chess that i am watching now

Hou Yifan (from China) wins The 5th FIDE Women Grand Prix (WGP) 2010/ Ulaanbaatar 2010

2010-08-12T23:44:00.002+05:30

The 5th FIDE Women Grand Prix (WGP) 2010 (Ulaanbaatar 2010) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia has just now completed

Total # of Players:	12
Tournament format:	11-round double-round-robin (Each player plays with other twice)

	Players
#	Name of players	Rating	Title	State
1	Koneru, Humpy	2595	GM	IND
2	Yifan, Hou	2585	GM	CHN
3	Stefanova, Antoaneta	2527	GM	BUL
4	Sebag Marie	2519	GM	FRA
5	Chiburdanidze, Maia	2506	GM	GEO
6	Xue, Zhao	2542	GM	CHN
7	Kosintseva, Tatiana	2536	IM	RUS
8	Chen, Zhu	2488	GM	QTR
9	Yuhua, Xu	2485	GM	CHN
10	Yang, Shen	2453	WG	CHN
11	Batkhuyag, Munguntuul	2418	IM	MGL
12	Yuldiz Betul	2224	WI	TUR

	Final Standings
#	Name	ELO	Pts	S-B
1	Hou Yifan	2585	8	39
2	Stefanova Antoaneta	2527	7.5	36
3	Koneru Humpy	2595	6.5	36
	Zhao Xue	2542	6.5	34.75
	Kosintseva Tatiana	2536	6.5	32.5
6	Chiburdanidze Maia	2506	6	28.5
7	Xu Yuhua	2485	5.5	25.5
8	Shen Yang	2453	5	26
	Zhu Chen	2488	5	25.75
10	Sebag Marie	2519	4	19.5
11	Batkhuyag Munguntuul	2418	3.5	16.75
12	Yildiz Betul	2224	2	10.25

Unfortunately, top seed Koneru Humpy could not do more to win this tournament.

I am back!

2010-08-10T11:50:00.007+05:30

I am back!

Of course this is not any movie :), but just me.

Unfortunately i lost my pwd and it look so much time to get back.

Thanks for your patience.

I would like to continue this blog as ever.

Feel free to post a comment (my driving force to continue this blog).. & make a wish!!!

Out-of-country

2008-03-26T23:40:00.004+05:30

On this site, the below were always made sure:

1. None of comments had personal comments, only about chess, nothing else was posted
If I can't it make up to write a good post, I will leave a msg like this, so as
to inform you, when to come back, to my site, and
its a way for me to say "I respect your time!"
it is the time, as I have to travel abroad, I won't be able to make it to post to this blog, actually I am unsure, so posting here... However, I will guide you here!, when ever possible.

2. No partiality was shown to any player, as an Indian, my favorite is Anand, but many good players are there like Kramnik/Topalov, Carlsen, Aronian, Moro, and many others. Some are better than Anand, in certain times, or on certain conditions.

If your like my posts on this blog site, then, pls do come back to see:

1. when this blog will be fully functional ->> ya date right here ->> ( May 15th! )
2. and, do check the below post, if I get time, I may post some msgs!!, so do check it too!!

As a chess tournament guide, you can use:
http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/2008/02/chess-tournaments-live-now-future-just.html

Thanks again!!

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 9, Aronian clean sweep on Moro!!

2008-03-26T07:42:00.002+05:30

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament
-----------------------------------------
Each round has 2 games
Blindfold game (say, BG) - a normal game
Rapid game (say, RG) - a fast game, moves are to be played faster than in normal game
-----------------------------------------

Round 9

Results!!
-----------------------------------------
BG
RG
-----------------------------------------
Leko-Karjakin 1/2-1/2
Karjakin-Leko 1/2-1/2

Morozevich-Aronian 0-1
Aronian-Morozevich 1-0

Kramnik-Carlsen 1-0
Carlsen-Kramnik 1/2-1/2

Anand-Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk-Anand 1-0

Mamedyarov-Van Wely 0-1
Van Wely-Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2

Topalov-Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Gelfand-Topalov 1/2-1/2
-----------------------------------------

Moro dint have luck for his dynamic play, against the extra-precise-player Aronian!
Aronian simply crushed Moro, by attacking Moro and creating a passed pawn which saw Moro's end of the day!
Look at Aronian's Rooks, they were supporting each other well, while Moro's no, that's where Moro's Rook got stuck.
Hallarious attempt was made by Moro to confuse opponent, look at the two pawn move one-one step, it was really hallarious!
Extra-precise-player Aronian clearly stopped, and Moro will look for revenge in the rapid game! Aronian won!

Here is the game!!

In the return game, things looked ok till end game, where Moro gave up a Rook for a Bishop,
definitely this was going to be liability, it was obvious on move 59, where a long-ranged Rook on free ranks & files, looked far better than a max-8-squared Knight.
With Aronian's passed pawn (a pawn that cannot be stopped by opponent's pawn, on its way to Queen itself!) started its way to Queen, Moro resgined, Aronian won!

Here is the game!!

Overall it was Moro's bad day against Aronian!!
--

Ok, when you come very close to win! ('have been many times), then there needs an extra effort in carefulness.
However when we play and are about to win, we will be so exited as if we already won!, in reality, its reverse! our opponent who is on the verge of loss, has an extra effort in carefulness. So, opponent wins!
This, in the early stages is good, we learn from loss, but when we are at a level where everyone recognises us, there should be some level of determination for winning, should not easily give away, we shud fight, atleast, not we shudn't giveaway as explained above. In simple you lose your fans, and, hard earned name.
Looked like, the same thing happend here! Previously Carlsen beat Anand (in return match, Anand won), this time, he had an excellent chance (atleast looked like) to win on Kramnik
On move 18, Kramnik sacrificed his Bishop for just Carlsen's 2 pawns!. Ofcourse he had 2 passed pawns to feel good!
Looked like it was a mistake later, Carlsen played really like a King, what a game, that too against Kramnik!!
Until move 43 it was real pleasure to watch!, then Carlsen moved his pawn to d6, to hinder Queen's movement, on the next move he had to resign (?????????)
Let's talk about good, Carlsen played wonderfully (as per his name, the Wonder Boy!) till move 43, he made to look, as if, Kramnik will have real bad day!
On the verge of winning, Carlsen gave up the game. I guess he forgot a Knight was there with him, it was very quite, also the passed pawn shud have been attacked immediately.
Real disappointment for a fan like me, lets hope he learns from it. Kramnik will be happy with his win!

Here is the game!!

From move 19, Ivanchuk had a pretty, actually very pretty, forced-attacking-win.
Anand was passive, playing most obvious moves expected by Ivanchuk.
With a pawn up, Ivanchuk was marching to Queen a pawn, Anand knew the result, he gave up! Ivanchuk won!
(Here somehow, there are 2 things to note, one is Anand is smaller in age than Ivanchuk, and second is Anand played no attacking game agaist Ivanchuk.
Shud this be treated as respect for elders isn't clear, but looked so. Ofcourse there is a 3rd reason, this tournament doesn't gain or loose a single rank/rating on FIDE list, www.fide.com, and so we are witnessing many loses by Gaints like Anand, and they look to be don't care in trying different game styles than "being safe" with a draw)

Here is the not-so-much-interesting game!

With the Knight sacrifice it looked like van Wely was too aggressive, but van Wely was cashing on the exposed King and Queen of Mamedyarov
With the pressure of attack, Mamedyarov gave back Knight for 2 pawns. And, suddenly van Wely was up with a pawn.
With thretens on Rook, by Bishop van Wely played on Mamedyarov mind, around move 36, Mamedyarov's King looked trapped!
From move 44, excellently paired Rooks of van Wely, played the game!
On move 73, it looked like mate in 2 or 3 or max 4 (is it?). Mamedyarov knew, he gave up! van Wely won!

Here is the game!!

Link(s):
All Games: http://www.amberchess2008.com/pgnviewer2/index.html
Official Report: http://www.amberchess2008.com/2008Round09.html

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Free day!

2008-03-24T22:35:00.002+05:30

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament

March 24th is a free day!

Tournament will resume on March 25th, Tuesday!

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 8, Carlsen clean sweep again!!

2008-03-24T20:33:00.009+05:30

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament
-----------------------------------------
Each round has 2 games
Blindfold game (say, BG) - a normal game
Rapid game (say, RG) - a fast game, moves are to be played faster than in normal game
-----------------------------------------

Round 8

Results!!
-----------------------------------------
BG
RG
-----------------------------------------
Aronian-Anand 1-0
Anand-Aronian 1/2-1/2

Carlsen-Mamedyarov 1-0
Mamedyarov-Carlsen 0-1

Karjakin-Topalov 1/2-1/2
Topalov-Karjakin 1-0

Van Wely-Leko 0-1
Leko-Van Wely 1/2-1/2

Gelfand-Morozevich 1/2-1/2
Morozevich-Gelfand 1-0

Ivanchuk-Kramnik 1/2-1/2
Kramnik-Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
-----------------------------------------

Looked like, Anand was "too slow" in the game, and, by move 26, he gave up a Rook for a Knight
Definitely because he is Anand, he is allowed, though not recommended for other good chess players, exceptions are Moro & Topalov
But, all Aronian has to do is trade Queens, to get a better end game! He duely did, by attacking Anand's "very quite" Queen.
And, the lead was more evident when all the dust settled by move 50, where 2 Rooks had been gaints over the Bishop & Rook.
Though Anand had an extra pawn, Aronian has an passed pawn. Anand resigned. Aronian won!

Here is the game!!

Furious calculated (as he won!) attack by Carlsen!!
By move 21, Mamedyarov was up by 1 pawn!
Mamedyarov without an uncalculated (as he lost!) aggressive plan, sacrified a Bishop for a pawn and attacking opportunity.
Here Mamedyarov would have seen a chance to build another Queen, as Carlsen had a extra Rook for 3 pawns of Mamedyarov in which 2 are passed pawns (pawns that cannot be stopped by opponent's pawn).
Probably can we say, what Mamedyarov would have forgotten was Carlsen won on Anand itself, in just last round, it was his 1st ever win on Anand, so it is 'quite obvious' that Carlsen's confidence would be at peak!
Mamedyarov lost focus of his plan, if it was long seen, and gave chance to Carlsen, Carlsen tried to trade Queen's of the Board (Looked like, Mamedyarov shud have taken it), but got into pressure, and ran his Queen away from the Battle field
Rusult was obvious, as Carlsen gets a continuous chance to check Mamedyarov's Queen, and take away the extra pawns, also if possible Queen can be forked (?), or atleast exchanged.
With the Rook up, it will be matter of seconds for Carlsen. Mamedyarov gave up, probably also realising his aggressive plan was mistake, i.e; against Carlsen. Carlsen won!!

