THE WEEK IN CHESS 728 20th October 2008 by Mark Crowther

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1) Introduction

My thanks to Jan Mazuch, Chris Ross, Efstratios Grivas, Igor Kragelj, Luiz Roberto Da Costa Jr, Miklos Orso, Richard Palliser, Massimo Casa and everyone else who helped with the issue.

With a week gone Viswanathan Anand leads Vladimir Kramnik 3.5-1.5. Anand has dominated the first week's play and his two wins as black must be particularly hurtful to Kramnik. Anand has got more preparation and played faster than Kramnik and the pressure this has generated has led to his wins. Although there is still some time for things to change it just looks like right now Anand is simply the better player. Already its getting close to the time for Kramnik to press the panic button, probably he would settle for a draw with black tomorrow but after that he needs a win to get back into the match.

If the World Championship wasn't enough there is also the European Club Cup. This sees many of the world's best competing and there has been some interesting stuff there also.

The front page of TWIC underwent a remake this week. This is just the start of a number of changes I have planned to make the pages much better. Its still very much work in progress though.

Hope you enjoy this issue.

Mark

2) World Chess Championship

World Champion Viswanathan Anand defends his title against Vladimir Kramnik in a 12 game match (rapid and blitz tie-breaks if the match finishes 6-6) in Bonn, Germany, October 14th– 2nd November, 2008. The main sponsor is Evonik Industries AG and the prizemoney 1,5 Million Euro.

Official Website: http://www.uep-worldchess.com/

Live Coverage

• Here at The Week in Chess
• Official Broadcaster: Foidos pay per view with live video and commentary
• Chesscube
• ICC
• Playchess
• Chess Mind By Dennis Monokroussos

Dates for the match Oct 14th - 2nd Nov 2008.

Play starts 2pm UK time.

• Gm1: Oct 14th
• Gm2: Oct 15th
• Gm3: Oct 17th
• Gm4: Oct 18th
• Gm5: Oct 20th
• Gm6: Oct 21st
• Gm7: Oct 23rd
• Gm8: Oct 24th
• Gm9: Oct 26th
• Gm10: Oct 27th
• Gm11: Oct 29th
• Gm12: Oct 31st
• Tiebreak: Nov 2nd

3) European Club Cup

The European Club Cup 2008 (24th European Club Cup for Men, 13th European Club Cup for Women) takes place in Kallithea, Greece 16th-24th October 2008.

Official site: http://ecc2008.chessdom.com/

4) Russian Championship

The 61st Russian Championship SuperFinal took place 3rd-15th October 2008. There was a three way tie on 7/9. Dmitry Jakovenko beat Nikita Vitiugov to overtake him and catch Evgeny Alekseev. Peter Svidler started with three wins then became becalmed and lost his lead with a loss to Timofeev. In the final round he defeated the leader Evgeny Alekseev to catch him and set up a three way playoff. Playoffs are on 28th October 1pm Moscow time - according to the regulations it was supposed to after the final round, but that would have lasted until 1am - the format will be 6 games (double-round robin) of 15'+10''.

Official site: http://www.russiachess.org/

5) 12th Essent Chess Tournament

The 12th edition of the Essent Chess Tournament takes place October 17th-25th 2008. The location is the city of Hoogeveen. Just like last year there are several competitions: a Crown Group, a strong Essent Open, an Amateur Tournament and an event for youth.

Official site: http://www.essentchess.nl/

6) US Chess League

The 2008 season of the US Chess League started 25th August 2008.

Official site: http://www.uschessleague.com/

7) 4NCL

Rounds 1-2 of the 4NCL took place 4th-5th October 2008. There are two halves of the first division, after 7 rounds the top teams meets in the final stages. Some games were missing from the file last week.

