THE WEEK IN CHESS 753 13th April 2009 by Mark Crowther

1) Introduction

My thanks to Anjo Anjewierden, Arvydas Baltrunas, Attila Csonka, Doug Bake, Jose Mariano Acosta, Bela Lengyel, Luiz Roberto Da Costa Jr, Mikel Larreategi, Eduardas Rozentalis, Robert Ris, Pat Reynolds, Petr Pisk, Subru Bhat, Thomas Vestergard and everyone else who helped with the issue.

The Russian Team Championships concluded with victory for Tomsk-400, the event saw many strong players compete. There was a huge amount of chess over the Easter weekend probably headed by the Foxwoods Open. Elsewhere the cancelation of the Barcza Memorial which finished after a round when it was clear the organiser didn't have the money to hold the event caused problems for the players. There is no doubt that the FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik starting on the 15th will dominate things over the couple of weeks.

Hope you enjoy this issue.

Mark

2) Russian Team Championships

Tomsk-400 (Jakovenko, Timofeev, Inarkiev, Tiviakov etc) with 11/14 points was the clear winner ahead of ShSM-64 (Gelfand, Wang etc), Ural (Grischuk, Shirov etc) and Economist-SGSEU (Moiseenko, Alekseev etc) who all finished on 8/11. SPbChFed from St Petersburg (Svidler, Movsesian etc) were a further point behind.

Spartak of Vidnoye (Stefanova, two Kosintsevas, Lahno, Ovod) just edged out AVS (Xu Yuhua, Muzychuk) on board count after they tied on 11/14. They were a point clear of Economist-SGSEU - 1 of Saratov (Zhao Xue, Ushenina etc). Polytechnik of Nizhny Tagil (Kokarev, Maletin etc) topped the Higher League.

The final round Russian Higher League games are missing.

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

16th Russian Club Cup, Premier League Dagomys (RUS), 4-10 iv 2009 Final Round 7 Standings:
Place	SNo.	Team	Fed.	Local	Match Points	Total	vs+	Wins	B.1
1	6	Tomsk-400	RUS	2685	11.0	23.5	4;5;8;1;2;	5	4.0
2	7	ShSM-64	RUS	2672	9.0	24.5	2;4;6;	3	3.5
3	3	Ural	RUS	2701	9.0	24.0	4;5;	2	2.5
4	8	Economist-SGSEU - 1	RUS	2699	9.0	23.5	1;2;4;	3	2.5
5	1	SPbChFed	RUS	2684	8.0	23.0	4;5;7;	3	4.5
6	5	TPS	RUS	2645	6.0	20.5	4;2;	2	3.0
7	2	Eurasia-Logistic	RUS	2566	4.0	19.5	4;	1	4.5
8	4	M.Chigorin CC	RUS	2459	0.0	9.5		0	3.5

16th Russian Club Cup, Higher League Dagomys (RUS), 2-10 iv 2009 Final Round 9 Standings:
Place	SNo.	Team	Fed.	Local	Match Points	Total	vs+	Wins	B.1
1	6	Polytechnik	RUS	2565	14.0	32.0	5;7;8;9;1;2;3;	7	5.0
2	10	Economist-SGSEU - 2	RUS	2574	13.0	31.0	6;7;3;4;9;5;	6	4.0
3	8	Yugra	RUS	2574	13.0	30.5	3;4;5;7;10;1;	6	5.5
4	9	BelGU	RUS	2518	10.0	29.5	2;4;5;7;8;	5	4.5
5	2	Etude-Contact	RUS	2529	10.0	28.0	10;4;5;	3	5.5
6	3	Perspektiva	RUS	2518	9.0	30.0	9;1;4;5;	4	4.5
7	4	ZAO "OMZ"	RUS	2477	8.0	27.5	7;1;5;6;	4	3.0
8	1	SC MEPhI	RUS	2481	7.0	23.0	5;9;	2	5.5
9	7	Grifon	RUS	2507	6.0	26.0	5;3;	2	3.0
10	5	Gostinaya Dvorkovicha	RUS	2333	0.0	12.5		0	4.5

10th Russian Club Cup, Women's League Dagomys (RUS), 2-10 iv 2009 Round 4 (of 7) Standings:
Place	SNo.	Team	Fed.	Local	Match Points	Total	vs+	Wins	B.1
1	8	Spartak	RUS	2510	11.0	18.0	1;5;2;6;7;	5	3.5
2	5	AVS	RUS	2486	11.0	17.0	4;6;7;1;2;	5	4.5
3	3	Economist-SGSEU - 1	RUS	2439	10.0	18.5	6;2;4;	3	5.5
4	7	SPb Chess Fed	RUS	2432	9.0	16.0	2;4;6;1;	4	4.5
5	1	AFGANVET-PetroDom	RUS	2380	6.0	14.0	2;6;	2	3.0
6	4	ShSM	RUS	2425	5.0	11.5	2;8;	2	2.5
7	6	Economist-SGSEU - 2	RUS	2360	4.0	11.5	4;2;	2	3.5
8	2	M.Chigorin CC	RUS	2300	0.0	5.5		0	1.0

3) Foxwoods Open

The Foxwoods Open took place 8th-12th April 2009. Darmen Sadvakasov drew with black against Yury Shulman in an Armageddon blitz playoff to take the title.

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

Foxwoods Open Ledyard (USA), 8-12 iv 2009 Leading Round 9 Standings:
#	Name	Ti	Rtng	Post	Tot
1	Yury Shulman	GM	2697	2751	7½
2	Darmen Sadvakasov	GM	2611	2663	7½
3	Loek Van Wely	GM	2730	2738	7
4	Julio J Becerra	GM	2672	2664	6½
5	Jaan Ehlvest	GM	2649	2651	6½
6	Alexander Shabalov	GM	2625	2639	6½
7	Alex Lenderman	IM	2603	2621	6½
8	Joshua E Friedel	GM	2568	2603	6½
9	Jay Bonin	IM	2378	2398	6½
10	Farai Mandizha	FM	2343	2362	6½
11	Giorgi Kacheishvili	GM	2647	2632	6
12	Jorge Sammour Hasbun		2611	2600	6
13	Alex Yermolinsky	GM	2582	2587	6
14	Pascal Charbonneau	GM	2556	2562	6
15	Robert L Hess	IM	2545	2588	6
16	David Vigorito	IM	2453	2482	6
17	Tegshsuren Enkhbat	FM	2411	2430	6
18	Toshiyuk Moriuchi		2405	2399	6
19	Daniel A Yeager	FM	2383	2384	6
20	Jake Kleiman	FM	2372	2383	6
21	Eugene Perelshteyn	GM	2599	2597	5½
22	Jacek Stopa	IM	2557	2550	5½
23	Ray Robson	IM	2542	2545	5½
24	Dean J Ippolito	IM	2515	2519	5½
25	Samuel Shankland	IM	2477	2496	5½
26	Justin Sarkar	IM	2452	2459	5½
27	Shinsaku Uesugi		2348	2363	5½
28	Miles F Ardaman	FM	2330	2333	5½
29	Iryna Zenyuk	WIM	2315	2326	5½
30	Darwin Yang	FM	2313	2326	5½
31	Steven C Zierk		2311	2327	5½
32	Jonatdan L Hilton		2270	2286	5½
33	Ilye Figler	FM	2269	2282	5½
34	Hikaru Nakamura	GM	2757	2743	5
35	Varuzhan Akobian	GM	2664	2655	5
36	Alexander Ivanov	GM	2596	2599	5
37	Bryan G Smitd	IM	2549	2527	5
38	Michael Lee	FM	2385	2383	5
39	Nikiita Kraiouchkine		2340	2328	5
40	Dov Gorman	FM	2337	2331	5
41	Oladapo Oluto Adu	IM	2331	2321	5
42	Roman Sapozhnikov		2327	2317	5
43	Alisa Melekhina	WIM	2322	2314	5
44	Eric Rodriguez		2321	2326	5
45	Teddy Coleman	FM	2313	2318	5
46	Paul Mac Intyre	FM	2300	2306	5
47	Erik F Santarius		2286	2300	5
48	Ali Morshedi	FM	2284	2281	5
49	Alec Getz	FM	2282	2285	5
50	Macon A Shibut	FM	2269	2287	5
51	Allen J Weiss		2204	2209	5
52	Emory A Tate	IM	2395	2375	4½
53	Alex Betaneli	FM	2325	2320	4½
127 players

4) 4th FIDE Grand Prix Tournament in Nalchik

FIDE Grand Prix Series Tournament Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia 14th - 29th April 2009

The fourth FIDE Grand Prix Series Tournament will be held in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, during 14th -29th April 2009 at the Intour - Hotel "Sindica".

14 participants are: Vladimir Akopian (Armenia), Evgeny Alekseev (Russia), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Etienne Bacrot (France), Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Gata Kamsky (USA), Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan), Peter Leko (Hungary), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Peter Svidler (Russia).

Games will be played 15th-29th April 2009. Rest days: April 20th and 25th. The total prize-fund is 162,000 Euros.

Official website: http://www.nalchik2009.fide.com

5) Arnold Eikrem Memorial

The Arnold Eikrem Memorial took place 4th- 12th April 2009. It was a part of the 125th anniversary celebrations of Oslo Chess Club. There was a tie on 6/9 of half the field in the GM event. No tie-break seems to have been used to separate the players. Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal won the Knut Bockman Cup.

Official site: http://sjakkselskapet.no/jubileum/

Arnold Eikrem Memorial Oslo (NOR), 4-12 iv 2009												cat. X (2486)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Berg, Emanuel	g	SWE	2610	*	0	1	½	½	1	1	½	½	1	6	2597
2.	Johannessen, Leif Erlend	g	NOR	2540	1	*	½	½	½	½	0	1	1	1	6	2604
3.	Macieja, Bartlomiej	g	POL	2601	0	½	*	½	1	½	1	½	1	1	6	2598
4.	Hammer, Jon Ludvig	g	NOR	2566	½	½	½	*	0	1	1	1	½	1	6	2601
5.	Kveinys, Aloyzas	g	LTU	2534	½	½	0	1	*	½	½	1	1	1	6	2605
6.	Handke, Florian	g	GER	2496	0	½	½	0	½	*	1	½	1	½	4½	2484
7.	Elsness, Frode	m	NOR	2441	0	1	0	0	½	0	*	½	1	1	4	2447
8.	Ogaard, Leif	g	NOR	2403	½	0	½	0	0	½	½	*	½	1	3½	2415
9.	Trygstad, Kristian	f	NOR	2314	½	0	0	½	0	0	0	½	*	½	2	2284
10.	Moen, Andreas	f	NOR	2353	0	0	0	0	0	½	0	0	½	*	1	2149

Knut Bockman Cup Oslo (NOR), 6-12 iv 2009
1	FM	Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal	M	2299	8	42	47	52	45.5	2419	(+14)
2		Inge Sandstad Skrondal	M	2204	6.5	43	48	50	35.75	2134	(+11)
3		Hans K Harestad	M	2235	6.5	40	44	47.5	31.5	2074	( +4)
4		Nicolai Getz	M	2205	6.5	40	43.5	47	29.75	2144	( +3)
5		Anh-Dan Doan Trinh			6	40.5	45	48	28.5	2124	(+121)
6		Ornulf Stubberud	M	2197	5.5	43	48	52	28.5	2113	(-14)
7		Vegar Koi Gandrud	1	2124	5.5	41	44.5	47.5	24.5	2028	(-16)
8		Daniel Jakobsen Kovachev	M	2256	5.5	39	42.5	46	26.25	1916	(-38)
9		Hakon Bentsen	M	2159	5.5	38.5	42.5	45	25.75	2016	( +4)
10		Anders G Hagen	M	2109	5	40.5	45.5	49.5	25.5	2023	(-15)
11		Carl Peter Kirkebø	M	2158	5	39	43	46	21.75	1921	(-33)
12		Martin Valla	1	2050	5	37.5	41.5	45	21.75	1947	( +6)
13		Tore Langmyhr	1		5	37.5	41.5	44	21	1836	(+24)
14		Gregor Taube	3	1762	5	36.5	40.5	44.5	21	1801	(+45)
15		Helge E. Theting	1	1984	5	34	37.5	40.5	18.5	1804	( +1)
16		Viggo Guddahl	1	2118	5	32	35.5	38.5	20	1788	(-19)
17		Jathavan Suntharalingam	2	1950	5	31	34	36	19	1693	(-23)
35 players

6) II Gedeon Barcza Memorial

The II Gedeon Barcza Memorial was supposed to take place in Budapest 6th-17th April 2009. However after just one round, the event was cancelled. Eduardas Rozentalis says that the organiser Gabor Pali didn't have the money to pay the Ramada Resort Hotel nor the players. According to Rozentalis after two days of hospitality and patience by the managers of the hotel, in spite of not being paid any money, they eventually refused to believe further promises and the tournament was cancelled. After that, according to Rozentalis, the players were promised their expenses, but several deadlines were exceeded and on April 8th the players had no choice but to book flights at their own expense and leave Budapest.