Here is the game!!

In the Rapid round however, Mamedyarov was cooly playing, with no aggression (was this "extra careful nature" the reason for losing, this time?)
By move 31, Carlsen was in Mamedyarov's King's territory! This shud be seen a pitiable position, as King can be continuously attacked!
With a lot of checks on Mamedyarov's King, Carlsen also got into a position where he can make Mamedyarov out of play.
When Mamedyarov was sure there wont be much to play as his Queen is ackwardly positioned, and to free it in time, he has to sacrifice material, he gave up!, Carlsen won!

Here is the game!!

Hillariously, van Wely was thinking something that is out-side chess. Not much to say, he gave his Rook for free, to pack to home!
With a Rook down, playing against van Wely is a kid's game for Rock Solid Leko, van Wely too knew it, gave the game for free, Leko took it!

Here is the game!!

Karjakin allowed Topalov invade his Kingdom, and by move 35, he duely lost a Knight as the Queen was overburdended.
After the Queen's got traded on move 46, Krajakin was with a Rook, while Topalov was with Knight & Bishop, rest equal.
Slowly, Topalov played more than 50 more moves, and made evident that 2:1 majority is real indeed.
With a passed pawn, Topalov would soon Queen it. Karjakin resigned, Topalov won! with a high fighting spirit.

Here is the game!!

Strange enough, one of the dynamic player, plays standard moves, and, the standard player plays strange moves.
Yes, the move is Castling, Moro does it as early as move 10, Gelfand puts it pending till 26th move, still doesnt do to to situation, and, in 2 more moves, the game isn't there, for Gelfand (??)

Here is the game!!

Link(s):
All Games: http://www.amberchess2008.com/pgnviewer2/index.html
Official Report: http://www.amberchess2008.com/2008Round08.html

This site has seen 1000 page impressions, in its 1st 2 months!!, from true visitors like you!!!

2008-03-23T13:29:00.010+05:30

It gives me a lot pride & pleasure, to announce, that this very new blog site had seen 1000 page impressions, from good visitors like you!!, a definite a good achievement, in its infancy, the 1st 2 months!!

I hope you are enjoying this site, as much as I do in posting!

Thanks a ton for you true visitors!!!

if you have a wish, to see, on this site, then wish here!!

http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/2008/03/make-wish.html

(The above "Make a Wish" link can be seen/ accessed on the left side of each page, under "My Favorite Links"!)

Thanks a lot again!!!

Yours,

Chess That I Am Watching Now

-->> http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 7, Aronian leads!!!, Moro wins!!, Anand & Carlsen win on each!

2008-03-23T11:18:00.003+05:30

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 6, Vishy Anand & Moro win!

2008-03-22T12:03:00.002+05:30

Make a Wish !!

2008-03-21T23:46:00.008+05:30

Feel free to "Make a wish" !!

You just need to "post a comment"

You can be completely "Anonymous" while commenting!

Click here to Make a Wish, anonymously...

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 5 & 6 games updated in the previous posts!!

2008-03-21T09:31:00.004+05:30

Round 4 & Round 5 Analysis & Games are updated!!! (below/ previous posts!!!)

To see the Analysis & Games together!!

See the earlier/previous posts...

Or

Follow the below links!!

Round 5:
http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/2008/03/17th-amber-blindfold-and-rapid-chess_21.html

Round 4:
http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/2008/03/17th-amber-blindfold-and-rapid-
chess_19.html

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 5, Vishy Anand lost & then bounced back!!!

2008-03-21T01:11:00.005+05:30

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament
-----------------------------------------
Each round has 2 games
Blindfold game (say, BG) - a normal game
Rapid game (say, RG) - a fast game, moves are to be played faster than in normal game
-----------------------------------------

Round 5

Results!!
-----------------------------------------
BG
RG
-----------------------------------------
Topalov-Kramnik 1/2-1/2
Kramnik-Topalov 1-0

Leko-Mamedyarov 1-0
Mamedyarov-Leko 1/2-1/2

Morozevich-Anand 1-0
Anand-Morozevich 1-0

Carlsen-Gelfand 1-0
Gelfand-Carlsen 1/2-1/2

Ivanchuk-Aronian 1/2-1/2
Aronian-Ivanchuk 1-0

Van Wely-Karjakin 1/2-1/2
Karjakin-Van Wely 1-0
-----------------------------------------
With a timely sacrifice of Queen, Kramnik has gained a furious attack against Topalov.
This game doesn't need explanation, Kramnik had played such wonderfully!!!!!

Here is the game!!

Leko had played solid again...!!! this time against Mamedyarov!
Mamedyarov attack dint succeed, and Leko attack furious enough to make Mamedyarov give up, Leko won!

Here is the game!!

Same old story with Anand, nothing is learnt from previous game, guess he should read this blog (can we say this?, ofcourse not, castling is imp. he knows it, only there will be a time, when we try to "experiment")
Same no castling, so immediate loss to Anand (?????)
Moro have analysed how Anand can easily give away his game, if he denies his castling!
Also, great "pinning" (nothing can move) strategy employed on Anand's uncastled (unsafe) King!
Moro easily... won!!! in just 29 moves!
(By the way, the "experiment" word used above is quoted, as this is best tournament to "experiment"
why so? Simple, this tournament is said to not gaining/losing rating points, in simple, it doesn't matter what outcome of the games are, as FIDE (www.fide.com) doesnt rate these games at all, due to its rules, so no rating points gained/lost, no ranking gained/lost, so "experiment" is perfect time! however the lesser opponents "gain" confidence)

Here is the game!!

Yes, in Rapid round however!
Anand exchanged the Queens! (which means 70% castling is not the main problem)
Moro attacked, with too many Pieces that are not backed up! and paid the price by giving full Knight.
Now, with full Knight down, playing against Anand is almost impossible, winning we can forget!
By move 35, Moro had a almost trapped Knight which doesn't have a good place to go, a Knight down, and Anand had 2 passed pawns up.
Enough problems, Moro gave up, Anand won!

Here is the game!!

Queen exchange gave a pinned Bishop to Galfand, Carlsen cashed it!
Carlsen had a passed pawn (that cant be stopped by opponent's pawn) which can easily become a Queen!!
To release pinned Bishop, Galfand has to give up a full Rook, for nothing.
Also Gelfand had his King stuck in the 8 rank
Looked like, all the problems started with giving away of B file to Carlsen's Rook!
All these, Gelfand had enough problems to resign. Carlsen won!!!

Here is the game!!

Looked like, over enthusiastic play from Ivanchuk, move 38, Queen to g3, allowing Aronian's pawn on A file.
Pretty easy win for Aronian!

Here is the game!!

At first look, it looked as if Karjakin played extraordinarily, but in actual Van Wely played very very bad (???)
After Karjakin sacrificied his Knight, looked like, Van Wely shud have been a little cool, as later
Van Wely King is denied of Castling which also trapped his Rook! and King is so openly exposed and it was more than obvious that a deadly attack would follow
Also, 20th move, pawn to a5, instead of h pawn takes g pawn, or something better could have been some active play? unsure though!
Though Van Wely was up by a Knight, he could do anything, as his peices lacked coordination (no, not at all developed, or shud we say not at all moved???), and he gave up, Karjakin won!

Here is the game!!

Link:
All Games: http://www.amberchess2008.com/pgnviewer2/index.html
Official Report: http://www.amberchess2008.com/2008Round05.html

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, Yifan Hou winner!!! Cramling Pia runner!!

2008-03-21T01:08:00.002+05:30

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, has concluded!

Yifan Hou has won the tournament, and Cramling followed.

Here are the standings after Round 9!
--------------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Country Points
--------------------------------------------
1 WGM Yifan Hou 2527 CHN 7
2 GM Cramling Pia 2524 SWE 6
3 WGM Xue Zhao 2517 CHN 5½
4 IM Atalik Ekaterina 2408 TUR 5
5 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2470 GEO 4½
6 GM Chen Zhu 2548 QAT 4
7 IM Dronavalli Harika 2455 IND 4
8 IM Krush Irina 2473 USA 3½
9 IM Ushenina Anna 2484 UKR 3
10 WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre 2207 TUR 2½
--------------------------------------------

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Rest day!

2008-03-19T20:33:00.001+05:30

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament

March 19, Wednesday, is a free day!

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 4, Vishy Anand lost (??) in Rapid round (??)

2008-03-19T18:43:00.009+05:30

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament
-----------------------------------------
Each round has 2 games
Blindfold game (say, BG) - a normal game
Rapid game (say, RG) - a fast game, moves are to be played faster than in normal game
-----------------------------------------

Round 4

Results!!
-----------------------------------------
BG
RG
-----------------------------------------
Gelfand-Van Wely 0-1
Van Wely-Gelfand 1/2-1/2

Karjakin-Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk-Karjakin 1-0

Aronian-Carlsen 1/2-1/2
Carlsen-Aronian 0-1

Kramnik-Morozevich 1-0
Morozevich-Kramnik 1/2-1/2

Anand-Leko 1/2-1/2
Leko-Anand 1-0

Mamedyarov-Topalov 0-1
Topalov-Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
-----------------------------------------
Uhhh...!!! the cunning chess player... Van Wely!!!
His cunningness, this time, has seen Gelfand loss.
Of course,
Gelfand gave up his King's safety, and had to play the price, when Van Wely sacrificed his Rook for a lesser Piece, and had a strong attack,
Gelfand gave up the game too! Slowly but surely Van Wely is gaining back for what is known!!

Here is the game!!