Fixtures 2008-9

Rounds 1 and 2: 4th/5th October 2008 De Vere Venues, Sunningdale Divisions 1-2

Rounds 3-4: 6th/7th December 2008 Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island Divisions 1-3

Rounds 5-6: 17th/18th January 2009 De Vere Venues, Sunningdale Divisions 1-2

Rounds 7-8: 21st/22nd March 2009 Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island Divisions 1-3

Rounds 9-11: 2nd-4th May 2009 De Vere Venues, Staverton Park Divisions 1-2

Official website: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/ and live coverage: http://www.bcfservices.org.uk/livechess/4ncl/0809/index.htm

8) Mindsports

The World Mindsports games took place in Beijing, China after the Olympics 3rd-18th October 2008. This was a huge sprauling event with blitz and rapid individual, pairs and team events. Special thanks to Efstratios Grivas who did a good job on the games.

A summary of the medals:

1. China: 4 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Bronze;
2. Russia: 2 Gold, 1 Silver
3. Ukraine: 1 Gold, 3 Silver; 3 Bronze;
4. Bulgaria: 1 Gold, 1 Silver;
5-6. Ecuador, Hungary: 1 Gold each;
7. Vietnam: 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
8. India: 1 Silver;
9. Iran: 2 Bronze;
10-11. Greece, Singapore: 1 Bronze each.

Individual women's blitz championship:

1 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra RUS 2525
2 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2548
3 WGM Hou Yifan CHN 2578

Individual men's blitz championship:

1 IM Kravtsiv Martyn UKR 2549
2 GM Drozdovskij Yuri UKR 2587
3 GM Banikas Hristos GRE 2572

Individual women's rapid championship:

1 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2548 8
2 GM Zhao Xue CHN 2518 7
3 WGM Huang Qian CHN 2430 6
4 IM Houska Jovanka ENG 2399 6

Individual men's rapid championship:

1 GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2714 6
2 GM Korobov Anton UKR 2605 6
3 GM Zhang Zhong SIN 2649 6
4 GM Fier Alexandr BRA 2581 6

Pairs Blitz Championship:

1 3 Ecuador
2 1 India
3 2 Ukraine
4 4 Iran

Pairs Rapid Championship:

1 1 China
2 4 Vietnam
3 3 Iran
4 2 Indonesia

Team Blitz Championship Women:

1 2 Russia
2 1 China
3 3 Vietnam
4 4 Turkey

Team Rapid Championship Men:

1 3 Hungary
2 1 China
3 4 Ukraine
4 2 India

Team Rapid Championship Women:

1 2 China
2 4 Ukraine
3 1 Russia
4 3 Vietnam

Team Rapid Championship Men:

1 1 China
2 4 Ukraine
3 3 Iran
4 2 United States of America

Official sites: http://wmsg2008.fide.com, http://www.fide.com/ and http://www.2008wmsg.org/

Results: http://info.2008wmsg.org/en-us/Sport_Info.aspx?xm=CH&dt=0

9) First Saturday October

The First Saturday tournaments took place 4th-16th of October 2008. Sam Collins of Ireland won the GM event with 7/9 and made his first GM norm.

Official site: http://www.firstsaturday.hu

10) Belgrade Premier League

The Belgrade Premier League took place 5th-14th October 2008. Politika (Dejan Pikula, Borislav Ivkov etc) took the title.

Official site: http://www.beochess.org.yu/. Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr16388.aspx?lan=2

11) Alushta Tournaments

Alushta Tournaments, Autumn-1 and Autumn-3 started 2nd, 14th and 26th September 2008.

Results: http://ratings.fide.com/view_source.phtml?code=16398

Results: http://ratings.fide.com/view_source.phtml?code=16400

Results: http://ratings.fide.com/view_source.phtml?code=16641

12) Villa Martelli

There is a new Villa Martelli chess festival takes place 9th-28th October 2008. Diego Flores won the XV Pro-Am event with 7.5/9.

Official site: http://www.ajedrezmartelli.org.ar/ or more specifically: http://www.ajedrezmartelli.org.ar/proam/2008/proam2008.html

13) South Bohemia Open

The 2nd International Chess Festival South Bohemia Open 2008 took place 11th-18th October 2008 in Cesky Krumlov (Czech Republic). Radoslav Dolezal (the IM not the other one) edged out Marek Vokac on tie-break after both finished on 7.5/9. News: Jan Mazuch.

