, Alexander (12715435) NJ USA 2612 18 Khachiyan, Melikset (12827326) CA USA 2610 19 Gulko, Boris (12473035) NJ USA 2609 20 Ivanov, Alexander (12513936) MA USA 2602 21 Finegold, Benjamin P (11264417) MI USA 2600 22 De

Is there any consistency to the effect that a World Championship has on all team members, seconds and all? Have any of you noticed a pattern at the last one and the ones before that? One thing's for sure. The winning horse's team is moving full steam ahead on the FIDE ratings chart list. In the immediate few months of the match, Kasimdzhanov has broken the 2700 mark for the first time, Ganguly has entered the top 100 for the first time, Wojtaszek is back to around where he was at his peak. Anand at least has the crown ;) maybe not enough points gain. Kramnik is the only player against the grain. He's overcome the slump of the loss of points at the match and shot past it now on the live list. His team mates though do not fare as well. Rublevsky, Fressinet, and Leko have lost or are more or less at the same level. Any of you noticed any such pattern in the previous matches? Will post again with your observations.

How much difference it make to a professional player if he is stripped of the time granted to make his moves? Not much if you see the progress of the World Blitz Chess Championship 2009. These strong GMs are making astonishing moves even with just 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment games. How has this become possible? If you just go back to the historic match between Kasparov and Karpov in 1984 and 1985, analyze the games with strong engines on, you will see that even these legends made mini-blunders once in a while. Such mistakes will be duly punished in these strong computing times. Strong Chess engines have made the process of human analysis almost redundant. Of course, you still can do it on the board after the game, but one is sure to find lines later in detailed analysis. You can clearly see that the top players are really playing almost to their usual strength and the progress is not erratic. The ones in form perform anyway. From this one can conclude that the game will get shorter

My apologies. It seems that the World Blitz Championship is of 42 gruelling rounds and the title has not yet been won. Carlsen leads with 14(!) more rounds to go. Anand was leading at the end of the first third section with an amazing 12/14 without losses. Veteran Karpov is 9th. Karpov was ranked 4th at the end of the first half. Judit Polgar is 19th and defending champion Dominguez stands 14th, two places ahead of another traditional favorite Ivanchuk. Top Ten Standings after Round 28 1 19 GM Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2801 21.0 2 20 GM Anand, Viswanathan IND 2788 20.0 3 16 GM Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2723 18.5 4 5 GM Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2772 16.5 5 10 GM Svidler, Peter RUS 2754 16.5 6 11 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2739 16.0 7 12 GM Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2736 16.0 8 1 GM Aronian, Levon ARM 2786 14.5 9 17 GM Karpov, Anatoly RUS 2619 14.0 10 9 GM Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2750 13.5

Anand is leading the 2009 edition of the World Blitz Championship by a whopping 2 points ahead of No. 1 (Carlsen on unofficial live rating list). Anand has a total of 12 points out of 14 with no losses! It appears as if Anand is furious about his loss at the hands of Aronian in the last round of the Tal Memorial tournament. Veteran Karpov is in a surprise fourth position with 9/14. Among the ladies, Judit and Kosteniuk are placed 15th and 22nd respectively. Highly rated Gelfand (in the normal time control games) is placed a low 20th. 1 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2788 12 pts 2 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2801 10 pts 3 Karpov, Anatoly RUS 2619 9 pts 4 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2772 8.5 pts 5 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2736 8.5 pts 6 Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2723 8.0 pts 7 Bareev, Evgeny RUS 2634 8.0 pts 8 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2739 8.0 pts 9 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2739 7.5 pts 10 Svidler, Peter RUS 2754 7.5 pts