Ivanchuk, on his Birthday, beat the younger Krajakin!
Not sure, if Krajakin did keep his cool, after Ivanchuk gave away a well-calculated Queen sacrifice!!
This is real cool figthing spirit by Ivanchuk (he is known for his desire for a win)
Krajakin did give up his Queen, and after dust settled, by move 27, he has got Rook for Ivanchuk's Knight, but, but, but, Ivanchuk got 3 extra pawns, which is really good!
Then it came to 5 pawns for Ivanchuk, verus, no pawns for Krajakin. Krajakin could forsee the fate, gave up, Ivanchuk won with ease, and in Style, with Queen sacrifice, on his Birthday!!!

Here is the game!!

Aronian hit the right weak spot in Carlsen's territory!!, on 26th move, with Rook to a3!!
With this move, Aronian's Rook held busy Carlsen's both Bishop & Rook, for a long time!
Tough looked equal in material, Carlsen dint have counter play, he tried Rook to a3, only to see, there would be a check on the next move, and his Rook will be out of chess board!
He resigned, Aronian won!!

Here is the game!!

By move 34, obviously Kramnik is ahead by 1 pawn, and also, he had two passed pawns (pawns that cannot be stopped by opponent's pawn!)
So, the win looked obvious for Kramnik, and in the end Moro attacked like-any-thing to Queen his pawn by sacrificing both Bishop & Knight, but it was the end-game-master Kramnik at the other end. Obvious, with Material up Kramnik won!!!

Here is the game!!

This Round isn't good for Dr. Dr. Dr. Viswanathan Anand! (yes, Anand is said to have recieved his 3rd!!! Honorary Doctorate, last month!)
In the earlier post (below link), we mentioned Leko is a "solid player", this is again proved!
http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/2008/03/17th-amber-blindfold-and-rapid-chess_18.html
So, Anand lost to, long time considered the most solid player, Leko!!!
This time, Leko beat Vishy Anand!!!! (though we shud say, it was Anand's who gave it up, for free).
Just after Loko played, Anand gave up the game, as he is going to loose a piece, which he missed to see!
Actualy, this is a classic lesson on what will happen when we deny our own King's castling (safety)
Anand himself denied King castling by moving his King on move 15, let's not talk if he is right or wrong! as he is Anand!
It only that, he looked like, wanted to move his King to safety, just a step away, but there were no more moves! Leko won!!
Anand's 1st loss, that too in a Rapid game, in which he is considered to be a King!!, also he would have just overlooked for a split second, as he would always draw if something looks suspicious to him!
Anyway, with this simple loss, Anand lost his 1st place in both Rapid/Blind and combined.

Here is the game!!

Topalov invaded Mamedyarov's kingside, in a usual very attacking way,
After Topalov took a pawn with Knight, Mamedyarov dint take it
(otherwise Topalov will take the Bishop too!, and Mamedyarov will be spectator as he can't take it with pawn!)
Real cool trick, Mamedyarov missed to see, saw the game ending!

Here is the game!!

Link:
http://www.amberchess2008.com/2008Round04.html

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 3, Upsets Galore!!!

2008-03-18T21:32:00.004+05:30

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, Round 6 & 7, Cramling Pia & Yifan Hou lead!! Atalik Ekaterina follow!

2008-03-18T00:21:00.006+05:30

Ataturk Women Masters Chess

(Not surprisingly, this tournament is overlooked as another Super tournament, 17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, has started, where great guns like Anand, Moro, Topalov are playing, ofcourse it's difficult to say Kramnik is doing great, with 2 loses already ??)

Ok Round 6!

Chen Zhu (2548), after a series of losses, slowly got her confidence back, and won on Xue Zhao (2517), in the Round 6! It's a good sign, but can she reach to Top? All depends on how others perform!

Round 7

After Round 7, Cramling Pia with her huge experience & Yifan Hou with her extraordinary talent, are leading the tournament now.

Also, these are the only un-beaten players till now!

-------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Place Points
-------------------------------------
1 GM CRAMLING Pia 2524 SWE 5½
2 WGM YIFAN Hou 2527 CHN 5½
3 IM ATALIK Ekaterina 2408 TUR 5
4 WGM XUE Zhao 2517 CHN 3½
5 IM DRONAVALLI Harika 2455 IND 3½
6 IM KRUSH Irina 2473 USA 3
7 IM JAVAKHISHVILI Lela 2470 GEO 3
8 WIM YILDIZ Betul Cemre 2207 TUR 2½
9 GM CHEN Zhu 2548 QAT 2
10 IM USHENINA Anna 2484 UKR 1½
-------------------------------------

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 2, Anand Rocks!!

2008-03-17T20:28:00.010+05:30

Round 1, Amber chess, A Big Analysis report updated in the previous post!!

2008-03-16T14:44:00.004+05:30

A Big Detailed Analysis is updated on Round 1 of Amber chess in the previous/below post!!

Link:

http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/2008/03/anand-won-on-kramnik-17th-amber.html

Anand !!! won on Kramnik (??)..... Round 1, Amber Chess ( Updated with a Big analysis report! )

2008-03-15T23:26:00.021+05:30

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, has started!!!

Each round has 2 games, one Blindfold game (normal game), and, a Rapid game (a fast game)

Round 1

Hillariously, (may be obvious), I couldn't understand the genious Anand's game, who won on Kramnik, by sacrificing a pawn, then another, then a Bishop, then the Kramnik realised (?? otherwise he would have played different) he lost the game.

Now even, feels the game isn't over, and looks as if the game has equal chances, but Anand won!

To the world & Kramnik, this game resminds, yet another time on why Anand is said to be Genious! What a game!

Here is the game!!!

If you have not understood how Anand would win the above game, here is the answer:
Kramnik can't stop Anand putting a check with Rook, if Kramnik takes the Rook with Bishop, Anand would take it back with Another Rook. The game is over, sooner or a little later, this is in-evitable! That's where Anand's guniousness exists!

Aronian won his rapid game against Van Wely, while Wely was picking up pawns (????)

Looked like, Leko annoyed by Topalov's doubled rooks, and an active Bishop, sacrificed a pawn for counter play, but the Topalov's evolved extra pawn from Lekos sacrificed one, became a passed pawn that can potentionally be promoted to a Queen, with cramped position, and King stuck, Leko gave up, Topalov won!!! Considered to be Solid player, for Leko, this year isn't good to remember as he dint do well last tournament too this year!

Here is the game!!

24th move of Carlsen gave Ivanchuk an open file (A file) where Ivanchuk's Rook ruled him for sometime, then Carlsen lost a pawn, later Carlsen compromised his Kings safety, the Ivanchuk's extra was about to promote to a Queen, so Carlsen sacrified his Bishop, but in Vain, Ivanchuk won! Solid performance by Ivanchuk!

Here is the game!!!

Move 42, looked more strategic move, by Karjakin. This looks, involves a Rook sacrifice, making opponent Queen out of main play ground, continuously checking the opponent's queen, and gaining back marterial Bishop by force, also may be Rook later by pinning it to the King, some 10+ move caliculation, thats really great move. All this stated because, Gefand compromised King's safety at move 14 in chasing away Karjakin's Bishop. By constant pressure from Karjakin, Galfand's game fell apart. Karjakin won!!!

Here is the game!!!

-----------------------------------------
Results!!
-----------------------------------------
Blindfold game (say, BG) - a normal game
Rapid game (say, RG) - a fast game, moves are to be played faster than in normal game
-----------------------------------------------------
Anand-Kramnik 1/2-1/2 BG
Kramnik-Anand 0-1 RG

Mamedyarov-Morozevich 1/2-1/2 BG
Morozevich-Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2 RG

Topalov-Leko 1-0 BG
Leko-Topalov 1/2-1/2 RG

Gelfand-Karjakin 0-1 BG
Karjakin-Gelfand 1/2-1/2 RG

Carlsen-Ivanchuk 0-1 BG
Ivanchuk-Carlsen 1/2-1/2 RG

Aronian-Van Wely 1/2-1/2 BG
Van Wely-Aronian 0-1 RG
-----------------------------------------

So, Overall winners of Round 1 are:

Anand won on Kramnik,
Topalov on Leko,
Karjakin on Gelfand,
Ivanchuk on Carlsen, and
Aronian on Van Wely
-----------------------------------------
Link:

http://www.amberchess2008.com/2008Round01.html

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, Round 5, 3 wins!, Chen Zhu din't loose!!!

2008-03-15T23:23:00.002+05:30

Ataturk Women Masters Chess

Round 5

At last, Chen Zhu holds on with a draw!!!

Results!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Title Name Rating Result-Result Title Name Rating
--------------------------------------------------------------
IM Javakhishvili Lela 2470 0.5-0.5 GM Chen Zhu 2548
IM Ushenina Anna 2484 0-1 IM Atalik Ekaterina 2408
WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre 2207 1-0 IM Krush Irina 2473
GM Cramling Pia 2524 1-0 IM Dronavalli Harika 2455
WGM Yifan Hou 2527 0.5-0.5 WGM Xue Zhao 2517
--------------------------------------------------------------

Though age doesn't matter in chess, but just the intellect,
1991 born Dronavalli Harika is crushed by the experience of 1963 born Cramling Pia!

For game reply, click on "View PGN" link, after clicking on the below link:

http://awm2008.tsf.org.tr/component/option,com_turnuva/task,show/dosya,11/Itemid,11/lang,en/

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, Round 4, 1 win!, all draws(?)

2008-03-14T23:47:00.004+05:30

Ataturk Women Masters Chess

Round 4

Chen Zhu lost 4 games in a row (??) - Nightmare tournament continues for her.
This time she lost to the youngest Yifan Hou!!
She simply fell into mating net of Yifan Hou.
Looks like, now it is playing on her mind, with loss of confidence, Chen Zhu is losing all games. A 4/4 loss is a very rare scene, at this level.
Also, Chen Zhu, with 2548, is the highest rating player in this tournaments, just adds more and more pressure with each loss.
The tournament is mostly out of her hand, lets wish her confidence be back to atleast stop losing for she would loose a lot of rating points in this 1 tournament.

Here is the game!

While all remaining games are drawn,
with this round's easy win, Yifan Hou!! has move to 1st place!!!

Results!