Complete results: http://www.czechtour.net/south-bohemia-open/results-and-games/ and games: http://www.czechtour.net/south-bohemia-open/games/

14) 13th I.B.C.A. Olympiad

13th I.B.C.A. Olympiad takes place in Heraklion, Crete from 18th-29th October 2008.

Official site: http://www.sokoridallou.gr/olympiad08/index.html

15) Bundesliga

The Schachbundesliga season 2008/09 runs 3rd-5th October and runs until March 2009. 16 Teams compete with team rosters of 16-18 players but only eight play each weekend. There will be live coverage of all the games.

Dates: 4th-5th October 2008 25th-26th October 2008 29th-30th November 2008 12th-14th December 2008 (Here the official seventh round will be played. Although some will be played at other times) 31st January 2008 - 1st February 2009. 28th February - 1st March 2009. 28th-29th March 2009.

Official site of the Schachbundesliga (http://www.schachbundesliga.de/index.aspx) Further information (in German) and the entrance site for the live coverage: http://www.schachbundesliga.de/index.aspx

16) Trieste Correction

Correction to Kragelj-Basagic, Trieste 2008.

17) National Chess League Argentina

The National Chess League took place in Villa Martelli 9th August - 4th October 2008. Martelli - Vte. Lopez won the event with 5 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss. Games section not yet complete, I will wait until it is.

Official site: http://www.lna.org.ar/liga08/lna2008.htm

18) Forthcoming Events and Links

68th Italian Championship

The 68th Italian Championship takes place 3rd December - 14th December 2008. The tournament will consist of 12 players in a round robin at the 4 star Park Hotel San Michele in Martina Franca. Games will be played on DGT boards, and viewable live at the Italian Chess Federation´s web site. The players are: GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Michele Godena, GM Carlos Garcia Palermo, IM Luca Shytaj, IM Sabino Brunello, IM Fabio Bruno, IM Denis Rombaldoni, IM Pierluigi Piscopo, IM Daniel Contin, FM Daniyyl Dvirnyy, FM Daniele Genocchio, and Alessio Valsecchi.

Official federation site:  http://www.federscacchi.it/

Casino De Barcelona

The Casino De Barcelona tournament takes place in the Casino of Barcelona (Marina Avenue, 19-21 ), October 30th - November 7th, 2008, and the games will start at 16.00.

Players: GM Alexey Dreev (2670) GM Baadur Jobava (2664) GM Kiril Georgiev (2644) GM Holden Hernández (2580) GM Artur Kogan (2561) GM Boris Gulko (2552) IM Fidel Corrales (2551) GM Antoaneta Stefanova (2550) GM JM. López (2547) GM Marc Narciso (2511)

Official site: http://www.directefcde.org/

27th Elba Island Festival

The 27th International Chess Festival of Elba Island "Luigi Amalfi", takes place at the Hotel Lacona 10th-17th May 2009.

Details: http://www.tuscanhotels.it/en/cmsx.asp?IDPg=23

Milan

Milano, Italy, organized by Società Scacchistica Milanese (founded in 1881) Master group: December 6th-13th 2008, 9 rounds, global prizes 3.000 euro - with GMs and IMs Good conventions with hotels Address - via S.Uguzzone 8 = closed to the underground (MM1 - Villa SG). The Mediterranean Championship will start in Courmayeur (Aosta valley) The dates are December 13th-21st 2008. It is possible to travel and play both.

Web site: http://www.scacchisticamilanese.it

25th Bermuda Open

The 25th Bermuda Open takes place 30th January - 1st February 2008 at the luxurious Fairmont Southampton Resort on the South Shore with private tennis courts, golf course, beach, walking trails,  ferry into Hamilton for duty-free shopping 5 round Swiss. Register & pay on site.  For info contact Nigel Freeman at cadilly@northrock.bm or Carol Jarecki at carolj10280@yahoo.com  

9th Liberec Open

The 9th Liberec Open takes place 15th-22nd November 2008. Open FIDE, active chess and blitz tournament are part of the festival. More detailed information can be found in English, German, Russian and Polish at http://www.czechtour.net/liberec-open/

World Youth Chess Championships

The World Youth Championships take place in Vung Tau city 20th-30th October 2008.