Barcza Memorial Scandal - Amsterdam, 9th April 2009 by Robert Ris

A few months ago I found out that in April 2009, there would be organized in Budapest a 2nd edition of Barcza Memorial (after reading the story you will understand why there is no tournament site of such strong tournament anymore!). I noticed an email address of the organizer, Mr. Pali, and decided to write him if there would be a possibility for me to participate. Unfortunately, I didn't get any reply, until 2 weeks before the tournament was scheduled. His invitation came quite unexpectedly for me, but I was very glad to get the chance to play in a Cat. 13 tournament, although I had to pay a huge entry fee (600 euro)+ flight ticket (320 euro) all myself.

I started my trip Sunday 5 april. Due to late booking I couldn't get a direct flight to Budapest, so I had to make a short transfer in Prague. Arriving there, I decided to check my phone, and saw to my big surprise 3 missed calls from GM Ivan Sokolov, one of the players in the tournament. I called him back, and he told me he arrived at the hotel (http://www.ramadaresortbudapest.hu/ also playing venue) and wanted to check-in, but when informing the reception he came here for the chess tournament nobody understood where he was talking about. According to the hotel manager, Mr. Pali started negotiations a few months ago, but they were stopped early without signing any contract.

Mr. Sokolov informed me that it looked highly unlikely that there would be held a tournament, so the best thing I could do, he advised me, was taking a taxi and booking a room 1 night on my own expense.

After off-loading my luggage in Budapest I was surprised that Mr. Pali picked me up. He told me immediately that the first night I couldn't stay in the hotel, since it was overbooked. After the opening ceremony where all players, but Sokolov were, who was even not informed about the location, he therefore decided to drop me and a few other players in another hotel for 1 night and transfer us next morning.

The next day we checked-out and went to the other hotel. The playing conditions looked really excellent. Everything seemed to be ready for a nice and competitive event.

The 1st round went quite smoothly, despite the slight delay at the beginning of the round.

It seemed that all small problems were more or less solved, but in fact they just started...

Next day, 5 minutes before the start of 2nd round, Mr. Pali arrived in the hotel and announced to the players that the 2nd round would be delayed for 1 hour, without mentioning any reason. To me all things were quite clear already, since the hotel management even didn't want to open the conference hall, where we were supposed to play. It was obvious that Mr. Pali hadn't paid anything to the hotel yet. Players decided to relax in the lobby while Mr. Pali went to the bank. Coming back (of course nobody cared about the exact delaying time anymore) he showed some papers to the hotel- and sales manager. As I could read from their faces they were absolutely not satisfied what was going on and Mr. Pali left again, this time accompanied by the hotel manager. After a while they returned and Mr. Pali informed a few players that 'today we don't play, maybe tomorrow double round' while the hotel manager wisely added 'maybe tomorrow no games at all'. When hearing this from other participants I decided to have a serious talk with Mr. Pali. I explained him that the situation for me was absolutely unacceptable, paying a huge amount to play this tournament and being treated in such a way. Arguments from his side like that he lost potential sponsors in preparation of the tournament and he suffered from private problems, didn't convince me at all. Losing sponsors in January and inviting me in end of March lacks any logic. He simply didn't fulfill any of his promises we agreed before the tournament and I didn't see anything better than to withdraw myself from the tournament.

About 1 hour later the hotel manager informed all players that the organizer had absolutely no money, and so the tournament had to be cancelled. The hotel gave him a few chances by extending the deadline, but as the manager stated correctly: 'No money, no business.'

Tournament being cancelled is absolutely a pity, but what about the expenses all the players made? For me personally it means that I lost around 1000 euro's for playing only 1 game. Most of the other players only lost their flight ticket and some starting fee. During the first 2 days GMs Almasi and Sokolov asked many times Mr. Pali to pay their starting fee, but every time he found a bad excuse to delay the payment.

I am very interested what was the reason that Mr. Pali did all this to us. As the hotel manager explained Mr. Pali had absolutely no money to transfer. He lost some sponsors during the preparation of the tournament, but still the Hungarian Chess federation sent him some money ( I have been told 2,2 million forint which is about equal as 7300 euro) which he absolutely misused and/or kept for himself.

After all what happened, it was decided to put up a list with all expenses the players made and forced Mr. Pali to sign himself. As he couldn't escape he signed of course and promised me he would pay me in the morning at the airport. At 7.45 am I met him together with GMs Gopal and Rozentalis. Mr. Pali told me he transferred the money to my account, which was absolutely impossible, since the banks are closed until 8 am. I asked him to pay me cash, so we went to the local currency office. His willingness to pay me cash is already enough proof that he did not sent the money to my bank account! Coming there he explained us that he didn't have his card with him, so he couldn't pay me cash. Similar problems occurred with Gopal and Rozentalis who also didn't get anything. Coming back home I was really surprised to hear that Mr. Pali informed Mr. Sokolov that he partly paid me back! Absolutely a lie!

At last I would really like to thank family Ignacz, who showed great hospitality inviting me to stay with them, after being kicked out of the hotel. Family Ignacz did an excellent job by taking care about more chess players and helped putting up the list with expenses.

I would kindly ask FIDE and Hungarian Chess Federation to take appropriate measures against Mr. Pali so that he will be unable to organize any chess events in the future.

Kind regards,
Robert Ris
robert_ris@hotmail.com

The Hungarian Chess Federation have also commented http://chess.hu/hu/hirek.php#524

II Gedeon Barcza Mem Budapest (HUN), 4-12 iv 2009													cat. XIII (2562)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2
1.	Papp, Gabor	m	HUN	2524	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
2.	Sokolov, Ivan NED	g	NED	2669	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
3.	Almasi, Zoltan	g	HUN	2685	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2572
4.	Gopal, Geetha Narayanan	g	IND	2572	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2685
5.	Postny, Evgeny	g	ISR	2648	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	½	2511
6.	Recuero Guerra, David	m	ESP	2459	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	½	2501
7.	Ris, Robert	m	NED	2432	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	½	2595
8.	Romanishin, Oleg M	g	UKR	2501	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	2459
9.	Rozentalis, Eduardas	g	LTU	2595	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	½	2432
10.	Prohaszka, Peter2	m	HUN	2511	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	2648
11.	Llaneza Vega, Marcos	m	ESP	2522	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
12.	Mikhalevski, Victor	g	ISR	2625	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (April 6, 2009)
Gopal, Geetha Narayanan	- Almasi, Zoltan	½-½	40	C67	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Postny, Evgeny	- Prohaszka, Peter2	½-½	41	B14	Caro Kann Panov
Recuero Guerra, David	- Romanishin, Oleg M	½-½	30	C68	Ruy Lopez Exchange
Ris, Robert	- Rozentalis, Eduardas	½-½	31	E18	Queens Indian
Llaneza Vega, Marcos	- Sokolov, Ivan NED	0-1	39	C45	Scotch Game
Mikhalevski, Victor	- Papp, Gabor	0-1	50	E09	Catalan

7) 11th European Senior Teams

The 11th European Senior Team Championships took place in Velden, Carinthia (Kaernten), the southernmost province of Austria 5th-13th April 2009.

The Russian team (Tseshkovsky, Vasiukov, Pushkov, Kremenietsky and Chernikov) took first place ahead of Switzerland (Korchnoi 7.5/9) and Finland (Westerinen). title holders the Czech Republic were 9th.

Official site: http://www.velden-schach.at/european-senior-championship and http://www.chess-results.com/tnr19361.aspx

Russian Senior Teams Velden (AUT), 5-13 iv 2009
Rk.	SNo		Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	RUS	Russland	9	8	1	0	17	27.5	193.5
2	5	SUI	Schweiz	9	6	2	1	14	23.5	194
3	10	FIN	Finland	9	6	1	2	13	24.5	182.5
4	11	ESP	Catalonia	9	5	3	1	13	24	168
5	2	GER	Deutschland	9	5	3	1	13	22.5	193.5
6	4	AUT	Oesterreich	9	5	3	1	13	22.5	192
7	9	GER	SF Katernberg 1913 e.V.	9	5	2	2	12	24	182.5
8	16	SWE	Schweden I	9	6	0	3	12	21.5	175.5
9	3	CZE	Tschechien	9	5	1	3	11	23	190
10	20	BEL	Belgien	9	4	3	2	11	21.5	161.5
11	8	DEN	Danmark 1	9	3	5	1	11	21	191.5
12	7	GER	Schachgemeinschaft Leipzig	9	5	1	3	11	20.5	176.5
13	18	AUT	Wien 2	9	5	1	3	11	19	175
14	19	GER	Niedersachsen	9	4	2	3	10	21.5	150.5
15	14	NOR	Norwegen 1	9	4	2	3	10	21	176
16	21	GER	Stiftung Bahn-Sozialwerk/DBAG I	9	4	2	3	10	21	165
17	28	NED	Oranjeteam	9	5	0	4	10	19.5	166
18	12	AUT	Wien 1	9	3	4	2	10	19	193.5
19	6	ITA	Italy	9	5	0	4	10	18.5	178
20	22	LUX	Luxemburg	9	4	2	3	10	18.5	163
21	23	ENG	England 1	9	3	4	2	10	18.5	162.5
22	32	AUT	Steiermark	9	3	4	2	10	17.5	169
23	13	GER	Berlin	9	4	2	3	10	17	173
24	17	AUT	Niederoesterreich	9	3	4	2	10	17	152.5
25	24	NED	Koeniglicher Schachverein D.D.	9	4	2	3	10	16	168
26	35	GER	USV Halle	9	3	3	3	9	19.5	159.5
27	26	GER	Widukind	9	3	3	3	9	19.5	151.5
28	25	DEN	Danmark 2	9	4	1	4	9	18.5	160.5
29	15	GER	Sachsen-Anhalt	9	4	1	4	9	18	159
30	30	AUT	Kaernten 1	9	4	1	4	9	17	176.5
31	43	GER	Stiftung Bahn-Sozialwerk Berlin/DBAG	9	4	1	4	9	17	150
32	37	TUR	Turkiye	9	4	1	4	9	16	159
33	34	NOR	Norwegen 4	9	3	2	4	8	17.5	132.5
34	36	SCO	Scotland	9	2	4	3	8	17	169.5
35	47	AUT	ASKOe Finkenstein 1	9	3	2	4	8	16.5	137.5
36	29	SWE	Schweden II	9	4	0	5	8	16	154.5
37	39	AUT	ESV ASKOe ADMIRA VILLACH	9	3	2	4	8	15	181
38	40	AUT	Mixed Team Austria	9	4	0	5	8	14	150.5
39	27	NED	V.A.S. Amsterdam	9	2	3	4	7	18	151
40	31	GER	Rheno Palatinat	9	3	1	5	7	16	157
41	46	AUT	Carinthia	9	3	1	5	7	15.5	145
42	50	FIN	Turku	9	2	3	4	7	15	158
43	33	GER	Stiftung Bahn-Sozialwerk/DBAG III	9	2	3	4	7	15	151
44	38	AUT	Voecklabruck/Oberoesterreich	9	2	3	4	7	14.5	166.5
45	51	NOR	Norwegen 3	9	3	1	5	7	14.5	124
46	45	NOR	Norwegen 2	9	3	1	5	7	14	146
47	42	FIN	Helsinki 1	9	3	0	6	6	18.5	152
48	44	FIN	Helsinki 2	9	3	0	6	6	15	148
49	53	GER	Stiftung Bahn-Sozialwerk/DBAG II	9	2	2	5	6	15	138.5
50	49	ENG	England 2	9	3	0	6	6	12	140.5
51	52	SWE	Schweden III	9	2	1	6	5	16	133.5
52	41	GER	Freibauer Niedersachsen	9	1	2	6	4	14.5	133
53	48	AUT	SK Volksbank Lienz	9	1	2	6	4	12	130.5
54	54	AUT	Kaernten Damen	9	0	0	9	0	5	139

