Khismatullin wins Chigorin Rapid
This year, the Chigorin Memorial in St petersburg has assembled a brilliant line-up. But by established tradition it began with a rapid tournament, in which the majority of the stars...did not play. Even so, 173 players took part. And the winner, by a clear margin, was Denis Khismatullin - he scored 8/9, ahead of a group of chasers.
Modest farewell to Sao PauloAll three games in the 5th round of the Grand Slam Final ended in draws. The tournament now bids farewell to Sao Paulo and switches to Bilbao for the second half. The leader is unchanged – Fabiano Caruana – although he had a miraculous escape against Aronian: for a second game in a row Levon let a certain win slip… Anand managed to draw despite encountering problems against Carlsen, while Karjakin didn’t manage to squeeze out an endgame win against Vallejo. Jakovenko breaks clearThere was true mayhem in the 2nd round of the tournament in Poikovsky: no less than four decisive games! Dmitry Jakovenko has taken the sole lead on 2/2 after outplaying Nigel Short with Black. Ruslan Ponomariov is a point behind after defeating Radoslaw Wojtaszek. After opening defeats Sergei Rublevsky and Alexander Motylev won their games. The only draw was between Viorel Bologan and Alexander Onischuk.
Round of hidden Sturm und Drang…After two lively rounds we again had a lull: no shortage of effort, but little end product, although you certainly couldn’t describe the 8th round as peaceful… Nakamura suffered his third loss in a row and dropped to bottom place, while his dislike of simple endgames brought Ivanchuk back to 50%. Kasimdzhanov, meanwhile, changed places with Adams: he outplayed the Englishman from a level position. Grischuk and Wang Hao were also in danger, but they achieved draws. Gelfand did as well, despite desperately trying to beat Giri.
Caruana edges closer to the “Grand Slam”Fabiano Caruana continues to demonstrate exorbitant motivation and quality of play at the Grand Slam Final. After beating Vallejo in Round 4 his advantage over his rivals has grown again: the Italian has 10/12, while Aronian is in second with 6 and Carlsen has 5… Only one round remains in Sao Paulo, after which the tournament will switch to Bilbao for the second half.
Gelfand firms up his lead!Boris Gelfand scored his third victory in London and firmed up his lead at the first stage of the Grand Prix series. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is hot on the heels of the Israeli player after scoring a second impressive win in a row.
Jakovenko, Short and Wojtaszek start with winsAfter the first round in Poikovsky the trio of Dmitry Jakovenko, Nigel Short and Radoslaw Wojtaszek are leading the chase. While Radoslaw’s victory over Motylev was largely down to the Polish grandmaster doing a great deal of work, Dmitry and Nigel in many ways got lucky – both of them received unexpected gifts from their opponents.
Double victory for Humpy KoneruIndia’s Humpy Koneru nevertheless won the final stage of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Ankara and took second place in the cycle by overtaking Anna Muzychuk at the last moment. If Hou Yifan now retains her World Championship title later this year Koneru will be her challenger. Muzychuk, meanwhile, only has herself to blame.
Carlsen vs. the WorldThe world’s top rated player Magnus Carlsen is going to take on the whole world. The encounter will be played on the 24th November in Mexico as part of the Grand Fiesta UNAM chess tournament. After that the Norwegian will take part in the main tournament of the festival itself alongside Judit Polgar, Lazaro Bruzon and Manuel Leon Hoyos. Poikovsky, for the 13th time…The Anatoly Karpov tournament in the school that goes by the same name is marking its 13th anniversary. All the players arrived in Yugra on Thursday in the company of the ex-World Champion. A colourful opening ceremony, the draw and a traditional banquet were held in Nefteyugansk’s Centre of Social and Cultural Activities. |