Official site: http://wycc2008.vietnamchess.com/ and Results

Icelandic Team Championship

Icelandic Team Champ 1st div first half took place 3rd-5th October 2008. The 2nd set of games are March 21st-22nd March 2009 if I understand the website correctly. A small number of games are available.

Official site: http://www.skaksamband.is/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5982&Itemid=499# and results: http://chess-results.com/tnr16443.aspx?tnr=16443&art=16&lan=2&flag=30&m=-1

2nd Aquaprofit-Polgar Chess Day

Press release: 2nd Aquaprofit-Polgar Chess Day - within the frameworks of the renaissance year

The Polgár sisters are playing on 100 boards again

Budapest, 29th September. 2008

By favour of the Aquaprofit Co. there will be a chess festival with the Polgár sisters this year as well. This event will take place in an extraordinary beautiful place: in the Blue and the Glass Hall of the Palace of Arts on the 11th of October. Zsuzsa and Zsófi, who live abroad will travel home only for the sake of the chess day, so that they together with Judit, who lives in Hungary can play against their opponents. In the event, being held within the frameworks of the “Renaissance year” actors, journalists, media people, professional and amateur chess players and young talents will sit to the tables. In addition the organizers are planning to make a great announcement as well.

The Aquaprofit Co. is a relevant sponsor of the Hungarian chess life for years; it is the name giving sponsor of the chess team of Nagykanizsa, which is one of the strongest chess teams in Hungary. Last year the management hired Judit Polgár to bring her back to the circulation of the domestic chess life. Besides it organized the successful Aquaprofit-Polgár chess day, this way, after ten years the world famous sisters played together again in Hungary The Aquaprofit Co. would like to continue this tradition this year as well: the 2nd Aquaprofit-Polgár Chess day will be held in the Palace of Arts at 3 pm on the 11th of October 2008.

Judit, who lives in Hungary, Zsuzsa, who will come from New York and Zsófi, who lives in Canada will play against the opponents altogether on 45 boards at the same time (on 15 boards each) and new players will come after each game. This way, according to the plans more than a hundred players will have the chance to play in the simultaneous games.

There is an enormous interest for the event, there are already more than two hundred entrants. One thing is sure: young talents, professional chess players, actors and journalists will sit to the tables.

The organizers are planning to make a great announcement as well at the opening of the event.

Details in Hungarian: http://www.aquaprofit.com/sakknap/

Doeberl Cup and Sydney International 2009

The 2009 Doeberl Cup is in Canberra 9th-13th April 2009. See http://www.doeberlcup.com.au/

The 2009 Sydney International Open takes place 15th-19th April 2009. See http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/index.cfm?site=open

Free entry to GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs.

Free accommodation for selected GMs and WGMs.

For further information, please contact Brian Jones info@chessaustralia.com.au

Dresden Olympiad

The Olympiad takes place in Dresden 12th-25th November 2008.

Official site: http://dresden2008.de

Czech Litomysl Chess Christmas

Czech Chess Christmas 2008 Litomysl (CZE) 26.12.2008-2.1.2009

10th christmas chess FIDE tournament, swiss system of 9 round, rate of game 2 x 1,5h + 30s/move, prize fund 64.000 CZK (1st prize 20.000 CZK = 750 EUR), 10 financial prizes redeemable by drawings, special conditions for IM, WGM and GM, New Year’s Eve programme.

Contact: Proclient s.r.o., Jaroslav Fuksik, Svedska 3, 772 00 Olomouc, mobile: +420 608 364 664, e-mail: a64@proclient.cz, web: http://www.a64.cz/tournaments/litomysl2008/

Leon Open

The city of Leon open takes place 26th-28th December 2008.

Details: http://www.openmundialdeleon.com

North American FIDE Invitationals

North American FIDE Invitationals. Are you on the hunt for your GM or IM norms? Visit http:/www.nachess.org/fide for the tournament schedule or contact Sevan A. Muradian at info@nachess.org for more information.