8) First Saturday April

The First Saturday tournaments (GM, IM and FM) take place 4th-17th April in Budapest. I don't have an up to date games file from the event so I'll round up the remains next week. Axel Heinz won the GM group with 6.5/9.

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

FSGM April Budapest (HUN), 4-12 iv 2009							cat. VII (2416)
1.	8	Heinz, Axel	6.5	38.5	24.50	34.0	2398	2584	+2.26
2.	7	Ilincic, Zlatko	6.0	39.0	25.25	27.5	2545	2527	-0.18
	5	Nguyen, Huynh Minh Huy	6.0	39.0	22.75	28.5	2484	2534	+0.59
4.	10	Kosic, Dragan	5.5	39.5	22.50	27.0	2512	2486	-0.26
	6	Duong, The Anh	5.5	39.5	20.50	23.5	2434	2494	+0.77
6.	1	Horvath, Peter	5.0	40.0	21.75	26.5	2445	2456	+0.10
7.	2	To, Nhat Minh	3.5	41.5	10.00	22.0	2367	2342	-0.35
8.	3	Gara, Anita	3.0	42.0	13.00	11.5	2326	2301	-0.30
9.	4	Muir, Andrew J	2.0	43.0	9.25	12.5	2351	2204	-1.63
	9	Csirik, Andras	2.0	43.0	6.50	12.0	2302	2209	-1.00

9) Serbian Championship

The Serbian Championship takes place in Kragujevac 2nd-15th April 2009.

Official site: http://www.serbiachess.net/

ch-SRB Kragujevac (SRB), 2-15 iv 2009														cat. XI (2516)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Ivanisevic, Ivan	g	SRB	2625	*	½	½	1	.	1	.	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	10.0	2883
2.	Drazic, Sinisa	g	SRB	2533	½	*	½	½	½	½	.	½	.	1	1	1	½	1	7.5	2641
3.	Perunovic, Milos	g	SRB	2580	½	½	*	½	1	.	½	½	1	1	0	1	.	.	6.5	2653
4.	Antic, Dejan	g	SRB	2513	0	½	½	*	1	.	1	.	1	0	½	½	½	1	6.5	2571
5.	Miladinovic, Igor	g	SRB	2571	.	½	0	0	*	½	1	½	0	1	1	.	1	1	6.5	2561
6.	Vuckovic, Bojan	g	SRB	2572	0	½	.	.	½	*	½	½	1	½	½	1	½	1	6.5	2570
7.	Bogosavljevic, Boban	g	SRB	2526	.	.	½	0	0	½	*	0	1	1	1	½	1	1	6.5	2568
8.	Pikula, Dejan	g	SRB	2568	0	½	½	.	½	½	1	*	1	0	½	½	1	.	6.0	2565
9.	Damljanovic, Branko	g	SRB	2573	0	.	0	0	1	0	0	0	*	1	.	1	½	1	4.5	2447
10.	Zlatic, Mihajlo	m	SRB	2463	0	0	0	1	0	½	0	1	0	*	.	½	.	1	4.0	2439
11.	Rajkovic, Dusan	g	SRB	2486	0	0	1	½	0	½	0	½	.	.	*	0	1	0	3.5	2385
12.	Sedlak, Nikola	g	SRB	2572	0	0	0	½	.	0	½	½	0	½	1	*	½	.	3.5	2390
13.	Sarenac, Ivan		SRB	2320	0	½	.	½	0	½	0	0	½	.	0	½	*	1	3.5	2400
14.	Popovic, Aleksandar M		SRB	2325	0	0	.	0	0	0	0	.	0	0	1	.	0	*	1.0	2152

10) 40th Mar del Plata International

The 40th Mar del Plata International took place 5th-12th April 2009. Salvador Alonson took clear first with 8/9. I'll try and round the games up next week, they're not in very good shape.

Official site: http://www.mdpajedrez.org.ar/arch800/abierto40.htm

XL Open Mar del Plata (ARG), 5-12 iv 2009 Leading Round 9 Standings:
1	Alonso, Salvador	ARG	2489	gm	8	53.5	42.0	40.5
2	Calderon Fernandez, Gervasio	ARG	2302	fm	7.5	57.5	45.5	39.5
3-7	Van Riemsdijk, Herman C.	BRA	2375	im	7	55.5	43.0	38.0
	Pierrot, Facundo	ARG	2422	im	7	53.5	41.5	37.5
	De Dovittis, Alejo	ARG	2346	im	7	52.0	40.5	37.0
	Duarte, Leonardo	ARG	2349	im	7	50.5	39.0	37.0
	Cejas, José Angel	ARG	2336	fm	7	49.5	38.0	35.0
8-12	Moreda, Lucas	ARG	2322		6.5	51.5	40.5	36.0
	Mavrich, Demian	ARG	2217		6.5	48.5	37.0	33.0
	Virgillito, Cristian	ARG	2216		6.5	48.5	37.0	32.0
	Mussanti, Diego	ARG	2327	fm	6.5	47.5	37.5	34.0
	Zamorano, Jorge	ARG	2247		6.5	46.0	36.5	34.0
13-26	Tobares, Leandro	ARG	2216		6	53.0	42.0	35.0
	Contín, Daniel	ITA	2321	im	6	50.5	40.5	34.0
	Di Muro, Matías	ARG	2231		6	50.0	39.0	33.5
	Mavrich, Leandro Nicolas	ARG	2178		6	49.5	39.0	31.5
	Bianchi, Albino	ARG	2102		6	48.5	37.0	33.0
	Lopez Gomez, Diego	ARG	2165		6	48.0	37.0	32.0
	Luque, Jorge Luis	ARG			6	47.5	37.5	32.5
	Aguilar, Andrés	ARG	2192		6	44.0	33.5	29.5
	Evans, Pablo	ARG	2069		6	43.5	34.0	27.0
	Gallego, Gonzalo	ARG	2177		6	42.5	34.0	28.0
	Domínguez, Diego	ARG	2002		6	42.0	32.5	28.5
	Fidel, Roberto Oscar	ARG	2156		6	41.5	34.0	28.0
	Restuccia, Francisco	ARG	2115		6	41.5	33.0	32.0
	Saralegui Cassan, Mario	URU	2148		6	37.5	29.5	24.5
143 players

11) 32nd San Sebastian Open

32nd San Sebastian International Open took place 5th-12th April 2009 in the Spanish northern city of San Sebastian (near the French border). Matej Sebenik took first on tie-break with 7/9 and made a GM norm. Games from the final round not yet available.

Official report by Mikel Larreategi - Matej Sebenik (SLO) wins in San Sebastian.

Slovenian International Master Matej Sebenik won and got a GM norm in the 32nd San Sebastian Tournament played from 5th - 12th of April in northern Spanish city of San Sebastian.

Sebenik won the tournament on tie-break, he finished the tournament with 7 points, same points as Pablo Lafuente (ARG), Artur Kogan (ISR), Vinay Bhat (USA) and Marc Narciso (ESP).

On the first board, Artur Kogan drew to Vinay Bhat in 19 moves after a French defence. Pablo Lafuente and Matej Sebenik also drew in the second board which finished with a perpetual-check in 29 moves.

The young spanish IM Mikel Huerga, needed to win against GM Marc Narciso to got his second GM norm, but lost his game after receiving a hard attack in his kingside. The now spanish-citizen Roberto Cifuentes, won in a very long game againts nº 1 Aleksandar Delchev, in a rook-and-pawns ending.

The spanish U12 champion, Jaime Santos Latasa was the revelation of the tournament with a +2500 performance after beating 2 IMs and drawing with 3 GMs. Jaime Santos had impressed San Sebastian since he played for the first time in 2006, and drew his game after rejecting a draw offer from his opponent GM Ivan Salgado (ESP) in the 16th move.

The best local player was Inigo Martin, followed by Juan Carlos Lakunza and IM Inigo Argandona.

Standings: 1.- Matej Sebenik, Pablo Lafuente, Arthur Kogan, Vinay Bhat y Marc Narciso 7 6.- Pablo San Segundo, Roberto Cifuentes, Manuel Pena y Marko Tratar 6,5 10. Ivan Salgado, Daniel Alsina, Alexander Delchev, J. Fernando Cuenca, Nikita Maiorov y Mikel Huerga con 6.ptos. Total of 122 players

More photos available at: http://www.fgajedrez.org and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011460&id=1048363047&l=76cf363f77

All results of the tournament are available at Chess-Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr20215.aspx

XXXII Open Donostia San Sebastian (ESP), 5-12 iv 2009
Rk.	Name	Ti	FED	FIDE	Pts.
1	Sebenik Matej	IM	SLO	2482	7
2	Lafuente Pablo	GM	ARG	2517	7
3	Kogan Artur	GM	ISR	2541	7
4	Bhat Vinay S	GM	USA	2475	7
5	Narciso Dublan Marc	GM	ESP	2534	7
6	San Segundo Carrillo Pablo	GM	ESP	2560	6.5
7	Cifuentes Parada Roberto	GM	ESP	2531	6.5
8	Pena Gomez Manuel	FM	ESP	2456	6.5
9	Tratar Marko	GM	SLO	2488	6.5
10	Salgado Lopez Ivan	GM	ESP	2559	6
11	Alsina Leal Daniel	IM	ESP	2503	6
12	Delchev Aleksander	GM	BUL	2648	6
13	Cuenca Jimenez Jose Fernando	IM	ESP	2426	6
14	Maiorov Nikita	GM	BLR	2525	6
15	Huerga Leache Mikel	IM	ESP	2451	6
16	Djingarova Emilia	WGM	BUL	2334	6
17	Suarez Pousa Diego	IM	ESP	2431	6
18	Ivanov Jordan	IM	BUL	2435	6
19	Santos Latasa Jaime		ESP	2155	6
20	Alvarez Fernandez Enrique	FM	ESP	2376	6
21	Berbatov Kiprian	FM	BUL	2393	6
	Valenti Giuseppe	FM	ITA	2201	6
23	Herraiz Hidalgo Herminio	IM	ESP	2520	5.5
	Markosian David S	GM	ARM	2444	5.5
	Spassov Liuben	GM	BUL	2433	5.5
	Arribas Lopez Angel	FM	ESP	2379	5.5
	Camacho Collados Jose	FM	ESP	2379	5.5
	Dobrev Nanko	IM	BUL	2366	5.5
	Andres Gonzalez Ivan	FM	ESP	2364	5.5
	Rubio Mejia Luis Ignacio	FM	ESP	2363	5.5
	Nava Pereda Carlos		ESP	2296	5.5
	Thomassen Joachim	FM	NOR	2289	5.5
	Fidalgo Fernandez Javier		ESP	2285	5.5
	Gavilan Diaz Mario	FM	ESP	2273	5.5
	Martin Alvarez Inigo		ESP	2236	5.5
	Vaibhav Suri		IND	2222	5.5
	Diaz Herrero Alvaro		ESP	2121	5.5
38	Argandona Riveiro Inigo	IM	ESP	2371	5
	Rudolf Anna	WGM	HUN	2330	5
	Vogel Jaap	FM	NED	2234	5
122 players