The amazing kid, Carlsen is back at No.1 on the Live Ratings list (and not the official FIDE list yet). If you remember, he was No. 1 for a day last year during one of the top tier events. This time he is just a point ahead (rounded) of Topalov and a bit more ahead of Anand. The Tal tournament did not show Carlsen's class to the full as he was not 100% but it did show his grit since he remained unbeaten even though it was rumored that he had a flu type of condition. 1 Carlsen 2806 2 Topalov 2805 3 Anand 2790 4 Kramnik 2786 5 Aronian 2781 6 Gashimov 2763 7 Gelfand 2759 8 Ivanchuk 2753 9 Svidler 2745 10 Morozevich 2742 11 Leko 2739 12 Radjabov 2738 13 Wang Yue 2738 14 Ponomariov 2738 15 Grischuk 2736 16 Eljanov 2734 17 Vachier-Lagrave 2727 18 Mamedyarov 2726 19 Jakovenko 2725 20 Karjakin 2723

Vladimir Kramnik is proving that he is a winner all the way. Well, if you forget the World Championship match where he was bulldozed by the devastating weapons Anand brought to the match, he has grown from strength to strength. When anyone else would feel the effects of the demoralizing match, Kramnik has taken it positively and even changed his style from conservative to heavy risk taking. With just two rounds to go at the Tal Memorial, he is almost the surprise leader. Now, there is more action on the Live Chess Rating list. Kramnik is approaching Topalov, Carlsen and Anand who are almost bunched up. It is almost as fair as it can be. Aronian is sure to throw in his hat sooner or later but even without it, the ratings list is almost sure to change even before the end of the event, and definitely by the time the London event is finished.

Carlsen is closing in on the No. 1 spot. First, he did it by playing at Nanjing. Now, he's doing it without playing. Topalov is doing all the work for him. If Topalov draws or loses another game, the race can change. 1 Topalov 2805 2 Carlsen 2801 3 Anand 2788 4 Aronian 2783 5 Kramnik 2772 6 Gashimov 2765 7 Gelfand 2758 8 Svidler 2754 9 Leko 2752 10 Morozevich 2744

01 Topalov 2810 02 Carlsen 2801 03 Anand 2788 04 Aronian 2786 05 Kramnik 2772 06 Gelfand 2758 07 Gashimov 2758 08 Svidler 2754 09 Leko 2752 10 Morozevich 2750

An unprecedented eight Indian Chess Players are at or higher than 2600 on the FIDE ELO ratings list accordingly to their live ratings. The latest gains or losses in ratings can be viewed on the FIDE official site. The biggest gainers will be prodigy Negi, Chanda, and Gopal. While Negi and Chanda leap over 2600, Gopal is only a couple of points short of the magical 2600 figure. On the flip side, Humpy is the unfortunate loser and will fall back below 2600 after quite a few rating periods. Yifan is just a few points behind and may even overtake her if she puts up a strong show in the second half of the Youth vs Experience event that she is participating in. Even in India, Harika is gaining quite a bit, having beaten Humpy this year. The other top players Harikrishna and Sasikiran are losing a few points. India is thus set to climb up the FIDE Country ratings ladder. It will not be long before India has all the top ten players as 2600+ since an even stronger generation is hot on the heels

QUALIFIERS for the WORLD CUP 2009 a) From World Championship Match 2008: 1. V. Anand (IND - World Champion) b) From World Cup 2007: 2. G. Kamsky (USA) 3. A. Shirov (ESP) 4. M. Carlsen (NOR) 5. S. Karjakin (UKR) c) Women's World Champion 2008: 6. A. Kosteniuk (RUS) d) Junior World Champions 2007 & 2008: 7. A. Adly (EGY) 8. A. Gupta (IND) d) From FIDE Rating List, 20 players, average 7/2008 & 1/2009: 9. V. Topalov (BUL) 2786,50 10. V. Ivanchuk (UKR) 2780,00 11. A. Morozevich (RUS) 2779,50 12. V. Kramnik (RUS) 2773,50 13. T. Radjabov (AZE) 2752,50 14. P. Leko (HUN) 2746,00 15. L. Aronian (ARM) 2743,50 16. D. Jakovenko (RUS) 2734,50 17. S. Mamedyarov (AZE) 2733,00 18. P. Svidler (RUS) 2730,50 19. A. Grischuk (RUS) 2730,50 20. B. Gelfand (ISR) 2726,50 21. M. Adams (ENG) 2723,50 22. R. Ponomariov (UKR) 2722,00 23. Wang Yue (CHN) 2721,50 24. V. Gashimov (AZE) 2720,00 25. E. Alekseev (RUS) 2713,00 26. L. Dominguez Perez (CUB) 2712,50 27. Ni Hua (CHN) 2707,00 28. E. Bacrot (FRA) 270