So - Torre Match 2009

14-year-old Wesley So and 56-year-old Eugene Torre play a 12 game match starting February 10, 2009 at the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City. Two games each will be played in Quezon City, Davao and Iloilo, and if the match remains undecided, the protagonists will return to Quezon City and finish the match. A knockout game will be played if the duel ends up 6-6. The winner will take home P600,000 while the loser will earn P400,000.Another P100,000 goes to the winner of each provincial leg while the loser will get P50,000.

VII Benidorm International Festival

The VII Benidorm International Festival of Chess takes place 29th November - 8th December 2008.

Details: http://www.ajedrezbali.com/

For information contact: E-Mail: eventosdeajedrez@yahoo.es festivaldebenidorm@gmail.com News: Patricia Claros Aguilar.

VI Transcarpathian Rapidtournament Chess Decyk

VI Transcarpathian Rapidtournament "Chess Decyk" Ukraine, Uzhgorod, 28-29.08.2008

Organizers of tournament: Chess Federation of Uzhgorod Organizational committee: B. Borshosh, A. Samoylenko, V. Prokopishin Place: Ukraine, Uzhgorod, Pub-museum "Deca u notaria", Gagarin street, 98 Also Traditional Beer blitz-tournament will take place in Pub-museum "Deca u notaria"! Phone: +380503723900, +380503179153, (+3803122) 2-25-87 E-mail: chessfeduzh@rambler.ru Details: http://www.chessfeduzh.narod.ru

2nd Berkeley Masters

The 2008 Berkeley Masters takes place December 14th-23rd 2008 in Berkeley, California, finishing two days before the start of the North American Open in Las Vegas. It is a 10 round swiss, open to players rated fide 2200+. Space in the tournament and conditions for some Grandmasters are available on a first-come first-serve basis. Prize fund $5000 US. Info at http://dotq.org/chess

British Rapidplay

The British Rapidplay takes place 29th-30th November 2008.

Details: http://www.british-rapidplay.org.uk/

Hungarian Chess Tournaments July 2008 - March 2009

1. 19th-28th of July 2008 KECSKEMET, IM-FM Berger tmt, org: Dr.Erdelyi, Tamas, e-mail: postmaster@caissa.t-online.hu Website: http://www.caissachessbooks.hu Usually also in the second half of the month IM tmt-s in Kecskemet. 100 km South-East from Budapest.

2. 2nd-14th of August, FIRST SATURDAY Budapest GM-IM-FM, GM-IM-FM round robins (BERGER), 9-13 games, GM-IM norm possibilities in Budapest, venue: Hungarian Chess Federation, Falk Miksa Str.10. 2nd floor. Organisation: Nagy Laszlo, FIDE International Chess Organizer /NL/, E-mail: firstsat@hu.inter.net Website: http://www.firstsaturday.hu Phone-fax: +(361)-2632859, cellphone: +(36)-30-230-1914. From 12:00 a.m. until midnight - Central European Time = GMT+1.

3.16th-25th of August, IM-FM tmt, Kecskemet, org: Erdelyi

4.6th-18th of September GM-IM-FM First Saturday Budapest, org Nagy L,

5.20th -29th September IM-FM tmt Kecskemet, org Erdelyi

6.4th-16th of October, GM-IM-FM tmt, First Saturday Budapest, org.Nagy L.

7.18th-30th of October, SAKKAKADEMIA, GM-IM closed, org: WGM Csonkics, Tunde, info: firstsat@hu.inter.net

8.18th-27th of October IM-FM tmt Kecskemet, org Erdelyi.

9.1st-13th of November GM-IM-FM First Saturday Budapest, org Nagy L.

10. 15th-23rd of November, Kecskemet, IM dr.Erdelyi.

11.14th-22nd of November Tenkes Kupa Open, Harkany, 300 km South-West from Budapest, 9 round Swiss, org: Ambrus Lajos, mobile: 36-30-851-4224 e-mail: info@baranyasakk.hu www.baranyasakk.hu

12.6th-18th of December GM-IM-FM tmt, First Saturday Budapest, org Nagy L.

13.27th of Dec - 5th of January IM-FM tmt Kecskemet, org: Erdelyi.