Official site: http://www.fgajedrez.org/open/open.htm

12) Thailand Open Championship

The Thailand Open Chess Championship 2009 & 9th Bangkok Chess Club Open took place at the Aisawan Resort & Spa at Wongamart Beach, only 2km from Pattaya Beach, 1st-6th April 2009. The title sponsor was the Thailand Chess Association. Xiu Deshun took clear first place with 8/9. No games available.

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

Thailand Open (ESP), 1-6 iv 2009
Rk.	Ti	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1		Xiu Deshun	CHN	2422	8.0	52.5	45.75
2	GM	Moradiabadi Elshan	IRI	2512	7.5	52.5	41.00
3	GM	Short Nigel	ENG	2674	7.0	53.0	39.50
4	GM	Li Shilong	CHN	2557	6.5	54.0	37.50
5	IM	Laxman R.R.	IND	2521	6.5	54.0	37.00
6	GM	Schebler Gerhard	GER	2470	6.5	50,0	34.75
7	GM	Pogorelov Ruslan	UKR	2420	6.5	48.0	34.50
8	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2513	6.5	47.5	33.75
9		Zhang Ziyang	CHN	2419	6.5	47.0	32.50
10	GM	Bakre Tejas	IND	2452	6.5	46.5	32.50
11	GM	Kekelidze Mikheil	GEO	2468	6.5	44.5	33.00
12		Thejkumar M.S.	IND	2420	6.0	50,0	30.75
13	FM	Mohannad Farhan	JOR	2284	6.0	49.5	30.75
14	IM	Sengupta Deep	IND	2466	6.0	49.0	31.00
15	IM	Prathamesh Sunil Mokal	IND	2407	6.0	48.5	31.00
16	IM	Saptarshi Roy	IND	2396	6.0	48.5	29.00
17		Gao Rui	CHN	2500	6.0	48.0	29.50
18		Shen Siyuan	CHN	2294	5.5	51.5	27.75
19	IM	Yap Kim Steven	PHI	2419	5.5	50,0	29.00
20	FM	Voigt Martin	GER	2304	5.5	49.0	26.75
21		Zhou Guijue	CHN	2183	5.5	48.5	27.00
22	IM	Lahiri Atanu	IND	2332	5.5	48.5	26.50
23		Sorensen Torben	MLT	2401	5.5	48.0	26.00
24	IM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	IND	2451	5.5	47.5	28.00
25	FM	Mok Tze-Meng	MAS	2303	5.5	47.5	25.50
26		Kojima Shinya	JPN	2277	5.5	47.0	26.00
27	IM	Shetty Rahul	IND	2307	5.5	46.0	25.75
28		Topi-Hulmi Teemu	FIN	2271	5.5	45.5	24.00
29	FM	Teerapabpaisit Wisuwat	THA	2280	5.5	45.0	23.25
30	IM	Sharma Dinesh K.	IND	2384	5.5	43.5	24.75
31	FM	Kaufeld Juergen	GER	2218	5.5	43.5	23.75
32	FM	Reilly Tim	AUS	2280	5.5	42.0	21.25
33		Tuomala Timo	FIN	2214	5.5	41.5	22.00
34	FM	Daly Colm	IRL	2313	5.0	48.0	24.75
35	IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	MAS	2425	5.0	48.0	24.25
122 players

13) XVIII La Roda Open

The XVIII La Roda Open took place 8th-12th April 2009. Mihai Suba took first place on tie-break from Salvador Del Rio De Angelis after both scored 7.5/9. Games from the final round not yet available.

Official site: http://www.cplaroda.com/ajedrez/

XXXVI Open La Roda (ESP), 8-12 iv 2009
Rk.	Ti	Name	FED	Elo	Club	Pts.	Des 1	Des 2	Des 3
1	GM	Suba Mihai	ROU	2542	AND	7.5	50.0	54.0	38.5
2	GM	Del Rio De Angelis Salvador G	ESP	2531	AND	7.5	47.5	50.5	39.0
3	GM	Cornette Matthieu	FRA	2573	EUS	7.0	52.5	57.5	38.5
4	GM	Movsziszian Karen	ARM	2556	CTM	7.0	50.0	54.5	37.5
5	GM	Cabrera Alexis	ESP	2518	VAL	7.0	48.0	52.5	36.5
6	IM	Alvarez Pedraza Aramis	CUB	2431		7.0	48.0	52.0	37.0
7	GM	Almeida Quintana Omar	CUB	2516		7.0	47.5	52.0	36.5
8	IM	Starostits Ilmars	LAT	2464	NAV	7.0	46.0	50.5	35.0
9	GM	Rizouk Aimen	ALG	2505	CAT	7.0	46.0	50.0	34.5
10	IM	Llorente Zaro Alfonso	ESP	2434	ARA	6.5	51.0	55.5	36.5
11	IM	Cruz Cristhian	PER	2544	CAT	6.5	50.0	55.0	37.5
12	GM	Lopez Martinez Josep Manuel	ESP	2557	CAT	6.5	49.5	53.5	35.0
13	IM	Libiszewski Fabien	FRA	2505		6.5	48.5	53.0	35.0
14	IM	Ibarra Jerez Jose Carlos	ESP	2514	AND	6.5	48.5	52.5	35.0
15	GM	Korneev Oleg	RUS	2587	CAN	6.5	48.0	53.0	34.5
16	IM	Granero Roca Antonio	ESP	2393	VAL	6.5	47.5	52.0	34.0
17		Puerto Traver Juan Manuel	ESP	2114	VAL	6.5	43.0	47.0	29.5
18	IM	Kovacevic Slobodan	SRB	2383	VAL	6.5	42.0	45.5	29.5
19	FM	Moreno Gracia Daniel	ESP	2297	ARA	6.5	37.5	40.5	30.5
20	GM	Vera Gonzalez-Quevedo Reynaldo	CUB	2475	CAN	6.0	50.5	54.0	35.5
21	FM	Gallardo Garcia Andres	ESP	2407	MAD	6.0	47.5	51.5	34.0
22	FM	Pozo Vera Sandro	CUB	2459		6.0	47.5	51.0	34.0
23	FM	Cori Jorge	PER	2418		6.0	46.0	50.0	31.5
24	IM	Rojas Keim Luis	CHI	2444	CAT	6.0	45.5	50.0	34.0
25	GM	Paunovic Dragan	SRB	2537	GAL	6.0	45.5	50.0	32.5
214 players

14) South American U20

The South American U20 Championship takes place in Cochabamba - Bolivia 8th-14th April 2009.

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

15) Doeberl Cup

The 47th O2C Doeberl Cup is in Canberra 9th-13th April 2009. Deep Sengupta edged out Gawain Jones and Chakkravarthy Deepan on tie-break after all finished on 7/9. The official site was down at the moment of this update so I don't have games yet.

Official site: http://www.doeberlcup.com.au/ - results: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr20783.aspx

47th O2C Doeberl Cup Canberra (AUS), 9-13 iv 2009
Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	IM	Sengupta Deep	IND	2466	7,0	41,0	52,5	38,75
2	GM	Jones Gawain C B	ENG	2550	7,0	38,0	48,5	36,25
3	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J	IND	2482	7,0	36,0	47,0	35,75
4	IM	Xie George Wendi	AUS	2402	6,5	42,0	52,0	35,75
5	IM	Smerdon David	AUS	2489	6,5	38,0	49,0	31,25
6	GM	Johansen Darryl K	AUS	2452	6,5	38,0	48,0	32,00
7	IM	Sriram Jha	IND	2453	6,5	37,5	48,0	33,50
8	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2513	6,5	37,0	47,5	33,50
9	GM	Reinderman Dimitri	NED	2560	6,0	37,0	47,5	27,25
10	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu	IND	2428	6,0	36,5	47,0	29,50
11	IM	Rathnakaran K	IND	2427	5,5	40,0	51,0	28,75
12	IM	Akshayraj Kore	IND	2404	5,5	40,0	50,5	27,25
13	IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	MAS	2425	5,5	39,5	50,5	27,50
14	FM	Rej Tomek	AUS	2308	5,5	39,5	49,5	27,50
15	WIM	Nadig Kruttika	IND	2361	5,5	37,0	48,0	28,50
16	WGM	Karavade Eesha	IND	2359	5,5	37,0	47,5	27,25
17	GM	Neelotpal Das	IND	2514	5,5	36,5	46,5	27,00
18	IM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	IND	2469	5,5	34,5	43,5	26,00
19	IM	Lane Gary W	AUS	2371	5,5	34,0	43,5	23,25
20	IM	Sandler Leonid	AUS	2332	5,5	34,0	43,0	25,50
21	WGM	Mohota Nisha	IND	2304	5,5	33,5	44,5	24,75
22	WGM	Swathi Ghate	IND	2330	5,5	31,0	39,5	19,50
23		Ikeda Junta	AUS	2261	5,0	36,0	46,0	21,00
24		Bird Andrew	AUS	2146	5,0	36,0	45,5	23,50
25	FM	Saw Geoffrey	AUS	2279	5,0	35,5	44,0	21,75
26	FM	Tindall Brett	AUS	2207	5,0	35,0	44,5	22,25
27	IM	Toth Andras	HUN	2399	5,0	34,0	44,5	23,25
28	WIM	Caoili Arianne	AUS	2172	5,0	34,0	42,5	19,25
29		Lukman Ronny	INA	2254	5,0	33,0	43,0	20,00
30		Yuan Yi	AUS	2010	5,0	31,5	39,5	21,25
31	GM	Ghane Shojaat	IRI	2415	5,0	31,5	38,5	21,50
32	IM	West Guy	AUS	2343	5,0	31,0	40,0	22,25
33	FM	Morris James	AUS	2114	5,0	30,5	39,5	18,50
34		Tan Justin	AUS	1885	5,0	30,0	38,5	20,00
35		Wallis Christopher	AUS	2250	5,0	29,5	38,0	16,75
36		Amrutha Mokal	IND	2155	5,0	27,5	37,0	16,00
76 players

16) Sydney International Open

The 2009 Sydney International Open takes place 15th-19th April 2009 to follow on from the above event.

Official site: http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/index.cfm?site=open

17) Frydek-Mistek Tournaments

There were a number of tournaments in Frydek-Mistek. The 30th annual Tournament of Young Talents took place 9th - 13th April 2009 in Frydek-Mistek, Czech Republic. However the various IM all-play-alls have more details and games.