1 Topalov 2813 2 Anand 2788 3 Aronian 2773 4 Carlsen 2772 5 Kramnik 2772 6 Leko 2762 7 Radjabov 2757 8 Gelfand 2756 9 Ivanchuk 2756 10 Morozevich 2750

Live Ratings of top 10 Chess Players 1 Topalov 2813 2 Anand 2788 3 Carlsen 2772 4 Kramnik 2772 5 Leko 2769 6 Aronian 2767 7 Radjabov 2757 8 Jakovenko 2755 9 Morozevich 2750 10 Gelfand 2750

1 Topalov 2813 2 Anand 2788 3 Carlsen 2772 4 Aronian 2768 5 Gelfand 2765 6 Jakovenko 2760 7 Kramnik 2759 8 Radjabov 2758 9 Leko 2756 10 Morozevich 2751

Alexei Shirov beat Magnus Carlsen to win the MTel 2009 Chess tournament. In a must win situation for a clear first, Shirov pushed Carlsen to the wall, winning pawn after pawn. Carlsen resigned in a hopeless position in just 30 moves. Topalov drew his last game.

MTel 2009 Chess. Chucky made some elementary errors in a long game and erred in playing 43 ... fxg2. Topalov found the winning move but not the best sequence to finish off Ivanchuk. But, the ending was very interesting. Take a look.

After a long game and fighting well, black has just played 47 ... Rcf8. Is it a blunder? White to play and win Solution: 48. Rh1 Rh7 49. Rxh7 Kxh7 50. Bd6 Rf7 51. Re2 Nf5 52. Rxe6 Nxd6 53. Rxd6 and White wins with the material advantage. GM Christiansen chose another route to the inevitable win from that position.

World Computer Chess Championships. Junior vs Hiarcs Black has just played ... 29 .. Rg8. Can you find a win for White?

Black has just played 22 ... Rad8. Find the winning move. White to play and win Solution: 23. Rb3!

Nakamura reached into joint lead with this win over Brooks. Note: 27 ... Rxf6 is a draw by perpetual check.

Is the era of Chess Engine creativity upon us? Or, just because computers can't protest we just pretend that computer Chess is a beast and there is no beauty to it? Fischer and even much before him, Capablanca, had said that Chess was more or less solved. But from recent Super GM and GM comments, it appears that we are seeing a paradigm shift. Computers are now influencing a new approach that is being adopted by an increasing number of players. Even more glaring is the fact that the play at the grassroots level is sharper than ever. Of course, the leader of the move towards this new style of play is none other than who it should be - The World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand, who crushed Vladimir Kramnik with an amazing display of a combination of Computer preparation and also over the board precise play that even computers would find hard to match. Read the following quotes. "Something sinister is lurking behind some magnificent chess victories these days. It is getting hard

Live rating list 1 Topalov 2812 2 Anand 2788 3 Aronian 2768 4 Carlsen 2765 5 Kramnik 2759 6 Jakovenko 2757 7 Radjabov 2756 8 Leko 2756 9 Gelfand 2751 10 Morozevich 2751

Black was ahead in the game but has just played ...Ba6. Can you find the winning sequence? White to move and win.

Gritty Gata Kamsky beat Alexander Grischuk with the black pieces at the FIDE Grand Prix being held at Nalchick. Note how Kamsky grinds Grischuk down in an equal endgame.