Title Name Rating Result-Result Title Name Rating
--------------------------------------------------------------
GM Chen Zhu 2548 0-1 WGM Yifan Hou 2527
WGM Xue Zhao 2517 0.5-0.5 GM Cramling Pia 2524
IM Dronavalli Harika 2455 0.5-0.5 WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre 2207
IM Krush Irina 2473 0.5-0.5 IM Ushenina Anna 2484
IM Atalik Ekaterina 2408 0.5-0.5 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2470
--------------------------------------------------------------

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, Round 3, 3 win!

2008-03-14T23:41:00.001+05:30

Ataturk Women Masters Chess

Round 3

Chen Zhu lost 3 games in a row (??) - should be a Nightmare tournament, very bad game.
After Queen's were exchanged, it looked like Chen Zhu was better.
On move 52, instead of King to C3, Rook to B5 looked to have been better chances than the actually played.
Looked very passive in the end game, and costed her game.

Here is the game!

Harika looked like played very good moves in the middle game, won her game!!

Here is the game!!

Godo game by Xue Zhao!

Results!

Title Name Rating Result-Result Title Name Rating
--------------------------------------------------------------
IM Atalik Ekaterina 2408 1-0 GM Chen Zhu 2548
IM Javakhishvili Lela 2470 0.5-0.5 IM Krush Irina 2473
IM Ushenina Anna 2484 0-1 IM Dronavalli Harika 2455
WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre 2207 0-1 WGM Xue Zhao 2517
GM Cramling Pia 2524 0.5-0.5 WGM Yifan Hou 2527

--------------------------------------------------------------

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, Round 2, four win!!

2008-03-13T20:54:00.002+05:30

Ataturk Women Masters Chess

Round 2

Chen Zhu lost 2 games in a row (?)
This time too, she lost to a lower rated opponent Cramling Pia!!
The result could be foreseen in halfway of the game!
Looked as if, no real plan, just wandering (?)
Having lost already to Irina Krush, looks like lost confidence too.

What is Fork, in chess?
Here is a classic example!
Yifan Hou has won on a much low rated player Yildiz Betul Cemre, with a hidden fork!
(As the Black queen takes the new White Queen, the White Knight checks the black queen, forking black Queen! Game ends!!)

Here is the game!!

Now, here is the confident one.
Harika won! on higher rated opponent!!
Losing last round terribly dint hinder Harika, end game was played and won with extreme ease!
With this win, she is back in game! Lets wish!

Here are the results!

Title Name Rating Points - Points Title Name Rating
--------------------------------------------------------------
GM Chen Zhu 2548 0-1 GM Cramling Pia 2524
WGM Yifan Hou 2527 1-0 WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre 2207
WGM Xue Zhao 2517 1-0 IM Ushenina Anna 2484
IM Dronavalli Harika 2455 1-0 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2470
IM Krush Irina 2473 0.5-0.5 IM Atalik Ekaterina 2408
--------------------------------------------------------------
Again, most won on higher rated opponents!!

Reykjavik Open 2008, Wang Hao, Stefansson Hannes and Wang Yue tie for the 1st place!!!

2008-03-12T22:38:00.003+05:30

Reykjavik Open 2008

Round 9

Halkias Stelios fell into a forced mate in 4 moves, after an overlook, in the endgame, against Wang Yue!. Wang Yue duely won and became top 3!!

Standings!
------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Flags Points
------------------------------------
1. GM Wang Hao 2665 CHN 7.0
2. GM Stefansson Hannes 2564 ISL 7.0
3. GM Wang Yue 2698 CHN 7.0
4. GM Kveinys Aloyzas 2521 LTU 6.5
5. GM Caruana Fabiano 2598 ITA 6.5
6. GM Meier Georg 2580 GRE 6.5
------------------------------------
Indians
------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Points
------------------------------------
13 FM Grover Sahaj 2242 6.0
24 IM Tania Sachdev 2417 5.0
56 FM Narayanan Srinath 2210 4.0
------------------------------------

As can be seen Grover Sahaj is going great in this tournament!!

Link:
http://www.skaksamband.is/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5855&Itemid=464

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, Round 1, All results!

2008-03-12T21:04:00.002+05:30

Ataturk Women Masters Chess

Round 1

It started yesterday.
Round 1 had seen all results! No draws!

Here are the results!

Rank Title Name Rating Points - Points Title Name Rating Rank
--------------------------------------------------------------
1 IM Krush Irina 2473 1 - 0 GM Chen Zhu 2548 10
2 IM Atalik Ekaterina 2408 1 - 0 IM Dronavalli Harika 2455 9
3 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2470 1 - 0 WGM Xue Zhao 2517 8
4 IM Ushenina Anna 2484 0 - 1 WGM Yifan Hou 2527 7
5 WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre 2207 0 - 1 GM Cramling Pia 2524 6

In the 1st 3 games, lower rated players won!! on higher rated players.

All results! Good games. Some obvious poor play & blunders.

However, worth mentioning good lesson game here:

Looked like, Harika dint have a good day. It all seemed as if her plan was to get a Rook for the opponent's Bishop, by loosing all the pawns, for the end game.
Looked like, this is classic example of a wrong plan, by "over extending" pawns, 13th & 16th moves ?. This kind of plans are seen in very high rated players, but are calculated. May be she isn't ready to take on Vishy Anand! yet.
She was defeated by lower rated opponent, and this defeat Harika wont be forgetting in the near furure.

Here is the game!!

Reykjavik Open 2008, Round 8, Wang Hao & Stefansson Hannes leads!! four others follow!

2008-03-11T20:42:00.005+05:30

Reykjavik Open 2008

Round 8

Standings!
------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Flags Points
------------------------------------
1. GM Wang Hao 2665 CHN 6.5
2. GM Stefansson Hannes 2564 ISL 6.5
3. GM Caruana Fabiano 2598 ITA 6.0
4. GM Wang Yue 2698 CHN 6.0
5. GM Halkias Stelios 2580 GRE 6.0
6. GM Kveinys Aloyzas 2521 LTU 6.0
------------------------------------
Indians
------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Points
------------------------------------
21 FM Grover Sahaj 2242 5.0
26 IM Tania Sachdev 2417 4.5
56 FM Narayanan Srinath 2210 3.5
------------------------------------

Grover Sahaj won on a much higher rated opponent. Tania & Narayanan lost their games to higher rated opponents.

Link:

http://www.skaksamband.is/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5852&Itemid=460

Reykjavik Open 2008, Round 7, Wang Hao leads!! Stefansson Hannes & Wang Yue follow!

2008-03-10T20:18:00.007+05:30

Reykjavik Open 2008

Round 7

In the recent times, I haven't heard Caruana Fabiano being defeated.

Surprisingly, Wang Hao deafeated Caruana Fabiano with ease in just 27 moves!!!! Must watch attacking game!

Excellent learning given by Wang Hao, to Caruana Fabiano, on what happens if you attack by compromising your own king safety (??) without castling the King.

With this loss, Caruna is now pushed to 5.0 points, out of top 3 positions!

Standings!
------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Flags Points
------------------------------------
1 GM Wang Hao 2665 CHN 6.0
2 GM Stefansson Hannes 2564 ISL 5.5
3 GM Wang Yue 2698 CHN 20s0 5.5
------------------------------------
Indians
------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Points
------------------------------------
21 IM Tania Sachdev 2417 4.5
38 FM Grover Sahaj 2242 4.0
46 FM Narayanan Srinath 2210 3.0
------------------------------------

http://www.skaksamband.is/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5844&Itemid=457

Reykjavik Open 2008, Round 6, Fabiano, Hao, Stefansson Hannes & Yue lead!

2008-03-09T11:10:00.007+05:30

Reykjavik Open 2008

It's in progress, ofcourse overshadowed by the Linares super tournament, where, The King, Vishy Anand won it!

Ok, here are the Top "player list" for Reykjavik Open 2008!

Title Name Place Rating
------------------------------------
GM Wang Yue CHN 2698
GM Wang Hao CHN 2665
GM Mikhalevski Victor ISR 2632
GM Malakhatko Vadim BEL 2600
GM Caruana Fabiano ITA 2598
(this guy has shown really impressive performance in recent past, looks calm but isn't on the chess board!)

Indians are:
------------------------------------
IM Tania Sachdev IND 2417 (famously known as the glamour girl, but has a better chess play)
FM Grover Sahaj IND 2242 (Playing well in this tournament)
FM Narayanan Srinath IND 2210 (played very solid in the recent tournaments)

Ok so, here are the
------------------------------------
Standings after 6 rounds
------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Place Points
------------------------------------
1 GM Caruana Fabiano 2598 ITA 5.0
2 GM Wang Hao 2665 CHN 5.0
3 GM Stefansson Hannes 2564 ISL 5.0
4 GM Wang Yue 2698 CHN 5.0
------------------------------------
Indians - Playing respectably well for their ratings.
------------------------------------
Rank Title Name Rating Points
------------------------------------
23 IM Tania Sachdev 2417 3.5
45 FM Narayanan Srinath 2210 3.0
49 FM Grover Sahaj 2242 3.0
------------------------------------

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament - Anand winner!!, Carlsen runner!

2008-03-08T00:33:00.006+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Congratulations to Anand ! ! ! - Winner of Linares-Morelia 2008!

Anand won the tournament being clear 1st, with 8.5!! from 14 rounds.

Carlsen did fought hard only to settle with Radjabov, but the young lad is clear 2nd!

Round 14

Results:
Anand, Viswanathan vs. Topalov, Veselin, ½-½
Leko, Peter vs. Aronian, Levon, ½-½
Carlsen, Magnus vs. Radjabov, Teimour, ½-½
Shirov, Alexei vs. Ivanchuk, Vassily, ½-½

Standings:
1. Vishy Anand, 8.5
2. Carlsen, 8.0
3-4. Aronian & Topalov, 7.5
5. Radjabov, 7
6. Vassily Ivanchuk, 6.5
7-8. Leko & Shirov, 5.5

http://www.soloajedrez.com/ciudaddelinares/

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Round 13, Topalov & Radjabov win!, Anand maintains lead by 1/2 point!

