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

GM Alexey Dreev of Russia won the Magistral Casino De Barcelona tournament 2008. He finished just half a point ahead of GM Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria. Dreev finished the tournament unbeaten and with a +5 score by scoring 7/9. Veteran Gulko played well in patches to finish with a plus score. Top Women's player Stefanova finished on an even score. Here's some juicy vintage stuff from Gulko. Mind you, he has a plus score against none other then the great Kasparov. In this game, although he makes some minor errors in the opening (normal for veterans since they usually don't keep up with opening theory), he more than makes up for it with an accurate end game. Final Standings: GM Dreev 7 GM Georgiev 6.5 GM Jobava 5.5 GM Gulko 5 GM Stefanova, IM Corrales 4.5 GM Lopez 4 GM Narciso, GM Kogan 2.5

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...

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 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...

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

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 !