Official site: http://www.chessfm.cz

CEZ Cup Frydek Mistek (CZE), 9-13 iv 2009												cat. III (2303)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Krzyzanowski, Marcin		POL	2272	*	½	1	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	6½	2472
2.	Petran, Peter	m	SVK	2365	½	*	0	1	½	1	1	1	1	½	6½	2462
3.	Talla, Vladimir	m	CZE	2456	0	1	*	½	1	0	1	1	½	½	5½	2366
4.	Lefebvre, Herve		FRA	2241	½	0	½	*	½	1	½	½	1	1	5½	2390
5.	Jurek, Josef	m	CZE	2344	½	½	0	½	*	½	½	½	1	1	5	2341
6.	Rohacek, Miroslav		SVK	2253	½	0	1	0	½	*	0	1	½	1	4½	2308
7.	Belunek, Vladimir	f	CZE	2284	½	0	0	½	½	1	*	½	0	0	3	2180
8.	Jedlicka, Ales	f	CZE	2306	0	0	0	½	½	0	½	*	½	1	3	2177
9.	Nemcova, Katerina	wg	CZE	2294	0	0	½	0	0	½	1	½	*	½	3	2179
10.	Straka, Josef jr		SVK	2216	0	½	½	0	0	0	1	0	½	*	2½	2146

ARCIMPEX Cup Frydek Mistek (CZE), 9-13 iv 2009												cat. III (2309)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Rojicek, Vojtech	f	CZE	2373	*	½	½	1	1	½	½	½	1	1	6½	2467
2.	Kislov, Mikhail	m	RUS	2327	½	*	½	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	5	2349
3.	Vesselovsky, Serguei	m	CZE	2390	½	½	*	½	½	½	1	½	0	½	4½	2299
4.	Mazur, Stefan		SVK	2373	0	0	½	*	½	1	1	½	1	0	4½	2301
5.	Petenyi, Tamas		SVK	2293	0	0	½	½	*	½	1	1	1	0	4½	2310
6.	Michenka, Jozef	m	CZE	2383	½	1	½	0	½	*	0	1	0	½	4	2257
7.	Wiley, Tom E	f	ENG	2303	½	1	0	0	0	1	*	½	½	½	4	2266
8.	Pecha, Tomas		CZE	2170	½	0	½	½	0	0	½	*	1	1	4	2281
9.	Motuz, Karol	f	SVK	2334	0	1	1	0	0	1	½	0	*	½	4	2262
10.	Havlikova, Kristyna	wf	CZE	2141	0	0	½	1	1	½	½	0	½	*	4	2284

KFP Cup Frydek Mistek (CZE), 9-13 iv 2009												cat. III (2308)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Jurcik, Marian	m	SVK	2468	*	1	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	1	7	2509
2.	Csiba, Dominik	f	SVK	2377	0	*	0	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	6	2424
3.	Zilka, Stepan	m	CZE	2477	½	1	*	½	½	0	1	½	½	1	5½	2368
4.	Bazant, Petr jr		CZE	2394	½	0	½	*	½	1	1	1	½	½	5½	2378
5.	Jurcik, Martin	f	SVK	2331	½	0	½	½	*	½	½	½	1	1	5	2348
6.	Dvorak, Tomas	f	CZE	2287	½	0	1	0	½	*	1	½	0	½	4	2266
7.	Toma, Katarzyna	wm	POL	2218	0	1	0	0	½	0	*	1	½	1	4	2274
8.	Poloch, Petr	m	CZE	2290	0	0	½	0	½	½	0	*	1	1	3½	2229
9.	Sosovicka, Juraj		SVK	2067	0	0	½	½	0	1	½	0	*	0	2½	2168
10.	Vlasak, Lukas		CZE	2167	0	0	0	½	0	½	0	0	1	*	2	2103

18) 21st Lenk International Chess Festival

After a great jubilee with the 20th Lenk Chess Festival, last year has come the shock news that the, 21st Lenk International Tournament, April 9th-13th 2009 was the last chess event in the Simmental region. Mihajl Stojanovic finished ahead on tie-break after a group of players made 5.5/7. No games available.

Official site http://www.beochess.ch for more details.

21st Open Lenk (SUI), 9-13 iv 2009
Pl	Player	Land	Ti	Elo	Punkte	Buchh	BuSumm
1	Stojanovic,Mihajl	SRB	GM	2566	5.5	31	169
2	Hoffmann,Michael	GER	IM	2487	5.5	30	164.5
3	Sokolov,Andrei	FRA	GM	2558	5.5	29.5	170
4	Gerber,Richard	SUI	IM	2377	5.5	28	163
5	Lehmann,Andreas	SUI		2281	5.5	26.5	154
6	Jenni,Florian	SUI	GM	2516	5	28	162.5
7	Zimmermann,Peter	SUI		2248	5	27.5	158
8	Rufener,Markus	SUI	FM	2329	5	27	156.5
9	Muheim,Lukas	SUI	FM	2303	5	27	155.5
10	Burnier,David	SUI	FM	2331	5	26.5	155.5
11	Georgiadis,Nico	SUI		2085	5	26.5	155.5
12	Gähwiler,Gabriel	SUI		2240	5	22	140
13	Kaufmann,Werner	SUI	FM	2253	4.5	28	160
14	Bucher,Michael	SUI	FM	2258	4.5	27	150.5
15	Salzgeber,Frank	SUI		2172	4.5	26	150
16	Duratti,Lindo	FRA		2214	4.5	24.5	149.5
17	Gass,Ulrich	GER		2135	4.5	24.5	148.5
18	Pahud,Cédric	SUI		2130	4.5	23	137.5
19	Mauron,Pierre	SUI		2129	4.5	22.5	144
20	Lehmann,Marco	SUI	FM	2298	4.5	21.5	142.5
82 players

19) Danish Championship

The Danish Championship took place in Silkeborg 4th-13th April 2009. Sune Berg Hansen took clear first with 8/9 in this swiss open.

Official site: http://www.skak-dm.dk/2009/

ch-DEN Silkeborg (DEN), 4-12 iv 2009
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1.	Hansen, Sune Berg	g	DEN	2543	+26	+19	+10	=2	+4	+3	+5	+9	=6	8	2706
2.	Rasmussen, Allan Stig	m	DEN	2501	+20	+15	+13	=1	=3	+10	+4	+7	=5	7½	2635
3.	Schandorff, Lars	g	DEN	2505	+17	+22	=5	+7	=2	-1	+10	=4	+13	6½	2531
4.	Andersen, Mads		DEN	2244	+29	=7	+6	+5	-1	+8	-2	=3	+14	6	2484
5.	Christensen, Bo Garner		DEN	2240	+31	+8	=3	-4	+13	+17	-1	+11	=2	6	2471
6.	Matthiesen, Arne	f	DEN	2349	=14	+24	-4	+32	=9	-11	+17	+22	=1	5½	2384
7.	Rasmussen, Karsten	m	DEN	2447	+25	=4	=14	-3	=18	+28	+11	-2	+16	5½	2350
8.	Jakobsen, Ole	m	DEN	2352	+28	-5	=26	+29	+12	-4	=14	+15	=9	5½	2334
9.	Antonsen, Mikkel	m	DEN	2450	+18	-10	+15	=12	=6	=14	+16	-1	=8	5	2331
10.	Carstensen, Jacob	f	DEN	2331	+21	+9	-1	+19	+11	-2	-3	-13	+24	5	2425
11.	Jacobsen, Bo		DEN	2325	=32	+30	=12	+14	-10	+6	-7	-5	+19	5	2303
12.	Teplyi, Igor		DEN	2287	+27	=13	=11	=9	-8	-16	+18	=24	+22	5	2304
13.	Lund, Esben	m	DEN	2430	+33	=12	-2	+22	-5	+32	=15	+10	-3	5	2356
14.	Rendboe, John	f	DEN	2199	=6	+32	=7	-11	+22	=9	=8	=19	-4	4½	2327
15.	Matthiesen, Martin	f	DEN	2291	+16	-2	-9	=23	+24	+18	=13	-8	=20	4½	2288
16.	Ochsner, Bjorn Moller		DEN	2041	-15	=20	=24	=25	+30	+12	-9	+26	-7	4½	2273
17.	Kristensen, Kaare	f	DEN	2244	-3	=23	=31	+27	+19	-5	-6	=25	+26	4½	2215
18.	Akdag, Dara		DEN	2199	-9	+21	-19	+31	=7	-15	-12	+30	+28	4½	2232
19.	Christensen, Stefan	f	DEN	2313	+34	-1	+18	-10	-17	+23	+24	=14	-11	4½	2270
20.	Damm, Kasper Wilken		DEN	2231	-2	=16	-29	+34	-28	+33	=25	+23	=15	4½	2207
21.	Seegert, Kristian		DEN	2098	-10	-18	-32	=33	=27	=30	+31	+34	+25	4½	2138
22.	Aabling-Thomsen, Jakob		DEN	2309	+23	-3	+27	-13	-14	+26	+32	-6	-12	4	2210
23.	Eriksson, Christian		DEN	2122	-22	=17	=28	=15	=29	-19	+33	-20	+32	4	2185
24.	Jorgensen, Brian Jorgen		DEN	2274	=30	-6	=16	+26	-15	+29	-19	=12	-10	3½	2141
25.	Pedersen, Martin Rosenkilde		DEN	2204	-7	=29	=30	=16	-26	+34	=20	=17	-21	3½	2102
26.	Rewitz, Poul		DEN	2263	-1	+34	=8	-24	+25	-22	+28	-16	-17	3½	2184
27.	Nielsen, Lasse Simoni		DEN	1973	-12	+33	-22	-17	=21	-31	=30	=28	+34	3½	2090
28.	Molvig, Henrik		DEN	2213	-8	=31	=23	=30	+20	-7	-26	=27	-18	3	2050
29.	Wiecker, Stefan		DEN	2102	-4	=25	+20	-8	=23	-24	=34	-33	=31	3	2074
30.	Boje, Tobias		DEN	2018	=24	-11	=25	=28	-16	=21	=27	-18	=33	3	2044
31.	Petersen, Martin Reib		DEN	1974	-5	=28	=17	-18	-33	+27	-21	=32	=29	3	2033
32.	Andersen, Rune		DEN	2156	=11	-14	+21	-6	+34	-13	-22	=31	-23	3	2097
33.	Nielsen, John Bauneborg		DEN	2197	-13	-27	-34	=21	+31	-20	-23	+29	=30	3	2002
34.	Nielsen, Nicholas		DEN	2197	-19	-26	+33	-20	-32	-25	=29	-21	-27	1½	1897

20) Zupanja Open

The 15th Zupanja Festival (Croatia) takes place 10th-16th April 2009.