2008-03-07T20:06:00.005+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 13

Results:
Radjabov - Shirov 1-0
Topalov - Leko 1-0
Ivanchuk - Anand ½-½
Aronian - Carlsen ½-½

Standings:
1. Vishy Anand, 8.0 (as expected settled for draw, but Carlsen too did the same, now Anand is forced to win, or to settle for a draw, only after he sees Carlsen has drawn his game, that means, playing slowly!, is this possible? but winning against Topalov is equally difficult!, what?)
2. Carlsen, 7.5
3. Aronian, 7.0
4. Topalov, 7.0
5. Radjabov, 6.5
6. Vassily Ivanchuk, 6.0
7-8. Leko & Shirov, 5.0

Links:
http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/morelia-linares-2008-round-13-radjabov-topalov-win/

http://www.chessdom.com/morelia-linares-2008/round-13-report

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, 5th March, Rest day

2008-03-06T20:33:00.004+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

5th March is rest day. Just 2 more rounds to go!

-------------------
Round 12 standings:
-------------------
1. Vishy Anand, 7.5
2. Carlsen, 7.0
3. Aronian, 6.5
4. Topalov, 6.0
5-6. Radjabov & Vassily Ivanchuk, 5.5
7-8. Leko & Shirov, 5.0
-------------------
Round 13 schedule:
-------------------
Ivanchuk, Vassily vs. Anand, Viswanathan
Radjabov, Teimour vs. Shirov, Alexei
Aronian, Levon vs. Carlsen, Magnus
Topalov, Veselin vs. Leko, Peter
-------------------
Round 14 schedule:
-------------------
Anand, Viswanathan vs. Topalov, Veselin
Leko, Peter vs. Aronian, Levon
Carlsen, Magnus vs. Radjabov, Teimour
Shirov, Alexei vs. Ivanchuk, Vassily
-------------------

Can Carlsen catch Anand?

Anand might be forced to win, but he would have to play the tough Topalov! & the more experienced Ivanchuk!
Anand might be fine with Ivanchuk, looks like it would be a draw. But Topalov is a dangerous attacking player who recently won on Kramnik (?) with his attacking preparation!

Carlsen also has 2 tough opponents next 2 rounds, Radjabov & Aronian
Very difficult to win on Radjabov, and if lost while trying to win on Aronian, Aronian may go ahead of him!

Considering if Anand gets 2 draws (if both Topalov & Ivanchuk respect Anand without fighting), Carlsen can only be a contender for him.
If Anand looses one game, then Carlsen, Aronian & Topalov would have a chance.

I guess Anand will try 2 draws first, and let Carlsen loose one game by himself.
But after 11th round, if Anand senses someone is catching up, may be he will need to win, that would be an exiting last round!

no option, but to wait and see! what?

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Round 12, Carlsen! won on Topalov!, decreases Anand's lead to half point

2008-03-05T23:40:00.000+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 12

Results:
Carlsen - Topalov 1-0
Shirov - Aronian ½-½
Anand - Leko ½-½
Ivanchuk - Radjabov ½-½

Standings:
1. Vishy Anand, 7.5
2. Carlsen, 7.0
3. Aronian, 6.5
4. Topalov, 6.0
5-6. Radjabov & Vassily Ivanchuk, 5.5
7-8. Leko & Shirov, 5.0

Links:
http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/morelia-linares-2008-round-12-carlsen-wins-after-topalov-blunders/

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Round 11, Topalov & Leko won!, Anand extends lead by full point!

2008-03-04T22:25:00.004+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 11

Results:

Radjabov - Vishy Anand, 1/2 - 1/2
(Intelligent Anand draws, increases lead to healthy 1 point, with little support from Carlsen loss)
Aronian - Vassily Ivanchuk, 1/2 - 1/2
(Ivanchuk looked dangerous on Aronian's uncastled king, but could only share a point)
Topalov - Shirov, 1-0
(short game, Topalov got a classic center!, later had put a HUGE attacking game!!!!! and won!)
Leko - Carlsen, 1-0
(After a while, Leko recovered!, looked like Carlsen utterly collapsed in the end game, Leko won!)

Standings:
1. Vishy Anand, 7.0
2-4. Carlsen, Aronian and Topalov, 6.0
5-6. Radjabov & Vassily Ivanchuk, 5.0
7-8. Shirov & Peter Leko, 4.5

Links:
http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/morelia-linares-2008-round-11-leko-topalov-win/
http://www.chessdom.com/morelia-linares-2008/round-11-report
http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/event/morlin08/morlin11.html

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Round 10 & 9, Anand maintains lead!! Carlsen just behind!!

2008-03-03T21:56:00.003+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 10

Results:
Anand - Carlsen ½-½ (as usual Anand is as cool as he would, maintains lead!)
Shirov - Leko ½-½
Radjabov - Aronian ½-½
Ivanchuk - Topalov ½-½ (looked like Ivanchuk was better up 1 pawn, but lost it?)

Standings:
1. Vishy Anand 6.5
2. Magnus Carlsen 6.0
3. Levon Aronian 5.5
4. Veselin Topalov 5.0
5-7. Teimour Radjabov, Alexei Shirov and Vassily Ivanchuk 4.5
8. Peter Leko 3.5

Links:
All in one, good interface!!
http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/morelia-linares-2008-round-10-with-comments/

Vishy Anand - Magnus Carlsen
http://live.chessdom.com/games/150/

Round 9

Results:
Anand - Aronian ½-½
Topalov - Radjabov ½-½
Carlsen - Shirov 1-0 (1 BIG error move, and no more moves! lost the game ?? - shows loss of concentration)
Leko - Ivanchuk 0-1 (looked like, Leko allowed a unnecessary long lasting pin, and later allowed a pawn to restrict the Kings movement completely, and lost ?)

Standings:
1. Vishy Anand 6.0
2. Magnus Carlsen 5.5
3. Levon Aronian 5
4. Veselin Topalov 4.5
5-7. Teimour Radjabov, Alexei Shirov and Vassily Ivanchuk 4
8. Peter Leko 3

Links:
http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/morelia-linares-2008-round-9-with-comments/

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Round 8, Anand, Carlsen & Aronian won! - Anand maintains 1 point lead!!

2008-02-29T17:37:00.002+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 8 results:
Vishwanatan Anand - Alexei Shirov 1-0 -- Solid play by Anand
Vassily Ivanchuk - Magnus Carlsen 0-1 -- A wow! game!
Teimour Radjabov - Peter Leko draw
Levon Aronian - Veselin Topalov 1-0 -- Great fighting!!

Round 8 standings:
1. Vishy Anand 5.5
2-3. Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen 4.5
4-5. Alexei Shirov and Veselin Topalov 4.0
6. Teimour Radjabov 3.5
7-8. Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk 3.0

http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/lang_nlronde-8-met-commentaarlang_nllang_enround-8-with-commentslang_en/
http://www.soloajedrez.com/ciudaddelinares/

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament - A brief pause!

2008-02-26T21:23:00.004+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

February 15-23, 2008 / The 1st half in Morelia, Mexico
(Rest days - February 18 & 21)

Players fly to Spain...

so, a brief pause here...

February 28-March 7, 2008 / The 2nd half in Linares, Spain
(Rest days - March 2 & 5)

So, the tournament action would be live again on February 28... from Spain...
-----

More on current tournaments here...

http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/2008/02/chess-tournaments-live-now-future-just.html

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Round 7, Topalov, Shirov & Carlsen won!, Anand & Ivanchuk draw!

2008-02-24T23:13:00.002+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Halfway of the tournament

Dramatic 7th round, Aronian drops to 3rd spot! and Topalov & Shirov climbs!

Anand maintains lead by 1/2 point!!

Round 7 results!
Vishy Anand - Vassily Ivanchuk, 1/2-1/2
Alexei Shirov - Teimour Radjabov, 1-0
Magnus Carlsen - Levon Aronian, 1-0
Peter Leko - Veselin Topalov, 0-1

Round 7 standings!
1. Vishy Anand - 4.5
2-3. Alexei Shirov and Veselin Topalov - 4.0
4-5. Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen - 3.5
6-7. Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk - 3.0
8. Peter Leko - 2.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2008/morelia/games/round07.htm
http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/morelia-linares-round-7-carlsen-topalov-shirov-win/

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Round 6, Radjabov won!, Anand leads!!

2008-02-23T23:10:00.002+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 6 results!

Radjabov won!, Anand leads by 1/2 point!!

Radjabov - Carlsen 1-0
Topalov - Anand ½-½
Aronian - Leko ½-½
Ivanchuk - Shirov ½-½

http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/lang_nlradjabov-wint-zijn-eerste-potlang_nllang_enradjabov-wins-his-first-gamelang_en/

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Rest day!

2008-02-22T22:49:00.001+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Today is rest day!

Action will continue from tomorrow!

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Round 5, Anand & Carlsen win!, Anand Leads!!

2008-02-21T22:15:00.002+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 5 results!

Anand & Carlsen won!

Topalov - Carlsen, 0-1
Leko - Anand, 0-1
Radjabov - Ivanchuk, ½-½
Aronian - Shirov, ½-½

Anand! leads tournament by 1/2 point ahead of Aronian

http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/morelia-linares-round-5-carlsen-anand-win-vishy-leads/

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess, Round 4, Shirov won! on Topalov, Ivanchuk blundered

2008-02-20T20:47:00.003+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 4 results!

Vishy Anand ½-½ Teimour Radjabov

Vassily Ivanchuk 0-1 Levon Aronian (Thanks to Ivanchuk, who blundered and lot a peice (??))

Alexei Shirov 1-0 Veselin Topalov

Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Peter Leko

http://72.167.41.64/morelia-linares/r4/

http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/morelia-linares-round-4-shirov-beats-topalov-ivanchuk-blunders/

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess - Rest day

2008-02-19T21:55:00.002+05:30

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess

Today is rest day.

Carlsen & Aronian played Tennis!, not chess.

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess - Round 3 results

2008-02-18T23:57:00.004+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 3 results!

Carlsen - Anand, 0 - 1
Easy win by Anand on Carlsen. Anand had no trouble at all.

Topalov - Ivanchuk, 1-0
Good end game by Topalov, this looked easy win too!

Other games were drawn.
Aronian - Radjabov, 1/2 - 1/2
Leko - Shirov, 1/2 - 1/2

http://72.167.41.64/morelia-linares/r3/

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess - Round 2 results

2008-02-17T15:11:00.006+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 2 results!