The Live Chess Ratings as on the 3rd week of April 2009. Jakovenko still remains the surprise, or is he really now in the top league with his solid play? Nice to see some older generation names! 1 Topalov 2812 2 Anand 2788 3 Carlsen 2765 4 Kramnik 2759 5 Aronian 2757 5 Jakovenko 2757 7 Radjabov 2756 8 Leko 2754 9 Morozevich 2751 10 Gelfand 2748

For a long time, the live Chess rating list has been pretty wild. For the first time in many months, the list appears sane. Ivanchuk and Morozevich are in the trough of their "peak and trough" cycle, Grichuk is probably where he belongs. Kramnik probably deserves something better though. 01 Topalov 2812 02 Anand 2789 03 Carlsen 2765 04 Kramnik 2759 05 Radjabov 2756 06 Jakovenko 2756 07 Aronian 2754 08 Leko 2751 09 Morozevich 2751 10 Grischuk 2748

Anand won an amazing game against Stellwagen in the German league. Watch it to believe it!

Aronian won the Melody Amber tournament(rapid and blindfold), Tomashevsky the European Individual, Humpy the Women's Grand Prix and Kosintseva the European Women's titles.

Leaderboard at the European Individual Chess Championships Budva, Montenegro 1 20 GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2656 RUS 5½ 2 14 GM Volokitin Andrei 2671 UKR 5 3 53 GM Meier Georg 2608 GER 5 4 33 GM Navara David 2638 CZE 5 5 38 GM Fedorchuk Sergey A 2633 UKR 4½ 6 98 GM Sjugirov Sanan 2562 RUS 4½ 7 3 GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2693 GER 4½ 8 75 GM Banikas Hristos 2582 GRE 4½ 9 64 GM Bartel Mateusz 2594 POL 4½ 10 91 GM Shomoev Anton 2567 RUS 4½

Standings at the end of the 4th round of the European Individual European Individual Women's Chess Championships at St Petersburg 1 GM Hoang Thanh Trang 4.0 HUN F 2483 3051 +1.13 1 1 1 1 2 GM Socko, Monika 4.0 POL F 2449 3067 +1.39 1 1 1 1 3 GM Dzagnidze, Nana 3.5 GEO F 2518 2682 +0.61 1 1 1 ½ 4 GM Lahno, Kateryna 3.5 UKR F 2488 2669 +0.69 1 1 ½ 1 5 IM Mkrtchian, Lilit 3.5 ARM F 2460 2643 +0.70 1 ½ 1 1 6 IM Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 3.5 RUS F 2442 2640 +0.77 1 1 ½ 1 7 IM Melia, Salome 3.5 GEO F 2422 2609 +0.71 1 1 ½ 1 8 IM Khurtsidze, Nino 3.5 GEO F 2421 2608 +0.72 ½ 1 1 1 9 WGM Shadrina, Tatiana 3.5 RUS F 2416 2633 +0.90 ½ 1 1 1 10 IM Foisor, Cristina-Adela 3.5 ROU F 2412 2611 +0.83 1 1 1 ½

The fifth round of the Women's Grand Prix tournament is on at Istanbul. Here's Hou Yifan's mature win over the experienced legend Pia Cramling. Yifan is now in the lead along with the other surprise leader, Martha Fierro Baquero.

Live Chess Rankings after Linares. Note that the following players are out of the top 20 - Karjakin, Mamedyarov, Kamsky, and Dominguez among others. 1 Topalov 2812 2 Anand 2783 3 Carlsen 2764,6 4 Kramnik 2759 5 Radjabov 2756 6 Aronian 2754 7 Jakovenko 2753 8 Leko 2751 9 Morozevich 2751 10 Grischuk 2748 11 Ivanchuk 2746 12 Shirov 2741 13 Gelfand 2739 14 Wang Yue 2738 15 Movsesian 2734 16 Svidler 2731 17 Gashimov 2730 18 Bacrot 2729 19 Ponomariov 2726 20 Ni 2724

Hou Yifan beat formidable Stefanova of Bulgaria to shoot into joint lead along with Humpy, Martha Fierro, and Zhao Xue. Humpy could only draw her game against Betül Cemre Yıldız. Martha Fierro upset legend Pia Cramling of Sweden while Zhao Xue beat Mamedyarova.