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

15th Festival Open A Zupanja (CRO), 4-12 iv 2009
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1.	Markus, Robert	g	SRB	2606	=11	=4	=10	=5	+12	+7	.	.	.	4	2621
2.	Kovacevic, Aleksandar	g	SRB	2561	=14	+12	+8	+6	-7	=5	.	.	.	4	2628
3.	Hera, Imre jr	g	HUN	2533	-8	+13	=11	+4	=6	+10	.	.	.	4	2540
4.	Zufic, Miroslav	m	CRO	2439	+5	=1	=7	-3	+10	=6	.	.	.	3½	2595
5.	Savic, Miodrag R	g	SRB	2539	-4	=10	+12	=1	+11	=2	.	.	.	3½	2549
6.	Stanojoski, Zvonko	g	MKD	2485	+13	=8	+9	-2	=3	=4	.	.	.	3½	2516
7.	Predojevic, Borki	g	BIH	2652	=12	+14	=4	=11	+2	-1	.	.	.	3½	2553
8.	Pancevski, Filip	m	MKD	2423	+3	=6	-2	-10	+13	=9	.	.	.	3	2466
9.	Gonda, Laszlo	m	HUN	2522	=10	=11	-6	=13	+14	=8	.	.	.	3	2416
10.	Solomunovic, Igor	m	GER	2418	=9	=5	=1	+8	-4	-3	.	.	.	2½	2453
11.	Popchev, Milko	g	BUL	2451	=1	=9	=3	=7	-5	=14	.	.	.	2½	2492
12.	Fercec, Nenad	g	CRO	2478	=7	-2	-5	+14	-1	+13	.	.	.	2½	2456
13.	Bender, Ivan	f	CRO	2277	-6	-3	+14	=9	-8	-12	.	.	.	1½	2287
14.	Runic, Zoran	m	BIH	2443	=2	-7	-13	-12	-9	=11	.	.	.	1	2217

21) LV Campeonato Nacional E Internacional Abierto Mexicano de Ajedrez

The LV Campeonato Nacional E Internacional Abierto Mexicano de Ajedrez took place in Toluca 7th-12th 2009. I think this is the Mexican Championships for men and women but foreigners are allowed to compete too. Final results not yet available although games were broadcast live.

Official site: http://www.fenamac.org.mx/ - PDF file of the regulations http://www.fenamac.org.mx/convocatorias/edm/17_Nacional_Abierto_2009.pdf in Spanish.

22) Pedro Lezcano Montalvo Memorial

The Pedro Lezcano Montalvo Memorial took place in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria 5th-12th April 2009. Bojan Kurajica won the main GM tournament with 6½/10.

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

Pedro Lezcano Montalvo Mem Las Palmas (ESP), 5-12 iv 2009										cat. VII (2412)
					1		2		3		4		5		6
1.	Kurajica, Bojan	g	BIH	2555	*	*	0	1	½	½	½	½	1	1	½	1	6½	2493
2.	Strikovic, Aleksa	g	SRB	2536	1	0	*	*	½	½	½	½	1	0	1	1	6	2459
3.	Vega Gutierrez, Sabrina	wg	ESP	2334	½	½	½	½	*	*	½	½	½	½	1	½	5½	2463
4.	Barlov, Dragan	g	SRB	2463	½	½	½	½	½	½	*	*	½	½	½	½	5	2401
5.	Brito Garcia, Alfredo	m	ESP	2348	0	0	0	1	½	½	½	½	*	*	0	½	3½	2314
6.	Vega Gutierrez, Belinda	wf	ESP	2236	½	0	0	0	0	½	½	½	1	½	*	*	3½	2337

Trofeo Cabildo Las Palmas (ESP), 5-12 iv 2009
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1.	Natalicchio Escalante, Nicolas		ESP	2246	*	½	½	½	1	1	1	1	1	6½	2352
2.	Sanchez Quintero, Raul		CUB	2139	½	*	1	1	½	½	1	1	½	6	2307
3.	Camino Carrio, Nicanor		ESP	2169	½	0	*	½	1	1	1	1	1	6	2303
4.	Ortega Hermida, Daniel	m	ESP	2404	½	0	½	*	1	½	½	1	1	5	2176
5.	Menvielle Lacourrelle, Augusto	f	ESP	2262	0	½	0	0	*	1	1	1	1	4½	2142
6.	Fernandez Caballero, Antonio		ESP	----	0	½	0	½	0	*	1	1	1	4	2131
7.	Angel Acosta, Juan Carlos		ESP	2227	0	0	0	½	0	0	*	½	1	2	1910
8.	Alvarado Diaz, Alejandro		ESP	1787	0	0	0	0	0	0	½	*	1	1½	1907
9.	Navarro Molina, David		ESP	1821	0	½	0	0	0	0	0	0	*	½	1710

Open Las Palmas (ESP), 5-12 iv 2009
Rk.	Name	Ti	FED	FIDE	Pts.	Des 1	Des 3
1	Matnadze Ana	IM	GEO	2414	8.5	42.5	51.5
2	Bregadze Levan	FM	GEO	2420	8	42	53
3	Herrera Reyes Jose Antonio		ESP	2107	6.5	34.5	54
4	Rodriguez Perez David		ESP	2062	6.5	29.5	42.5
5	Rodriguez Melian Jose Luis		ESP	2079	6	34	51
6	Gutierrez Olivares Daniel		ESP	2156	6	31.5	49.5
7	Morales Camacho Julian	FM	ESP	2302	6	30	48.5
8	Martin Hernandez Ruben		ESP	1924	6	28.5	46.5
9	Javakhadze Zurab		GEO	2288	5.5	33	51
10	Gonzalez Intelangelo Gerardo		ESP	2107	5.5	32	52
11	Rivas Crespo Alexander		ESP	1998	5.5	31.5	42.5
12	Rodriguez Ferraz Borja		ESP	1966	5.5	30.5	46.5
13	Jalabadze Natia		GEO	2041	5.5	29	45
14	Torrens Gonzalez Daniel		ESP	1889	5.5	26	39.5
15	Viera Falcon Cristo		ESP	1779	5.5	26	42
16	Ramirez Medina Oscar		ESP	1910	5.5	22.5	35
17	Perdomo Abad Jose		ESP	2082	5	30	49
18	Traunwieser Georg		AUT	2107	5	30	45.5
19	Machin Arbelo Pedro Alexis		ESP	2040	5	30	46.5
20	Barrio Pareja Eduardo		ESP	2061	5	30	49.5
21	Garcia Rodriguez Sara		ESP	1820	5	26	40.5
22	Martinez Molina Jose Juan		ESP	1832	5	23	38
23	Martel Rodriguez Marcos Gonzalo		ESP	0	5	22	37
24	Cruz Pino Adrian		ESP	0	5	19	33
57 players

23) Forthcoming Events and Links

Canadian Open

The Canadian Open takes place in Edmonton, Alberta Canada July 11th-19th 2009. Alexei Shirov adn Michael Adams are among the early entrants.

Details: http://monroi.com/2009-canadian-open-chess-championship-home.html

Algimantas Cesnauskas Memorial

Panevezys Chess Club organises Algimantas Cesnauskas Memorial in Lithuania.It is a chess festival of three tournaments and take place18th - 26 th April in Panevezys,Lithuania. It Rapid '09 take place 18th -19th April and two round - robin tournaments with GM and IM/WGM norms starts on the 20th April 2009.

There are vacancies for players who wish to come to play for GM or IM-norms. Applications and details contact organizer Arvydas Baltrunas chessfanas@gmail.com

Further details: http://www.chesslyga.lt/IM2009

San Sebastian GM

There is a tournament in San Sebastian July 6th-16th 2009.

GMA San Sebastian (ESP), 6-16 vii 2009 cat. XVIII (average elo: 2687)
Sergei Movsesian	2747	SVK
Peter Svidler	2726	RUS
Rustam Ponomariov	2726	UKR
Hikaru Nakamura	2701	USA
Rustam Kasimzhanov	2695	UZB
Francisco Vallejo	2688	SPA
Maxime Vachier-Lagraeve	2684	FRA
Anatoly Karpov	2644	RUS
Julio Granda	2610	PER
Pablo San Segundo	2560	SPA

Prizes in Euros: 1.- 9.000 2.- 6.000 3.- 4.000 4.- 3.500 5.- 3.000 6.- 2.500 7.- 2.000 8.- 1.500 9.- 1.000 10.- 500

There will be also a B tournament (cat. XI), C tournament (cat. VIII), and D tournament (female players). The games will be played in the same hall that held the historic tournament in 1911 won by Capablanca and the organisers are hoping for a special event to commemorate the centenary. News David Llada. Website to be announced.

Dortmund

The Dortmund Chess Meeting takes place 2nd-12th July 2009. Players: Kramnik, Leko, Carlsen, Jakovenko, Bacrot, and Naiditsch play.

Details: http://www.chess-international.de/?p=429

Akobian vs Shulman Rapid Match

Varuzhan Akobian takes on Yuri Shulman in a four day rapid match in California USA April 22nd-25th 2009. Organiser Thomas Southerland (contact@tacbase.com)

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

Brno Chess Festival

The Duras Chess Club organises the Brno Chess Festival in the Czech Republic. The GM Brno, IM Tespo Engineering and IM Dopravni stavby tournaments take place 26th June - 5th July 2009. Open tournaments start on the 27th June 2009.

Applications and details contact Rudolf Moulis: e-mail: moulis@kroknet.cz , phone +420 548 522 186, mobile phone: +420 607 900 656

Further info at: http://www.skduras.cz/cz/propozice.html and http://www.skduras.cz/cz/brnensky-sachovy-festival-2009.html

Toronto Open

The Pricewaterhouse Coopers Toronto Open Chess Championship takes place April 17th-19th 2009.

Official site: http://monroi.com/pwc-toronto-open-chess-championship-home.html and http://www.gtachessevents.memberlodge.com/

World Open

The World Open Chess Tournament takes place June 29th - July 5th 2009 in Philadelphia.

Details: http://www.chesstour.com/wo09.htm and http://monroi.com/2009-world-open-chess-tournament-home.html

US Championships

The 2009 US Chess Championship takes place in St Louis, United States, May 18th-29th 2009. 24 players compete including: Varuzhan Akobiana, Julio Becerra Rivero, Joel Benjamin, Michael Brooks, Larry Christiansen, Jaan Ehlvest, Josh Friedel, Boris Gulko, Robert Hess, Tyler Hughes, Ildar Ibragimov, Gregory Kaidanov, Gata Kamsky, Melik Khachiyan, Irina Krush, Charles Lawton, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Onischuk, Ray Robson, Enrico Sevillano, Alexander Shabalov, Yury Shulman and Anna Zatonskih.

The women's championship takes place 2nd-12th October 2009 at the same venue.

Official site: http://www.saintlouischessclub.org/. Live coverage by Monroi.

British Championships

The 96th British Chess Championships take place 26th July - 8th August 2009 in Torquay.

Official site: http://www.britishchess09.com/

Zone 2.3 Guayaquil Ecuador

Zone 2.3 takes place in Guayaquil Ecuador 10th-21st May 2009.

Details: http://www.ajedrezenecuador.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=443

Argentine Championships

The Championships of Argentina 2009 take place in April and May. Semifinals: 30th April - 6th May, 2009 in La Plata. Final: 9th-20th May, 2009 in La Plata. Place: Club Espanol de la Plata.

Official site: http://www.ajedrez.com.ar/

Asian Individual Open

The Asian Individual Open and Women’s Chess Championship in Subic Bay, Philippines from May 12th-24th 2009. No official site.

14th Pannonia - Nitrokemia Cup

The 14th Pannonia - Nitrokemia Cup takes place in Balatonalmadi, 29th July - 2nd August, 2009.

Group A: International Open Tournament for FIDE ratings. Group B: International Open Tournament for FIDE ratings, for players under 2000 ELO System used: 7 Rounds Swiss without age limit for both Groups Venue: The air-conditioned Conference Hall of Pannonia Cultural Centre & Library Address: Balatonalmadi, Városház Square 6. Organiser: Recreation Association of Vorosbereny Time Limit: Group A: 90-90 minutes + 30sec after each move Group B: 120-120 minutes for all moves

Details: http://fancsyimi.fw.hu. Entries and further information IM Fancsy Imre E-mail: almadikupa@freemail.hu

4NCL

The 4NCL takes place 4th October 2008 - 4th May 2009. Rounds 7-8 took place 21st-22nd March 2009 in the Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island. The 8 team Groups 1A and 1B concluded with round 7 and the top 4 teams from each group went on to the Championship Pool and the bottom four to the Relegation Pool. The teams have already played the three other teams from their preliminary groups and these results will stand. The first of the four remaining rounds was round 8 played on March 22nd. This system is used in the French TOP 16.