Anand - Aronian, 0 - 1

Anand looked to igonore 18th response from Aronian!!, which triggered King side attack against Anand.

Anand's 30th move was really innocent looking move and is, after Aronian played Rook in between Queen & Knight, Anand's mistake was clear.

Anand's Bishop at d8 was out of play (which was trapped for eating a poisoned pawn at move 26)
Also, the Rook at a1 was spectator ('A' file was cleared, just to give a check, shud that be executed?)
Aronian won!!!

Ivanchuk - Leko 1-0
It was wow!!! game by Leko, who trapped the Queen of Ivanchuk! at move 20!
but, Ivanchuk came out as a ultimate hero, as Leko dint have a good plan to go ahead
Ivanchuk won!

Other games were drawn.

http://72.167.41.64/morelia-linares/r2/

25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess - Round 1 results

2008-02-16T09:35:00.004+05:30

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

Round 1 results!

Shirov - Anand 0-1
Anand won!!!
Shirov (?) with no real plan to execute, went into great time trouble, and got mated by Anand!!!

Carlsen - Ivanchuk ½-½
It was no agressive game, ended in a draw. White looked like a bit in advantage.

Leko - Radjabov 1-0
Radjabov mistook Leko's "trap-pawn", and had severe beating in the game, and lost the game.
Leko won!

Topalov - Aronian 1-0
Topalov is Topalov!
Last time he lost to Aronian, but this time he took it back!
Topalov's novelty eventually pushed Aronian into time trouble (just 10 mins for 20 moves???).
Topalov won!

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

2008-02-15T00:43:00.001+05:30

February 15-23, 2008 / The 1st half in Morelia, Mexico
February 28-March 7, 2008 / The 2nd half in Linares, Spain
(Rest days - Feb 18 & 21, Mar 2 & 5)

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

- Anand, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Peter Leko, Magnus Carlsen, Aronian, Radjabov & Shirov

http://www.chessmorelialinares.com/english/

http://www.ajedrezmorelialinares.com.mx/english/

http://72.167.41.64/

Moscow Open 2008, Round 7 results

2008-02-09T20:59:00.000+05:30

Moscow Open 2008

Round 7 results

Under "Open A",

Rank Title Name Rating Country Points
1 GM Timofeev Artyom 2664 RUS 6
2 GM Popov Ivan 2595 RUS 6
3 GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2681 RUS 6

Under "Open C-ladies tournament",

Rank Title Name Rating Country Points
1 IM Muzychuk Anna 2460 SLO 6
2 WFM Bodnaruk Anastasia 2317 RUS 6
3 WFM Girya Olga 2342 RUS 6

Indian
7 IM Harika Dronavalli 2455 IND 5

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship, Round 7, Ganguly Surya Shekhar leads with 5.5 points!

2008-02-09T20:36:00.000+05:30

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship

Round 7

Below are the undefeated! still (also top 3 are leaders!)

Rank Title Name Rating Points

1 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2579 5,5
2 GM Kunte Abhijit 2550 5,0
3 GM Barua Dibyendu 2491 5,0
4 Thejkumar M S 2382 4,5
8 GM Gopal G N 2528 4,5
12 IM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi 2418 4,0

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship, Round 5, Ganguly Surya Shekhar & Bakre Tejas leading with 4!

2008-02-07T23:00:00.000+05:30

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship

Round 5

Ganguly Surya Shekhar & Bakre Tejas are leading with 4 points!

Unbeaten players till now!

1 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2579 4
2 GM Bakre Tejas 2459 4
3 Thejkumar M S 2382 3.5
5 GM Barua Dibyendu 2491 3.5
6 GM Kunte Abhijit 2550 3.5
7 GM Gopal G N 2528 3.5
12 IM Shetty Rahul 2320 3.0
15 IM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi 2418 3.0

There is a very very good game lesson here!

If you "get the feeling that you already won!", check once! -- else you may loose next move (?)

Looked like Arun Prasad S fell just a step before victory!, against Adhiban B
Sure this game will come in dreams of the looser, for the next 3-5 years to come!
Just look at this game, sacrificing all, a single pawn went all the way to become Queen but a mere mis-calculation of a simple check by opponent, will loose that pawn and game!

Moscow Open 2008, Round 4 results

2008-02-06T23:02:00.000+05:30

Moscow Open 2008

Round 4 results!

Under "Open A" main category,
GM Riazantsev Alexander leads with pefect score 4/4!
A big list follows on 3 points!

Under "Open C-ladies tournament",
A perfect 4/4 score for IM Tairova Elena and IM Ushenina Anna, leads the tournament!
Indian IM Harika Dronavalli now on 2 poinst, after winning! on Savina Anastasia.

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship, Bakre Tejas shoots into lead!

2008-02-06T21:52:00.000+05:30

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship

Round 4

Bakre Tejas crushed previous round leader Deepan Chakkravarthy J, in just 33 moves, and shoots himself into lead!

Sethuraman,S P (2424) crushed Kunte,Abhijit (2550)
Example for "No King safty, No game!"

Great!! game by Venkatesh M R (2444)
Sacrificing a Bishop, and winning a Queen!

End game power by Adhiban B!

Attacked like a Tiger! - Sharma R Preetham! (2314)
Here too an example for "No King safty, No game!"

Here are the standings!

1 GM Bakre Tejas (2459) 3.5
2 Thejkumar M S (2382) 3
3 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J (2491) 3
4 GM Gopal G N (2528) 3
5 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar (2579) 3
6 GM Kunte Abhijit (2550) 3
7 IM Venkatesh M R (2444) 3
.
.
.
13 GM Negi Parimarjan (2526) 2.5
.
.
.

Moscow Open 2008, Round 3 results

2008-02-05T23:36:00.000+05:30

Moscow Open 2008
Round 3

Below are with perfect scores!

Under Open A

GM Svetushkin Dmitry
GM Efimenko Zahar
GM Riazantsev Alexander
GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son
GM Volkov Sergey
GM Naumkin Igor 3
IM Zherebukh Yaroslav

Under Open C-ladies tournament

WGM Manakova Maria
WGM Zhukova Natalia
IM Ushenina Anna
IM Tairova Elena
WFM Severiukhina Zoja
WFM Bodnaruk Anastasia
Kuzevanova Evgenia

IM Harika Dronavalli (2455) of India, with Black, lost to WGM Manakova Maria (2331)

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship, Round 3, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J leads with perfect score!

2008-02-05T23:22:00.000+05:30

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship

Round 3

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J leads with 3/3 score!

Here are the standings of the leaders, after 3 rounds!

1 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J (2491) - 3.0
2 Thejkumar M S (2382) - 2.5
3 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar (2579) - 2.5
4 GM Bakre Tejas (2459) - 2.5

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J (2491) won! against young prodigy GM Negi Parimarjan (2526)

Great attacking game by Deepan Chakkravarthy J, with 2 Rooks on Negi's weakened position!

Ganguly & Bakre games are also entertaining!

Thejkumar's game was great, eating away all the opponent's pawns, & well defending own pawns!

Here are the entertaining games!

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship, Round 2

2008-02-04T23:54:00.000+05:30

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship

Round 2

Many result were witnessed!

All the below won their weaker opponents!

Kunte Abhijit (2550)
Negi Parimarjan (2526)
Deepan Chakkravarthy J (2491)
Thipsay Praveen M (2473)
Bakre Tejas (2459)
Adhiban B (2401)
Roktim Bandyopadhyay (2373)

Below crushed their higher rated opponents!

Satyapragyan,Swayangsu (2406) crushed Venkatesh,M R (2444)
Vishnu,Prasanna (2340) crushed Neelotpal,Das (2486)
Vidit,Santosh Gujrathi (2319) crushed Shivananda,B S (2373)

Below crushed their higher rated opponents!, with Black!!

Thejkumar,M S (2382), with Black, crushed Ashwin,Jayaram (2478)
Lalith,Babu M R (2299), with Black, crushed Prathamesh,Sunil Mokal (2371)

Below is 27 move win by Thejkumar M S!

Below is 26 move win by Lalith Babu M R!

Moscow Open 2008, Round 2 results

2008-02-04T22:59:00.000+05:30

Moscow Open 2008

Round 2

Under "Open A" category, 36 players on 2/2 result!

Under "Tournament B" category, 66 players on 2/2 result!

Under "Open C-ladies tournament" below also have 2 rounds, with 2 points results:

WGM Melia Salome (2362)
WGM Kovanova Baira (2348)
WGM Zhukova Natalia (2457)
WGM Manakova Maria (2331)
WGM Grabuzova Tatiana (2392)
WGM Mongontuul Bathuyag (2389)
WIM Vasilkova Svetlana (2359)
WIM Charochkina Daria (2383)
WFM Girya Olga (2342)
WFM Bodnaruk Anastasia (2317)
WFM Fominykh Maria (2305)
WFM Severiukhina Zoja (2199)
WFM Malgina-Sterliagova Tatiana (2374)
IM Ushenina Anna (2484)
IM Danielian Elina (2480)
IM Muzychuk Anna (2460)
IM Harika Dronavalli (2455)
IM Tairova Elena (2386)
Kuzevanova Evgenia (2167)
Borisova Elizaveta (2305)

Indian IM Harika Dronavalli won again on Kudriashova Irina!

Moscow Open 2008, Round 2

2008-02-03T23:06:00.000+05:30

Moscow Open 2008, Round 2

Under "Open A" category:

There is a game that might need a mention, as it completed in a mere number of moves!

Volkov Sergey won on Demin Vladimir, in 14 moves!!