Alexander Grischuk of Russia won the Linares Chess Tournament, 2009. All the final round games were drawn. Grischuk drew his game against Aronian and Ivanchuk tried hard but had to be satisfied with a draw against Dominguez Perez of Cuba. Grischuk finished ahead of Ivanchuk due to the tie break which rewards more wins. Grischuk had 3 wins against 2 by Ivanchuk. Magnus Carlsen of Norway finished third while India's World Champion V Anand finished fourth. Final Standings 1. Grischuk, Alexander 8 2. Ivanchuk, Vassily 8 3. Carlsen, Magnus 7.5 4. Anand, Viswanathan 7 5. Wang Yue 6.5 6. Radjabov, Teimour 6.5 7. Aronian, Levon 6.5 8. Dominguez Perez, Leinier 6

The ever unpredictable Ivanchuk shocked Levon Aronian to move to the joint lead with one round to go at the Linares Chess tournament 2009. In a Semi Slav, Anti-Meran game, Ivanchuk showed that exprience matters and presented some problems to be solved from move 12 (with a novelty). A breathtaking sequence of moves by Ivanchuk and Aronian was already lost in a few moves. He tried some elementary tricks, which Ivanchuk avoided, simplified and won with a lot to spare. With just one game to go, Ivanchuk has a good chance to win the prestigious tournament since he plays tail ender Dominguez, albeit with the black pieces. Ivanchuk is clearly riding on a strong second wind, wish him all the best for the last game! In the other games, Carlsen missed a certain win against Radjabov in the late endgame and had to eventually agree to a draw. Here's Carlsen's disappointing draw against Radjabov

Magnus Carlsen conquered overnight leader Grischuk to move to joint second place at Linares. Carlsen presented complicated challenges for Grischuk in the middle game and then sacrificed a bishop to gain an unstoppable connected pawn pair. Grischuk resigned when Carlsen threaten Queening of the pawn and also win heavy material. All the other games ended in draws.

I first saw this shy but confident looking lad at Sangli, in a very small tournament. International Master Sethuraman was attending the tournament as a part of his family's journey to Shirdi, a favorite religious place for many. He was one of the two IMs participating at that tournament. Although he finished tied for the first position, it was obviously not his best performance, one reason being that he had played two consecutive tournaments before that tournament. After a couple weeks of rest and preparation, he proceeded to play at Parsvnath and Gurgaon, two major tournaments held in India. The results were there for all to see and appreciate. Sethuraman managed to get his GM norm at Parsvnath and just missed another by half a point. In the bargain, he beat some very strong GMs like Gleizerov, Iuldachev, Safin and drew against Kuzubov, Ulibin, Kunte, Ismagambetov. The only blip being his loss against GM Das. What an amazing turnaround! Here was one of India's most promising p

Live Chess Rankings to start the month of March 1 Topalov 2812 2 Anand 2786 3 Carlsen 2766 4 Aronian 2765 5 Kramnik 2759 6 Jakovenko 2753 7 Radjabov 2753 8 Leko 2751 9 Morozevich 2751 10 Grischuk 2750 Topalov sealed his position at the top. Note that the match against Kamsky did not get him too many points even though the final score was pretty one sided. Aronian is slowly creeping up to the top and regaining his earlier form of a couple years back. Jakovenko is No. 6! The most significant change in the past few days is definitely Grischuk's climb back into the top 10.

A lip-smacking potential encounter between World Champion Anand and Veselin Topalov has been set up. Topalov beat Gata Kamsky 4.5-2.5 in the Challenger's match. Topalov today won the 7th game and sealed up the match one game before the scheduled end. Kamsky missed some promising continuations to even the match score and blundered heavily as he headed to the first time control. Topalov played enterprisingly and managed to keep up the pressure and won easily thereafter.

GM Kateryna Lahno and GM Robert Fontaine are now a married couple! Wish them a happy married life. Robert is a very popular GM known for his Chess reporting on Europe Echecs, the French Chess magazine, while Lahno is an ex-child prodigy and a full GM with many tournament wins from a very young age.

Carlsen beat Anand in the 6th round of the Linares Open tournament, thus breaking his drawing jinx. Anand played provacatively abandoning caution and missed several drawing chances. Carlsen played his steady game to slowly overpower Anand in an endgame that was reduced to a Rook vs Knight one. One gets the feeling that Anand is operating at a much higher risk taking level after the match against Kramnik. In most games, he is managing to frighten his opponents, but when faced with solid play, he tends to slip a bit and hand over the game.