Official site: http://www.4ncl.co.uk - Live coverage: http://www.bcfservices.org.uk/livechess/4ncl/0809/index.htm

Dutch Teams

The Dutch Team Championship takes place 27th September 2008 - 10th May 2009. Round 7 was on the 28th March 2009. Round 8 is on 18th April 2009.

Great coverage at: http://www.schakers.info/ and also the http://www.schaakbond.nl/wedstrijdschaak/knsb-competitie/

Dutch Teams (NED), 27 ix 2008 - 10 iv 2009 Round 7 (28th March 2009) results
BSG	ESGOO	3.5-6.5
Utrecht	Voerendaal	6-4
HMC Calder	HSG	4.5-5.5
Hotels.nl	LSG	5-5
Rotterdam	Apeldoorn	5.5-4.5

Dutch Teams (NED), 27 ix 2008 - 10 iv 2009 Round 7 Standings:
	Meesterklasse	Mp	Bp	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1.	HSG	14	50	x	.	.	5.5	8.5	8.5	6.5	7.5	5.5	8
2.	Hotels.nl	11	44½	.	x	6.5	6	8.5	4.5	6	.	5	8
3.	Schrijvers Rotterdam	10	39	.	3.5	x	6	4.5	5.5	5.5	6	.	8
4.	HMC Calder	8	39½	4.5	4	4	x	5.5	.	5.5	.	7.5	8.5
5.	Utrecht	8	31	1.5	1.5	5.5	4.5	x	.	5.5	6	6.5	.
6.	ESGOO	7	31	1.5	5.5	4.5	.	.	x	2.5	5.5	5	6.5
7.	Homburg Apeldoorn	4	34	3.5	4	4.5	4.5	4.5	7.5	x	5.5	.	.
8.	Voerendaal	4	33	2.5	.	4	.	4	4.5	4.5	x	6.5	7
9.	LSG	4	32	4.5	5	.	2.5	3.5	5	.	3.5	x	8
10.	BSG	0	16	2	2	2	1.5	.	3.5	.	3	2	x

M-Tel Masters

The 5th M-Tel Masters takes place in Sofia 12th-23rd May 2009 (rest day 18th May).

The Category XXI event sees Veselin Topalov, Magnus Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk, Wang Yue, Leinier Dominguez Perez and Alexei Shirov play in a double round robin format. The games will be played in a glass pavilion on the square in front of the National Theatre Ivan Vazov.

The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves per player and 60 minutes per player till the end of the game. The maximum period for a single game is 5 hours. "Sofia rules" will again be used. They are that: Opponents cannot communicate during the games and cannot offer a draw. Proposals for a draw can be made only through the Chief Arbiter in three cases: triple repetition, eternal chess and theoretical draw position. When making the decisions the Chief Arbiter will be consulted by Zurab Azmaiparashvili, Vice President of FIDE.

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

French League Top 16

The French Team Championship (TOP 16) took place in 4 towns (Clichy, Cannes, Metz, Mulhouse) 20th-22nd March 2009. The next rounds take place 30th April - 3rd May 2009.

Official site: http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Equipes.aspx

14th International Stuttgart Championship

The 14th "International Stuttgart Championship" in Germany takes place 21th-24th May 2009. Contact Michael Meier e-mail: info@stuttgarter-stadtmeisterschaft.de

For further information on the event: http://www.stuttgarter-stadtmeisterschaft.de

20th International Chess and Games Festival Czech Open

The 20th International Chess and Games Festival Czech Open 2009 takes place 16th July - 2 August 2009 in Pardubice (the Czech Republic). There are more than 100 tournaments in chess and other games, eg. European Youth Chess Teams Championship, ISCU Children Clubs Chess Championship and European Amateurs Championship in Chess.

More detailed information: http://www.czechopen.net/news/index.php. the festival website will be ready at the end of April.

6th Summer Catalan Chess Circuit

The 6th Summer Catalan Chess Circuit takes place May - September every year as part of the Catalan Chess Circuit, which is composed of 28 International Tournaments, and held in Spain, extended beyond Catalonia.

In 2009 there will be 14 Opens with traditional time control to be played over 9-10 days, as well as 14 Opens in Rapid Chess, played over 1-2 days (see Tournament Calendar).

During 120 days of tournaments, around 22.000 chess games will be played with selected ones broadcast.

Approximately 3,000 players from more than 30 different countries. The prize fund will reach 175.000 euros.

Apart from the traditional tournament prizes, the Catalan Chess Federation establishes a special classification composed of player´s results in each Circuit tournament, based on which players will be able to claim such special Circuit Prizes as General Final Standings, Prizes by Categories, Specific Prizes for best Catalan Players.

Prizegiving Ceremony will be held at Fiesta Catalana (Catalan Chess Party), on September, 27th, 2009

For more information please contact the Catalonia Chess Federation on federacio@escacs.cat or visit the official website: http://escacs.cat/circuit2009/torneigs.html

6th Summer Catalan Chess Circuit (ESP), 5 v - 20 ix 2009
5-13 May	VILA DE SALOU	SALOU	9 Rd Swiss	B	C	Francesc Linan 616094289
17 May	VILA DE CANOVELLES	CANOVELLES	9 Rd Swiss	b	b	Daniel Flores 938493564
24 May	VILA DE L'AMPOLLA	L'AMPOLLA	9 Rd Swiss	a	b	Enric Gallimo 666187061
31 May	VILA DE STA COLOMA DE QUERALT	SANTA COLOMA DE QUERALT	8 Rd Swiss	a	a sup	Salvador Barrot 654095338
20 June	CIUTAT DE REUS	REUS	9 Rd Swiss	a	a sup	Joan Pinol 649341056
21 June	MOLLET DEL VALLES	MOLLET DEL VALLES	9 Rd Swiss	b	a	Francesc Fernandez 647625832
24 June-2 July	VILA DE SORT	SORT	9 Rd Swiss	B	C	Joan A. Conesa 609825066
25 June-3 July	VILA DE MONTCADA	MONTCADA	9 Rd Swiss	A	A	Reyes Cantero 938152902
4-12 July	BARBERÀ DEL VALLES	BARBERA DEL VALLES	9 Rd Swiss	A	A sup	Víctor Pont 629386528
4-12 July	TORREDEMBARRA	TORREDEMBARRA	9 Rd Swiss	C	B	Jordi Salvat 649061984
13-22 July	CIUTAT DE BALAGUER	BALAGUER	10 Rd Swiss	A sup	A	Antoni Montoliu 679082837
18-26 July	ANDORRA	LES ESCALDES	9 Rd Swiss	A sup	A sup	Oscar la Riva 00376-347085
22-30 July	VILA DE SITGES	SITGES	9 Rd Swiss	A	A	Francesc González 600923277
25 July	CERVELLO	CERVELLO	8 Rd Swiss	b	b	Juan Mª Santiago 936840402
26 July	OLOT	OLOT	8 Rd Swiss	b	b	Josep Ma Mir 606119678
1-8 August	FIGUERES "MIQUEL MAS"	FIGUERES	9 Rd Swiss	C	A	Jordi Serra 699848479
1-9 August	CIUTAT DE BADALONA	BADALONA	9 Rd Swiss	A	A sup	Manel Triquell 609683157
2-10 August	LA POBLA DE LILLET	LA POBLA DE LILLET	9 Rd Swiss	C	C	Josep Salvador 630625152
15-16 August	VILA DE POBLENOU	BARCELONA	10 Rd Swiss	a sup	a	Joan Lorda 659529581
21-30 August	SANTS	BARCELONA	10 Rd Swiss	A sup	A sup	Cotxeres 932918701
22-23 August	AJEDREZND	BARCELONA	9 Rd Swiss	a sup	a	Jordi Morcillo 620341266
1-10 September	FESTIVAL DE SABADELL	SABADELL	9 Rd Swiss	B	B	Ivan Aguilar 666346958
6 September	VILA DE SANTPEDOR	SANTPEDOR	9 Rd Swiss	b	b	Josep Mascaro 616477533
11 September	DIADA DE L'11 DE SETEMBRE	SABADELL	9 Rd Swiss	a	a sup	Ivan Aguilar 666346958
12 September	RIBERA D'EBRE	MORA D'EBRE	8 Rd Swiss	a	a	Josep Terrones 696204203
13 September	CIUTAT DE TORTOSA	TORTOSA	8 Rd Swiss	b	b	Abraham Pla 680532570
19-20 September	VALLFOGONA DE BALAGUER	VALLFOGONA DE BALAGUER	Suís 11 rondes	a sup	a	Jaume Parramon 649960831
Potential
13-21 July	SANT MARTI	BARCELONA	9 Rd Swiss			Ricard Llerins 933082425

9th Znojmo Open

The 9th International Chess Festival Znojmo Open 2009, takes place 30th April - 3rd May 2009 in the town of Znojmo (the Czech Republic). Events include FIDE open with 7 rounds, the Znojmo Queen - Open Women’s Czech Championship in Active Chess, the Znojmo Princess-active chess for girls up to 14 years of age and Ing. Turek’s Memorial Competition. Open Local Championship of South Moravian Chess Federation in Active Chess for individuals. More detailed information at http://www.czechtour.net/znojmo-open/

Czech Tour 2009/2010 http://www.czechtour.net/news/

5th Thessaloniki Games Festival

The 5th Thessaloniki Games Festival takes place 26th April - 4th May 2009.

Official site: http://gamesfestival.chessdom.com/ and http://www.gamesfestival.com/

Chess Classic Mainz

The Chess Classic Mainz takes place 27th July - 2nd August 2009 in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz.

The world championships in rapid chess and Chess960 will be staged in a tried and trusted double round robin format with four players, after which the players battle it out in mini-matches to determine the top spot. The players for the main events have already been contracted.

The GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship sees the World Chess Champion and Chess Classic serial winner Vishy Anand will try to defend his title for the 11th time in a row. He faces Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Arkadij Naiditsch.

Other events include the gigantic ORDIX rapid chess Open, the FiNet Ches960 Open, the open tournaments for U14 talents, the 40 board simultaneous exhibition with Levon Aronian, the Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship, etc., etc.

Full details: http://www.chesstigers.de

XXVII Andorra International Chess Open

The XXVII Andorra International Chess Open takes place 18th-26th July 2009. Contact: open@escacsandorra.com

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

27th Elba Chess Festival

The 27th Elba Chess Festival takes place 10th-17th May 2009.

Official site: http://www.tuscanhotels.it/cmsx.asp?IDPg=10

Calgary International

Calgary, Alberta (Canada) stages a small 9 round international norm event May 14th-18th, 2009. A host of GM's and IM's will be in attendance, IM norms will be available.

Official site:http://www.albertachess.org/Calgary_International.html

For more info, email the tournament organiser Tony Ficzere at tficzere@telus.net

London super-tournament in December 2009

Cream of world chess to play in new London tournament. [Press release 9th March 2009]

London Chess Centre is proud to announce a world-class chess tournament to be held in London in December, 2009. The event will be an elite eight-player all-play-all in the most prestigious tournament in the capital since former world champion Anatoly Karpov won the Phillips and Drew Masters in 1984.