14.9th-17th of January, EVADNYITO Open 9 rounds Swiss, Budapest, org: IA FAZEKAS, info: firstsat@hu.inter.net

15.23rd of January - 2nd of February, BALASSAGYARMAT WINTER, GM-IM closed, 100 km North from Budapest, Org: Nagy Laszlo, info: firstsat@hu.inter.net

16.7th-19th of February, FIRST SATURDAY GM-IM-FM Budapest - org: Nagy Laszlo, www.firstsaturday.hu - info: firstsat@hu.inter.net

17.7th-19th of March, First Saturday, Budapest, GM-IM-FM, org Nagy L.

18.20th-28th of March, 25th BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL 9 rounds Swiss Open, org: Nagy L. - e-mail: firstsat@hu.inter.net

Corus, Wijk aan Zee 2009

The organizers of the 71st Corus Chess Tournament have invited the young Dutch Grandmasters Daniel Stellwagen (1987) and reigning Dutch Champion Jan Smeets (1985) for the Grandmaster group A in 2009. For both players it means a debut on the highest level. Together with Loek van Wely, they will represent the Netherlands in the traditional chess festival, that will be held from Friday January 16th to Sunday 1st of February 2009.

Besides the participation of the above mentioned three Dutch players, the following World Class players have confirmed their participation: Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Alexander Morozevich (Russia), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Gata Kamsky (United States) and Teymour Radjabov (Azerbaijan). Carlsen, Ivanchuk and Morozevich will be in the Top-6 of the new World Ranking list, that will be published on July 1st 2008.

The young Ukrainian Grandmaster Sergei Karjakin, as well as the winner of last year’s Grandmaster group B, Sergei Movsesian (Slovakia), have also confirmed their participation. The complete field with 14 participants will be presented in October 2008, as well as the names of the participants in the Grandmaster groups B and C.

Official site: http://www.coruschess.com/

Torino, Italy

The Torino tournament in (Italy) takes place 30th November 2008 - 8th December 2008. 9 Round swiss top group (B Group 7 rounds). Contact for entries and info tornei@scacchisticatorinese.it

Official site: http://www.scacchisticatorinese.it

Hastings Chess Congress

The Hastings Chess Congress takes place 28th December 2008 - 5th January 2009. Contact: Con Power at: conpowr@ol.com

Further details: http://www.hastingschess.org.uk

European Club Cup

The European Club Cup 2008 (24th European Club Cup for Men, 13th European Club Cup for Women) takes place in Kallithea, Greece 16th-24th October 2008.

Official site: http://ecc2008.chessdom.com/

Chess Study

Do you have an FIDE rating?

Dr. Robert Howard of the University of New South Wales in Australia is carrying out a study of chess skill in internationally rated players. The study looks at effects of amount of practice, coaching and age of starting chess on chess skill and at chess players' views about chess skill. The study involves a short online survey. The survey is for anyone who has, or who ever has had, an FIDE rating.

The survey takes only about 5-10 minutes to complete. All responses are completely confidential. The survey is available in English, Spanish, Russian, and German.

To take part, you must know your exact FIDE ID number, which will be something like "14200887". ID numbers are posted on the FIDE website at http://www.fide.com

A summary and analysis of the study findings will be posted here when it is complete and will be emailed to any participant who requests it.

If you would like to participate, please go to this website: http://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/fidestudy/

For any queries, please contact Dr Robert Howard, University of New South Wales, on rwh@unsw.edu.au

World Championship Match Anand vs Kramnik in Bonn

The World Championship match where Viswanathan Anand will defends his World title against Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn, Germany will now take place October 14th-2nd November, 2008. The main reason for the slight change in dates is to fit in with the sponsors and politicians ability to attend the opening. The main sponsor is Evonik Industries AG and the prizemoney 1,5 Million Euro. The contract was signed by both players 18th December 2007.