Kamsky blunders to give Topalov an upper hand in the match. We have just 3 more games to go and Topalov clearly has an upper hand. For Kamsky, the only hope is that he has the white pieces in the 6th game. Kamsky played the French Defence, equalized pretty comfortably and sailing on towards a draw, before he committed a shocking blunder. Kamsky needs to strike immediately if he hopes to survive. That will make the match all the more lively.

Mamedyarov resigned and withdrew from the Aeroflot chess tournament after the shocking 21 ... Qd2 find by Kurnosov. He accused Kurnosov of cheating and said that the moves resembled Rybka evaluation. Could it be plain preparation? What do you feel?

Top seed Mamedyarov withdrew from the Aeroflot Chess tournament after accusing his opponent Igor Kurnosov of cheating. Mamedyarov was leading the tournament with +3 at the end of the fifth round and slid back while Kurnosov is in the lead after 6 rounds. What rattled Mamedyarov is probably a combination of things. Imagine a 2602 player refusing an early draw from a 2724 giant! Kurnosov did exactly that. The arbiters though, did not agree. They felt that the moves could be found by a strong GM. Some facts related to this story. -- Some witnesses claim that Kurnosov never went to the bathroom. He was mostly in the smoking area . -- Mamedyarov has slid down to number 21 in the live ratings. He used to be in the top 10 in the recent past -- Kurnosov has been in top form in the last few months, winning Hastings in December comprehensively with 7.5/9 -- Mamedyarov had resigned in an apparently equal game against Magnus Carlsen at Corus 2008, which created a buzz at the time on different foru

Gata Kamsky demonstrated his tenacity by grinding out Topalov and earning a full point in the 4th game of the 8 game match. In a game that represents Kamsky's style best, he did not allow Topalov to create counter chances and won in 73 moves. Kamsky probably brings in about 100 ELO points equivalent of guts to any match. No wonder, he has beaten the likes of Anand and Kramnik earlier. Match experience is Match experience and the result of that can be seen by one and all. The match is now precariously poised and a win gives a massive edge to the first one to do it.

Kamsky played a solid third game with the black pieces masking the disappointment of the previous round. He now has the white pieces tomorrow to try for a win.

World Champion Anand faltered against Aronian in a Meran game. Anand probably used his World Championship preparation, but the complicated middle game meant that both parties had chances. Anand overlooked an exchange sacrifice to give Aronian the advance. The game was a bit comical since at one time Aronian had 6 pawns for a Bishop, which he duly converted to a win. In other games, Grischuk beat Wang Yue of China. The other two games were drawn.

Anand beat Radjabov in a Q+N vs Q+B endgame in the first round of Linares 2009.

Topalov surprised Kamsky by unleashing the relatively lesser used 5... Bc5. Kamsky lost the game on the clock, prefering to play accurate chess than to take chances. Kudos to Topalov for taking risks in such a short match. Credit is even more due since Topalov was also out of his prepartion as early as move 9. Every single game is critical now. Even a draw means a lot, especially to Topalov, although knowing him he'll probably try to shut the door on Kamsky in the next couple of games. A just result considering that Topalov attacked relentlessly over two games.

Gata Kamsky held favorite Veselin Topalov in the first game of the Challenger's match being held in Bulgaria. In an exciting, Grunfeld game, Kamsky forced the aggressive Topalov to go for a draw after 36 moves. The result must be considered to be good for Kamsky's morale since he now has the white pieces tomorrow. Kamsky cooly countered the novelty that Topalov dished out on the 17th move, held on to an extra pawn and made Topalov fight for the initiative. After the novelty, both players played accurate chess to reach an even endgame where a draw was an expected result.

Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria will start the Chess World Championship Challenger's match with the white pieces. A colorful opening ceremony was conducted today. Knowing Topalov, he would like to start with a bang and retain the initiative right till the end, especially since this is an ultra short match. Don't be surprised if he comes up with some spicy home cooked recipe. Kamsky is no slouch either. He is best equipped to handle Topalov's aggressive style. We will cover the important stages of the game live. It is rumored that Kamsky had problems with the lighting arrangement at the venue. GM Georgiev will try to break the Guiness record for the most consecutive Chess games played. The record is currently held by IM Andrew Martin.