Below was the position when Demin Vladimir resigned:

Moscow Open 2008, Round 1

2008-02-03T22:53:00.000+05:30

Moscow Open 2008 started! (February 2-10)

Round 1

Under "Open A" category:

Number one seeded GM Akopian Vladimir, with White, could not win on a much lower rated player FM Moskalenko
Number two seeded GM Inarkiev, with Black, lost to FM Okara

Under "Open C-ladies tournament" category:

Indian IM Harika Dronavalli (2455), with Black, won on WFM Gvanceladze Anna (2069)

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship, Round 1

2008-02-03T21:46:00.000+05:30

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship (13 day tournament)

In the Round 1,

Good start for the below, who won! their 1st rounds:

GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2579
GM Gopal G N 2528

GM Negi Parimarjan 2526
GM Barua Dibyendu 2491
GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 2491
IM Sriram Jha 2457
IM Venkatesh M R 2444
IM Rathnakaran K 2437
IM Sethuraman S P 2424
IM Arun Prasad S 2423
IM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi 2418
IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu 2406
IM Saptarshi Roy 2404

IM Shetty Rahul 2320

IM Shetty Rahul (2320) won on a higher rated IM Sundararajan Kidambi (2442).

Chess Tournaments! - Live now, future & just concluded!

2008-02-03T15:36:00.006+05:30

You are @
http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Updated daily!

(Check the bold letters in the middle to find the current live tournaments!)

-----------------------------------
December 17-30, 2007 / Moscow, RUSSIA

60th Russian Championship Superfinals

- Morozevich, Grischuk, Svidler and others
- Morozevich won - Grischuk 2nd

http://www.russiachess.org/online/
-----------------------------------
December 29, 2007 - January 6th 2008

50th "Torneo di Capodanno" - Reggio Emilia 2008

- Harikrishna & others
- Zoltan Almasi of Hungary won - Harikrishna, Gashimov & Ni Hua tie at 2nd best points

http://www.ippogrifoscacchi.it/50_tdc/
-----------------------------------
January 2-9, 2008

(15th Asian Team Chess Championship 2007
5th Asian Women Team Chess Championship 2007)

- Team - (Gold for China - Silver for India)
- Women Team - (Gold for China - Silver for India)

(Top 20 boards)
http://www.vizagchess.net/Live%20Games/monroi_live.htm
(Rest of the boards - deferred games)
http://www.vizagchess.net/Online%20games.html
-----------------------------------
January 4-7, 2008 / Odessa, Ukraine

The Second ACP World Rapid Cup
- Radjabov won - Grischuk 2nd

http://www.russiachess.org/online/
-----------------------------------
January 11-27, 2008 / De Moriaan Community Centre, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

The Corus Chess Tournament 2008 / Corus Wijk aan Zee 2008

Group A (Category 20 event)
- Anand, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Kramnik, Judit Polgar, Magnus Carlsen, Loek van Wely (plays dangerously, ya less than Morozovich), Peter Leko & others
Group B (Category 15 event)
- Pentala Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy, Etienne Bacrot, Ivan Cheparinov, Nigel Short, Hou Yifan, Daniel Stellwagen, Jan Smeets & others
Group C (Category 11 event)
- Parimarjan Negi (Well done young Negi! - learn more to play more), & others
Group Honorary / Corus Veterans
- Viktor Kortchnoi, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Jan Timman & Lajos Portisch

Winners

Group A
1. L. Aronian, M. Carlsen 8
3. T. Radjabov, V. Anand 7½
5. V. Ivanchuk, P. Leko 7

Group B
1. S. Movsesian 9½
2. E. Bacrot, N. Short 8½
4. P. Harikrishna 7½

Group C
1. F. Caruana 10
2. P. Negi, D. Reinderman 8
4. P. Carlsson 7½

Group Honorary
1. L. Ljubojevic 4
2. V. Kortchnoi
J. Timman 3
4. L. Portisch 2
http://www.coruschess.com/livegames.php
-----------------------------------
January 22-31, 2008

Gibtelecom Masters 2008
(in Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar)

http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/gib2008/live/index.html
-----------------------------------
February 2-10

Moscow Open 2008
(in Moscow, Russia)

600+ participants, including below indian:
Harika Dronavalli wgm 2455, in the women category

http://www.moscowchessopen.ru/eng/index.shtml
-----------------------------------
February 3-15, 2008 / Chennai, India

45th Indian National "A" Chess Championship

- GMs like Ganguly Surya Shekhar, Kunte Abhijit, Gopal G N, Negi Parimarjan, Barua Dibyendu, Deepan Chakkravarthy J, Neelotpal Das,Ramesh R B,Thipsay Praveen M,Bakre Tejas and others

http://www.tamilchess.in/ACHESS/Livegames.html

-----------------------------------
February 14-22 February 2008

AEROFLOT OPEN 2008
(in Moscow)

http://www.aeroflotchess.com/
-----------------------------------
February 15-23, 2008 / The 1st half in Morelia, Mexico
February 28-March 7, 2008 / The 2nd half in Linares, Spain
(Rest days - Feb 18 & 21, Mar 2 & 5)

The 25th Linares-Morelia 2008 chess tournament

- Anand, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Peter Leko, Magnus Carlsen, Aronian, Radjabov & Shirov

http://www.chessmorelialinares.com/english/
http://www.ajedrezmorelialinares.com.mx/english/
-----------------------------------
February 16-23, 2008

Cappelle la Grande 2008

520 players, including below indians
SANDIPAN, Chanda 2593 IND
SARAVANAN, Venkatachalam 2379 IND

http://www.cappelle-chess.com/
-----------------------------------
March 3-11, 2008

XXIII. REYKJAVIK OPEN 2008

The below players above 2600 are participating:

GM Wang Yue Kína 2698
GM Wang Hao Kína 2665
GM Vladimir Baklan Úkraína 2639
GM Victor Mikhalevski Ísrael 2632
GM Vadim Malakhatko Belgía 2600

Below are the indians:

GM Parjaman Negi Indland 2526
IM Tania Sachdev Indland 2421
Sahaj Grover Indland 2242
FM Srinath Narayanan Indland 2210

http://www.skaksamband.is/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5752&Itemid=418
-----------------------------------
March 10-20, 2008 / Istanbul, Turkey

(Ataturk Women Masters Chess)
- Harika Dronavalli (India), Zhu Chen (Qatar), Hou Yifan (China) and others

http://www.tsf.org.tr/
-----------------------------------
March 14-28, 2008

Melody Amber Tournament
Kramnik, Anand, Topalov, Morozevich, Mamedyarov, Leko, Ivanchuk, Aronian, Gelfand, Carlsen, Karjakin and Van Wely
http://www.amberchess.com/
-----------------------------------
April 25 - May 4th, 2008

XXI Open Villa de Benidorm 2008/ XXI Open Internacional Villa de Benidorm
(in Benidrom, Spain - in Hotel Deloix, Benidorm, 50km from the airport of Altet, Alicante (ALC)

http://www.chessbenidorm.com/en/
-----------------------------------
May 7-18, 2008 / Central Military Club in the Bulgarian capital Sofia

Mtel Masters 2008
- Ivanchuk, Topalov, Radjabov, Aronian, Ivan Cheparinov & Xiangzhi Bu

www.mtelmasters.com
-----------------------------------
July 19-27, 2008

2008 Politiken Cup / 30th Copenhagen Open
325 players

http://www.politikencup.dk/
-----------------------------------
September 20-26, 2008

The 2008 ICCF Congress
The 2008 International Correspondence Chess Federation Congress
(in Bulgarian city of Pleven)

http://www.iccf.com/
http://www.corrchessbg.com/
-----------------------------------
October 11–30, 2008

Anand - Kramnik (WCC Match)
Viswanathan Anand will defend his World title against Vladimir Kramnik
(in Bonn, Germany)

http://www.uep-worldchess.com/
-----------------------------------
November 12-26, 2008

Chess Olympiad 2008
(in Dresden, Germany)

http://www.dresden2008.de/front_content.php?changelang=2
-----------------------------------
November 26, 2008 - December 11, 2008
The Kamsky-Topalov match
-----------------------------------

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Hikaru Nakamura wins!

2008-02-01T21:10:00.000+05:30

Hikaru Nakamura wins! Gibtelecom 2008

It was after wining a dramatic 2-0 play-off with Bu Xiangzhi.
Play-off was played after both have tied at 8.0

Before the play-off, below are the ranking after round 10:

1 GM Bu Xiangzhi 8.0 CHN 2691
2 GM Nakamura Hikaru 8.0 USA 2670
3 GM Areshchenko Alexander 7.5 UKR 2645
4 GM Bologan Viktor 7.5 MDA 2663
5 GM Efimenko Zahar 7.5 UKR 2638
6 GM Gopal G.N. 7.5 IND 2528
7 GM Gurevich Mikhail 7.5 TUR 2607
8 GM Ni Hua 7.5 CHN 2680
9 GM Wan, Hao 7.5 CHN 2665

Also, Impressive performance by all who got 7.5, including Gopal G.N.

I guess, Bu could have played cooly, securing his king, already one down, eh might have been tensed

Anyway, here are the games! of Play-off:

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 10, Harika & Ramaswamy won!

2008-01-31T23:12:00.000+05:30

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Master category
Round 10

Harika Dronavalli won! (2455), with Black, on Tofte Sondre Waage (2108)
What looked like impressive play by her opponent, who sacrificed her Knight on Move 13 to win 3 pawns, and cashed on the Harika's weakened King's safety.
With an accurate play by Harika, it shud have been a draw, but the opponent had some not best moves, and resigned.
Here is the game!

Easy win for Ramaswamy Aarthie (2322) against Hansen Pal Andreas (2108), in 18 moves.
Looked like the opponent's pawn structure is teribble, and when the Rook lift was done by Aarthie, opponent resigned, as Aarthie would soon crash into opponent's territory.
Classic example of what happens when King is not castled.
Here is the game!

Impressive strategy by Narayanan Srinath (2210) by sacrificing! light squared bishop on Move 24, for getting some good counterplay.
In the end game, he could draw his game, with Black, on a higher rated player Goldsztejn Gildas (2380).

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 9, update 2

2008-01-31T09:56:00.000+05:30

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Master category
Round 9

Intense action in Harika Dronavalli (2455) 's game against Zuse Klaus-peter (2274)
She struggled to take opponent's pawn on B file for a long time, which eventually she let her became Queen.
Looked like, her 72th move, shud have been Bd1, instead of taking the Bishop which eased her opponent for promting pawn to Queen
But, after 76th move, both players had Queened their pawns. Then Queen & pawn for both sides!
After a lot of fight of 41 moves, Harika won!
Here is the game!