Dates for the match: Gm1: Oct 14th, Gm2: Oct 15th, Gm3: Oct 17th, Gm4: Oct 18th, Gm5: Oct 20th, Gm6: Oct 21st, Gm7: Oct 23rd, Gm8: Oct 24th, Gm9: Oct 26th, Gm10: Oct 27th, Gm11: Oct 29th, Gm12: Oct 31st, Tiebreak Nov 2nd.

Advanced booking for the World Chess Championship 2008 between Viswanathan Anand (India) and Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) has started. The tickets are available at the price of 35 Euro per day. The following benefits are included: - entrance to the playing hall - entrance to the commentary room with analysis by prominent grandmasters. The tickets are available at all ticket agencies in Germany. You can also buy tickets for the match in advance via BONNTICKET: http://www.bonnticket.de tickets@bonnticket.de. Tel. +49-(0)-180/5001812. Tickets for a possible tiebreak on November 02, 2008, will be available after the 12th game. Exclusive VIP tickets are also available. Details at the website below along with features on the leadup to the championships.

Website: http://www.uep-worldchess.com/

Open "Mediterranean 2017" Rijeka

The Open "Mediterranean 2017" Rijeka (CRO) takes place 29th November - 6th December 2008.

Details: http://www.mediteran2013.com/en/default.asp

2nd Queenstown Chess Classic 2009

Queenstown Chess Classic takes place in Queenstown, South Island of New Zealand 15th-24th January 2009.

This will be the second such event, the first was held in Jan 2006.

The Tournament promoter is GM Murray Chandler. Over $50,000 (NZ) is being offered in prizes with additional prizes in the Rapid and Blitz events being held on January 25th-26th 2009.

Full details: http://www.queenstownchess.com

GM Boris Alterman's Chess Lessons

GM Boris Alterman has a blog with free chess lessons on it.

Website: http://chesslessons.wordpress.com/

FIDE Grand Prix Events

The line ups for the FIDE Grand Prix events have been announced. The top four players in the world, along with players such as Morozevich and Shirov are missing. It seems that in the case of Kramnik and Topalov that they believe that the event doesn't have big enough prize money (according to quotes in Chess Today). All this was more or less known beforehand. However the players who have signed up make this a very attractive and interesting series of events. The grand prix is organised by Global Chess which is headed by Bessel Kok.

Details: http://www.fide.com/news.asp?id=1607

Event 1 April 20th - May 6th 2008, Baku, Azerbaijan
Event 2 July 30th - August 15th 2008, Sochi, Russia
Event 3 December 13th - 29th, 2008, Doha, Qatar
Event 4 April 14th - 28th, 2009, Montreux, Switzerland
Event 5 August 8th - 24th, 2009, Elista, Russia
Event 6 December 7th - 23rd, 2009, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

Alushta Diary 2008

GM Norm events: 23.05 - 1.06, 2.06 - 12.06, 15.06 - 25.06, 2.09 - 12.09, 14.09 - 24.09, 26.09 - 6.10, IM Norm: 23.05 - 1.06, 2.06 - 12.06, 15.06 - 25.06, 2.09 - 12.09, 14.09 - 24.09, 26.09 - 6.10, Rating tournament: 4.06 - 12.06, 22.06 - 27.06, Open tournament (under 16 years) First prize - 200$ 3.06 - 11.06, 13.06 - 21.06, Alushta Swiss 9 rounds Open tournament First prize - 1000$ First prize (woman) - 500$ 28.06 - 6.07, Alushta Swiss 9 rounds Blitz tournament 7.07, Alushta Swiss 9 rounds Open tournament (rapid chess) 8.07 - 9.07, Alushta Session of school of Gennadi Kuzmin 21.06 - 27.06 Individual and group studying. phone +38 (06560)5-05-32,

Further information: http://www.kaissa.com.ua

Etienne Bacrot's Website

Etienne Bacrot has a website at: http://www.chess22.fr/ with his analysis and news. Very worth while, especially when he's playing.

ICC and FICS client for mobile phones

Mats Luthman has written a program that connects to ICC and FICS, compatable with many modern mobile phones. I've been looking for something like this for a while for watching live tournaments if I'm out and about. Its a nice free solution, you can also play but I haven't tried that.

Website: http://www.luthman.nu/Mobi/Mobi.html