Since then, despite London hosting three world title contests, there has not been a tournament in which England's leading players could lock horns with the world's best on home soil. The December 09 tournament will be the first in a series of events designed to reinvigorate UK chess and promote the game and its undoubted educational benefits in schools and communities.

The tournament will be FIDE Category 19 with an average FIDE rating of 2700 and a minimum prize fund of €100,000. The eight players will comprise of three English and five world-class Grandmasters from abroad. Included in the prize fund will be a €10,000 Brilliant Game award along with separate prizes for each victory with the White and Black pieces. Matches will be covered live online where fans will be able to vote for Game of the Day.

The tournament has applied for membership of the prestigious annual Grand Slam of Chess which culminates in Bilbao and boasts a €400,000 prize fund.

The games will be under Classical Chess time control; 40 moves in two hours, 20 in the subsequent hour then an additional 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds a move until the end of the game. The tournament will further benefit from the use of Sofia Rules which disallow early draws. Players will receive three points for a win and one for a draw.

The opening ceremony will take place on Thursday, December 10 and will include a blindfold chess display and charity simultaneous. Play will take place daily from Friday, December 11 to Thursday, December 17 inclusive.

The list of players and venue will be announced in April.

Malcolm Pein (IM) Director London Chess Centre

Notes for editors: All communications to Malcolm Pein IM at London Chess Centre: 020 7388 2404. E-Mail: info@chess.co.uk. Website: www.chess.co.uk

Masterskill Commonwealth Chess Championships

The Masterskill Commonwealth Chess Championships takes place 14th-21st July 2009 in Ipoh, Malaysia.

Details: http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/4-tournaments/3827-commonwealth-chess-championship-2009-in-malaysia

Maia Chiburdanidze Cup

The "Maia Chiburdanidze Cup" (International Open Women's Chess Tournament) takes place in the Chess Palace, Tbilisi (Georgia) 4th-13th June 2009. The Tournament is open to all women players. Each player must herself (or her federation) cover all her expenses: entry fee, transportation, accommodation and board. 9 round Swiss. Rate of play: 90 min for all moves, increment 30 seconds per move. Details available from the addresses below.

Contact IA, FM Varlam Vepkhvishvili E-mail: chessgeorgia@hotmail.com or chessvarlam@hotmail.com.

Phone:
(995)32-997736 - Federation
(995)32-960199 - Home
(995)99-771974 - Mobile

Official site: http://www.gcf.org.ge

1st International Open Tbilisi

The 1st International Open Tbilisi Chess Tournament takes place 14th-24th June 2009.

Official site: http://www.chess.tbilisi.ge (not yet up and running)

9 round Swiss. Rate of play: 90 min for all moves, increment 30 seconds per move. Details available from the addresses below.

e-mail: chessvarlam@hotmail.com - Varlam Vepkhvishvili
e-mail: ggrs92@hotmail.com - Giorgi Khomeriki

Varna Chess Festival

The 1st International Chess Festival Varna, takes place at the Grand Hotel Varna 11th-20th June 2009. Contact: seahorse@abv.bg for more details.

Website: http://euroschoolchess.org/ (although I couldn't find the event myself)

European Youth Championships

The European Youth Championships (U10 - U18) takes place in Fermo/Italy 30th August - 10th September 2009.

Details: http://www.euroyouth2009.com

European Senior Championships

The European Individual Senior Championship takes place in Rogaska Slatina/Slovenia 22nd - 31st July 2009. For the first time just before the event a European Senior Rapid Championship will be organised. The dates are 19th - 21st July.

Further details are published under http://www.sahohlacnik.com/eu-sen/

European Union Website

The European Chess Union Website ECU website has changed address to http://www.europechess.org

Alushta Diary 2009

Alushta Diary 2009:

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, 5.09 - 13.09, Open tournament (under 16 years) 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, 10.07 - 18.07, 20.07 - 28.07, 22.08 - 30.08, Alushta Swiss 9 rounds Blitz tournament 7.07, 19.07, 29.07, Alushta Swiss 9 rounds Open tournament (rapid chess) 8.07 - 9.07, 30.07 - 31.07, Alushta Session of school of Gennadi Kuzmin 21.06 - 27.06, 15.07 - 24.07. Individual and group studying Further information: http://www.kaissa.com.ua phone +38 (06560)5-05-32, +380505828911 (for Russian speaking), + 380506692604 (for English speaking) e-mail: info@kaissa.com.ua

Zuerich Chess Club 200th Anniversary

Dr. Christian Rohrer reports: The world's oldest chess club celebrates its 200th year with spectacular jubilee events, including World Champions Spassky, Kasparov and Anand.

The Schachgesellschaft Zuerich celebrates 200th anniversary with spectacular jubilee events

The Schachgesellschaft Zuerich, the world's oldest chess club, celebrates its 200th year in 2009 with spectacular jubilee events. To mark the anniversary, some of the greatest masters of the last five decades, including World Champions Spassky, Kasparov and Anand, will play at the event. Highlights will be a simultaneous exhibition and a rapid chess tournament on the 22nd and 23rd of August, held in Zurich Main Railway Station. With generous sponsor support from Credit Suisse the Schachgesellschaft Zuerich continues its long standing tradition of world class chess tournaments.

On Saturday the 22nd of August, in simultaneous games 200 amateurs will be honoured to face eight word-class chess players, who have made historical contributions to world chess over the last 50 years: Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Viktor Korchnoi, Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Spassky, Ruslan Ponomariov and Veselin Topalov. On Sunday the 23rd of August, these champions will compete against each other in an exciting rapid chess format. Judit Polgar, the strongest female chess player ever, and Werner Hug of Schachgesellschaft Zuerich, former world junior chess champion, will replace Kasparov and Spassky, who have retired from competitive chess.

A huge number of spectators, from enthusiasts to the generally curious, is expected for the events at Zurich Railway Main Station. And no one need miss it: All commemorative events will be streamed live via Internet.

The jubilee commences with an open tournament; certain to be one of the most exciting open chess tournaments of 2009. Players of every skill level, from beginners to the elite world class, are expected and will be welcomed at the Zurich Kongresshaus from August 9th to the 15th, 2009. They will compete in two tournaments, 9 rounds each, for CHF 100.000 guaranteed prize money and many attractive prizes.

To further honour the occasion, Richard Forster, reputable chess historian, will release his comprehensive book, researched in great detail, on the unique history of the Schachgesellschaft Zuerich. Entitled "Schachgesellschaft Zuerich: 1809 bis 2009", Forster's work will analyze the development of the Schachgesellschaft Zuerich from the times of Napoleon to the present day.

Details: http://www.sgzurich2009.ch

32nd Ikaros Chess Festival 2009

The traditional 32nd Ikaros Chess Festival 2009 takes place on Ikaria island.

The main event of the festival, the International Aegean Open Championship takes place 11th-19th July 2009. It is a 9 round swiss event with prize fund 3600 Euros in total (1st prize 1000 Euros, special money prizes for ladies and veterans). Special conditions for GMs/IMs and WGMs/WIMs are provided, special discounts for families and club teams are also offered (more information will be available in the official announcement of the festival that will be out soon on the official webpage.

Contact info: ikaros@chess.gr while to contact us on the phone one can try: +30 6932 478386 or +30 210 5010871 (Mr. Savas Kyriakou). For general information about the island of Ikaria one can also check at: http://www.island-ikaria.com

Official site: http://www.chess.gr/ikaros

Pula Open 2009

The 23rd International Chess Tournament "Pula Open 2009" takes place 27th June - 4th July 2009 in Pula, Croatia. Official site: http://www.skpula.hr and contact e-mail: pulaopen@globalnet.hr.

Hungarian Chess Tournaments March-October 2009

1. 7th-19th of February, FIRST SATURDAY GM-IM-FM Budapest FIRST SATURDAY Budapest, 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/

2.20th-28th of February IM-Rating Caissa, Kecskemet, org: Dr.Erdelyi, Tamas, cellphone: +36-30-271-33-38, Landline phone-fax: +36-76-481-685 e-mail: postmaster@caissa.t-online.hu Website: http://www.caissachessbooks.hu Usually also in the second half of the month IM and rating tournaments in Kecskemet, a city 80 km South-East from Budapest.

3.7th-19th of March, First Saturday, Budapest, GM-IM-FM, org Nagy L.

4.20th-28th of March, 25th BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL 9 rounds Swiss Open, org: Nagy L. - e-mail: firstsat@hu.inter.net

5.4th-16th of April First Saturday Budapest, org.Nagy L.

6.18th-26th of April Caissa, IM + rating Kecskemet, Org.Erdelyi,

7.2nd-14th of May, First Saturday GM-IM-FM Budapest, org Nagy L.

Kecskemet Caissa IM + rating tournaments more: 16th-25th of May, 20th-28th of June, 18th-27th of July, 15th-24th of August, 19th-28th of September. FIRST SATURDAY Budapest GM-IM-FM tournaments more: 6th-18th of June, 4th-16th of July, 1st-13th of August, 5th-17th of September.

Novi Sad Open

1) Open turnir , 10-11 jan. 2009 , Srpska Nova g. u N. Sadu , 5 kola , rejtinguje se !!, fide tempo http://www.drazic.co.rs

2) IM , berger, 10-18.jan.2009. , 10 rounds, fide tempo, Novi SAd, for elo and norms fide, http://www.drazic.co.rs

3) Open turnir , 16-18 jan.2009, Novi Sad "Zima u Novom Sadu", 5 kola , rejtinguje se !!, fide tempo http://www.drazic.co.rs

4) cuger turnir , Olimpik, 12. jan.2009, Novi Sad, start 20 h , http://www.drazic.co.rs

5) program of chess edukation, every day from 12-15 jan. 2009 chess lessons with varius GM and Im (available in 3 languages),,,, some of teachers GM Kosanovic G. , GM SEdlak Nikola, GM Kovacevic A , GM DRazic Sinisa etc...

6) Open t. , "Dunav-Drava -Sava" , Banja Junakovic(87km from N.Sad), 9 rounds, fide tempo, possible norms fide and elo, date - 21-25.01.2009., special package , only 130 eur, 4 days full board with available swiming pool, and include also entry fee !! more http://www.drazic.co.rs Special discount for people who take part in more than one events.

Luis Scalise

Luis Scalise's chess pages have moved to: http://scalise.fortunecity.com/

Grand Slam Masters Final

The 2nd edition of the Grand Slam Masters Final will be played in Bilbao, September 2-15th 2009. The winners of Corus-Wijk aan Zee, Ciudad de Linares and Mtel Masters-Sofia tournaments will qualify directly for the Masters Final in Bilbao, where the first edition (played at a central square, inside a glass cube) was a very big success last September.

More details on the 2009 tournament (number of players, system of play, etc) will be announced at the end of the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The Grand Slam is in negotiations to include one more high level tournament in the 2009 circuit.

Grand Slam Chess Association (GSCA)

Dresden, 23 November 2008

Chess Study

Dr Robert Howard is making a study of rated chess players.

The full article: http://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/fidestudy/results

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

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

European Youth U-16 winners Texas Scholarships

The University of Texas at Dallas (USA) has offered scholarships to the winners of the U-16 European Youth Chess Championships since 2007. The agreement with the European Chess Union has been extended for another three years. The total value of the scholarships during this five-year period will be approximately 1 million USD, said James A. Stallings, Director of the UTD chess program.

Interview on the ECU website: http://www.europechess.org/home518.aspx?art=ft

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

GM Boris Alterman's Chess Lessons

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

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

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