We all know Illya Nyzhnyk now.But have you heard about GM Zherebukh, Yaroslav? You are excused if you haven't. He is a 15 year old from the Ukraine. Another young teenager on a Pogo stick, jumping over his seniors. Currently rated 2558. He's played other contemporary and famous prodigies such as Anish Giri and Illya Nyzhnyk and drawing them mostly. He's also beaten and drawn some GMs and played in the Ukranian Championship Finals Looking at the recent trend, we expect Li Chao B to move rapidly towards the 2700 mark. You can't count out Hou Yifan of course, but it may take her a while to get there. Zhou Jianchao is also in the race and is also young and raring to go. Russia and Ukraine are way ahead of the others in the top countries list. If you are looking for some untitled talent, there is a 16 year old named Rui Gao now rated 2500! And guess what? Although Rui faced some rating correction in the last rating period, there were astounding jumps of 259 and 135 in two 3

Anand should be well rested and hopefully ready for the battle ahead. After all, he now needs to show who is the boss! There's always a threat of relaxing a bit too much and the relief after such an intense phase of preparing and winning the World Championship can make one complacent. Let's hope nothing like that happens. Aronian and Carlsen will of course be in the title race, as always. Chucky, will you make us proud just one more time in an elite field? Yue is expected to be fighting in this tournament and I predict a top half finish for him. Wijk Aan Zee was a rude shock to him. But we all know the Chinese, they'll get going sooner or later. Never ones to shirk hard work. Radjabov and Grischuk can never be counted out. Lenier Dominguez will continue delivering surprises and rise further.

Correction - We are sticking our neck out and predicting a 4.5 - 3.5 win for Topalov over Kamsky :-) in the Challenger's match. Pray for Kamsky and me.

We managed to request and get to interview Wesley So of the Philippines on Facebook via chat. Here are some interesting responses from him. imchess.com : Congrats for the amazing performance at Corus Chess. Thanks for giving us your time. The Chess world wants to know more about you. Wesley So : Thank you and thanks for following my games. imchess.com : Your performance was really strong. Which was the toughest game? Wesley So : The toughest game was the opening one against Nijboer. imchess.com : And the most satisfying? Wesley So : The win against Tiger Hillarp Persson of course! Because it guaranteed me the tournament win. Wesley So's famous win against Tiger Persson with the black pieces. imchess.com : Yes, Tiger was hot on your heels. Any disappointments? Wesley So : Too bad that I lost to Holzke. That was hard. After I lost that game, I did not think I would win the tournament. Maybe I relaxed since I was in the lead. imchess : Right, that was tough I guess. Otherwise, it was

The following players will fight for the Linares 2009 Chess title. An elite field participates in this edition. Topalov had to withdraw due to his match against Kamsky. Viswanathan Anand Magnus Carlsen Vassily Ivanchuk Levon Aronian Teimour Radjabov Wang Yue Alexander Grischuk Lenier Dominguez

Have you noticed how many players are tied for the first place these days at major Chess tournaments? Even towards the closing stages? This happened at Corus Wijk Aan Zee and now at Gibraltar. Six players were tied for first before the final round in the Group A of the Corus tournament. Only in the last round did an eventual sole winner emerge. Five players are tied for first before the final round of the Gibtelecom tournament even though Elite GMs such as Svidler, Gashimov, and Nakamura are playing. Is it the worldwide recession and a safe approach by the players? Please leave Nakamura out when you put on your thinking hats:) What do you think is the reason?

Live Chess Ratings End January, 2009 1 Topalov 2809 2 Anand 2791 3 Carlsen 2770 4 Radjabov 2765 5 Aronian 2760 6 Kramnik 2759 7 Jakovenko 2753 8 Leko 2751 9 Ivanchuk 2746 10 Morozevich 2746

The Live Chess Rankings for the last week of January 1 Topalov 2809 2 Anand 2791 3 Carlsen 2767 4 Radjabov 2765 5 Aronian 2760 6 Kramnik 2759 7 Jakovenko 2753 8 Leko 2751 9 Ivanchuk 2747 10 Morozevich 2746

Topalov and Kamsky have played each other 8 times and Topalov has totally dominated Kamsky so far. The score is +4 =4 in favor of Topalov. The score does not give a perfect picture of what will happen in their February match. Kamsky is known for his steely determination. Examples of this are his legendary wins over Anand before he retired in the last millenium and his shocking win in the World Cup. Here's a sample win by Topalov in one of their earliest encounters:

Live Chess Rankings - January 2009 Week 3 1 Topalov 2809 2 Anand 2791 3 Carlsen 2764 4 Radjabov 2762 5 Kramnik 2759 6 Aronian 2756 7 Jakovenko 2753 8 Ivanchuk 2751 8 Leko 2751 10 Morozevich 2748

The third round of the Corus Wijk Aan Zee tournament produced two significant results. The game between Radjabov and Ivanchuk was an error-filled one. Ivanchuk enjoyed the advantage almost throughout the game and pushed Radjabov to the wall with extreme pawn pushes and had most of Radjabov's pieces too in corners. In the end, Ivanchuk blundered away his Queen (which should anyway have been only a bishop). A miserable game for Ivanchuk and not a pretty sight at this level. The other decisive game was played between the solid Kamsky and the shaky (so far) top seed of this tournament, Morozevich. Kamsky squeezed the juice out of a normal middle game to beat Moro in just 34 moves.

The match to decide who will face Vishy Anand will be played between Topalov and Kamsky at Sofia, Bulgaria. It will be held between February 16-28 and will be an 8 game affair. The winner has a great chance to become the next World Champion, provided Vishy loses. While Kamsky won the right to the Challenger match by winning the World Cup, Topalov got the opportunity since he was denied a Toiletgate rematch against Kramnik. Although Kamsky tried hard to get the match to the US and later to the Ukraine, he finally had to agree to play in Bulgaria, since he could not get the funds to stage the match at Ukraine. Danailov managed to get the match to his favorite location. We feel that Topalov is the firm favorite, but Kamsky is a cool customer and is especially tough even when under intense pressure. Lets hope he pulls out some old tricks to try and outclass Topalov

The first round of the Corus Chess 2009 edition at Wijk aan Zee started with two upsets. Karjakin beat Morozevich and low ranked Smeets beat Ivanchuk. Radjabov held Carlsen to a draw with the black pieces in a nerve wracking game. In other significant games, Kasimdzhanov beat Yifan in a Group B game which the Chinese girl should have easily held. To her credit, she rejected a draw early in the game by playing on and not repeating moves. Results of Round 1 Group A D. Stellwagen - S. Movsesian ½-½ M. Carlsen - T. Radjabov ½-½ L. Aronian - W. Yue ½-½ V. Ivanchuk - J. Smeets 0-1 S. Karjakin - A. Morozevich 1-0 L. Van Wely - L. Dominguez (Game in Progress) G. Kamsky - M. Adams ½-½ Ivanchuk vs Smeets 0-1 Karjakin vs Morozevich 1-0 Carlsen vs Radjabov (Draw) Results of Round 1 Group B H. Yifan - R. Kasimdzhanov 0-1 K. Sasikiran - E. l'Ami ½-½ D. Reinderman - F. Vallejo Pons 0-1 N. Short - J. Werle ½-½ A. Volokitin - F. Caruana ½-½ H. Mecking - Z. Efimenko 0-1 A. Motylev - D. Navara 0-1 R

The top live chess rankings remain largely the same. Ni Hua has broken into the Top 20 after his stellar performance at Reggio Emilia, displacing the other recent stellar performer, Sasikiran (who did it at Pamplona) 01 Topalov 2809 02 Anand 2791 03 Morozevich 2771 04 Carlsen 2771 05 Ivanchuk 2763 06 Radjabov 2761 07 Kramnik 2759 08 Aronian 2754 09 Jakovenko 2753 10 Leko 2751