Ranking after round 9:
1 GM Bu, Xiangzhi 7.5 CHN 2691
2 GM Efimenko, Zahar 7.5 UKR 2638
3 GM Ni, Hua 7.0 CHN 2680
4 GM Nakamura, Hikaru 7.0 USA 2670
5 GM Bologan, Viktor 7.0 MDA 2663
6 GM Gopal, G.N. 7.0 IND 2528

Indians are with the below points
Sandipan, Chanda 6.0
Gopal, G.N. 6.0
Harika, Dronavalli 4.5
Narayanan, Srinath 4.5
Ramaswamy, Aarthie 4.0
Nadig, Kruttika 4.0

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 9, update

2008-01-31T00:57:00.000+05:30

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Master category
Round 9

Ramaswamy Aarthie (2322), Almond Richard J (2107)Looked like Aarthie's Knight was out of play completely.With her Move 48, her Rook got trapped in. After 2 more moves, she lost it for an Bishop.That started her downfall, the lower rated opponent played like a master!Opponent's pawn would march to become Queen! & with a most obvious check to her King. Check came! she resigned.
Here is the game!

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 9, Gopal G.N won!!

2008-01-31T00:17:00.000+05:30

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Master category
Round 9

First loss to Bu Xiangzhi in the tournament, with Black, against Efimenko Zahar!

Gopal G.N. (2528) won! on a Grand Master Socko Bartosz (2635) who did a blundered lost the game!
Move 34 looked wrongly calculated which ignored the incoming check
In the pressure, Move 37, he gave the rook (?) and resigned.
Here is the game!

Narayanan Srinath (2210) held a higher rated player Hammer Jon Ludvig (2441) to a draw!

Sandipan Chanda (2593), with black, lost to a higher rated opponent Bologan Viktor (2663)

Looked like, he miscalculated on move 32 & lost his Knight & game, in a pretty equal position.
Here is the game!

Nadig Kruttika (2208), with black, lost to a higher rated player Berczes David (2429)

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 8, Sandipan Chanda & Gopal G.N won!

2008-01-30T10:14:00.000+05:30

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, under Master category

In Round 8

Good win by Sandipan, Chanda against Wang, Yu A.

Here is the game!

Also, GM Gopal G.N won!

Ranking after round 8:

Rank Name Score Fed.
1 GM Bu, Xiangzhi 7.5 CHN
2 GM Efimenko, Zahar 6.5 UKR

There are alot tie on 6 score!

An extraordinary tournament for Bu Xiangzhi 7 wins, 1 draw & no loss!

He has 2nd highest 2691 rating in the tournament after Wang Yue whose has 2698 ELO.

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 8, Narayanan Srinath won!

2008-01-29T23:47:00.000+05:30

In round 8:

Narayanan Srinath won!

A nice game from him, he promoted his only pawn to Queen, and opponent resigned!

Harika Dronavalli, with black, was content with draw

Ramaswamy Aarthie's game looked fine until, she became busy grabbing a opponent's pawn, and found that she had no next move (?), she resigned the game.

Her opponent, Butnorius Algimantas, is higher rated than her, by 110+ ELO points.

Here is the game!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 7

2008-01-29T23:42:00.000+05:30

After the exciting Corus 2008 tournament, I am watching

Gibtelecom Masters 2008

Under the "Masters" category

After 7 rounds, here are the leaders:

1 GM Bu, Xiangzhi 6.5 CHN
2 GM Bologan, Viktor 6.0 MDA
3 GM Efimenko, Zahar 6.0 UKR

Indians are with the below points

Sandipan, Chanda 5.0
Gopal, G.N. 5.0
Harika, Dronavalli 4.0
Ramaswamy, Aarthie 4.0
Narayanan, Srinath 3.5
Nadig, Kruttika 3.5

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008 - Interesting stats!

2008-01-28T19:38:00.000+05:30

Corus Chess 2008 - Summary!

Interesting stats!

Group A

Undefeated - V. Ivanchuk
Most draws - 12 (only 1 result) - V. Ivanchuk
Most results - 7 - M. Carlsen, V. Topalov & P. Eljanov
Most wins - 5 - M. Carlsen
Most losses - 5 - P. Eljanov

Group B

Undefeated - S. Movsesian & E. Bacrot
Most draws - 9 - H. Koneru, P. Harikrishna & E. Bacrot
Most results - 11 (2 draws) - W. Spoelman
Most wins - 6 - S. Movsesian
Most losses - 8 - W. Spoelman

Group C

Undefeated - n/a
Most draws - 8 - D. Reinderman
Most results - 12 (just 1 draw!!!) - A. Ushenina
Most wins - 9 - F. Caruana

Most losses - 9 - D. Ruijgrok

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Aronian! & Carlsen!!, Corus Chess 2008 winners

2008-01-28T00:07:00.000+05:30

Great last round action.

Aronian! & Carlsen!! won the Corus chess tournament 2008!

In the last round, both winners had a hard fought draw against their opponents had a draw, and remained at 1st place!

Kramnik held Anand to a draw, so Anand's dreams to win this Corus tournament again in 2008 remained unfullfilled. With the result he had to content with 2nd place along with Rajbadov! who defeated him in the 1st round.

Here is the game!

Group A standings
1. L. Aronian, M. Carlsen 8
3. T. Radjabov, V. Anand 7½

Group B standings
1. S. Movsesian 9½
2. E. Bacrot, N. Short 8½
4. P. Harikrishna 7½

Group C standings
1. F. Caruana 10
2. P. Negi, D. Reinderman 8
(In the last round, the young Indian prodigy Negi, with Black, lost to Caruana!)

In all, Corus 2008 had been an excellent show, with a lot of great game action!!!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008, Round 13, Leko, Gelfand won!

2008-01-27T21:38:00.000+05:30

Corus Chess 2008, Round 13

With Leko & Gelfand won! on Mamedyarov & Eljanov respectively.

Here are the games!

All others, except Anand & Kramnik, have drawn.

This means, Carlsen & Aronian are joint winners already!

If the Anand wins on Kramnik, then he will join the winners! Looks he has better position & more time left on clock, so lets wish Anand to win!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008, Round 13, LIVE

2008-01-27T19:21:00.000+05:30

Corus Chess 2008, Round 13

Now LIVE at below URL (remove SPACES between):

coruschess . com / livegames . php

This is the last round!

I can't believe what I saw just now, Kramnik has burnt more than 30 minutes for his move 32.

If Anand can play faster (& accurately) now, the time pressure will crush Kramnik in the end game. Also, Kramnik's Queen has become out of play, as it is at the corner!

Quite an exciting game!

Carlsen has to catch up with Aronian, so he has to win! against Radjabov

LIVE commentary at below URL (remove SPACES between):

chessdom . com / corus-chess-2008 / carlsen-radjabov-live

In the Group C, Negi is fighting for win with the leader

if he can win!, he will be the join lead!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008, Just 1 round to go, who will win?

2008-01-27T00:22:00.000+05:30

1 Round to go!

Current A group standings:

1. L. Aronian, M. Carlsen 7½

3. T. Radjabov, V. Anand 7
5. V. Ivanchuk 6½

Only one of these can win! Who?

Anand, with white!, will play Kramnik, if Anand can force a win, that will be great! (otherwise also this will be most watched game, as Anand would wish to win the tournament yet again)

If Anand wins, also Radjabov wins, then with tie breaker score, I guess Anand cant win the tournament. So, Anand chances depends on his own win, and Carlsen & Radjabov's draw, and may Aronian should lose (is it ok if Aronian draws? then Anand & Aronian will be tie, who will win then?)

Almost same are the chances for Radjabov, a little better than Anand, if tied with Anand at 1st place.

If Aronian or Carlsen wins, no more calculations required, one of these will be winner. (I guess Carlsen wins, as he has most wins, is it?)

Ivanchuk shud pray god, as one best case, if all other four lose, then he will tie with Aronian & Carlsen, then who will be the winner? (Again Carlsen wins? as he has most wins)

BTW, i am unsure if Tiebreak will be used at all, and there can be multiple winners this time, possible?

Other groups, calculation looks simple!

Group B
1. S. Movsesian 9
2. E. Bacrot, N. Short 8

Group C
1. F. Caruana 9
2. P. Negi 8

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008, Round 12, Carlsen won! on Kramnik (?)

2008-01-27T00:04:00.000+05:30

Corus Chess 2008, Round 12

The game of the day was Carlsen's win!!!!!, with black!!!!!!!!, over Kramnik (?)

Carlsen slowly saved 2 pawns for the endgame, and one of them was a passed pawn, which could not be stopped by Kramnik pawns, this pawn gave a lot of trouble to Kramnik and in the end Kramnik resigned.

Kramnik's luck isn't good in this tournament, he already had 2 losses now, previously he lost to Topalov! In general Kramnik is much better player, I guess it was long time since he lost 2 times in one tournament, not to forget he is FIDE number 1 now, along with Anand, both of these will be playing a match of the year at the end of 2008.

Anyway, here is the game!

Polgar showed end game power

Though she had exactly same material, the opponent Adams had to move his king, as all other pawns are blocked, and hence he will loose his pawn, creating a passed pawn for Polgar, Adams resigned! His 1st loss in this tournament.

Here is the game!

Anand, with black, had to content with a only draw, against van Wely.

Knight sacrifice on move 14th costed Topalov the game, Eljanov won!

Topalov is known to be comming to form at the end of the tournament, I guess he tried to do here too! He lost, but it was brave!

Here is the game!

Negi! won again!!

What a great win by GM Negi, the young Indian prodigy, just see how he gives away all the material, to win opponent's Queen! It was a very long trap!

Here is the game!

Koneru, with Black, lost to Spoelman!! the one who had most losses in Group B

Harikrishna, with white, could only split a point, with his opponent Krasenkow!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008 - Interesting statistics ( Till Round 11 )

2008-01-26T00:31:00.000+05:30

Group A
Undefeated still - Adams & Ivanchuk
Most draws - 10 - Adams & Ivanchuk
Most wins - 4 - Carlsen & Aronian
Most losses - 4 - Gelfand, Eljanov & van Wely
Most results - (only 5 draws) - Topalov, Carlsen & van Wely

Group B
Undefeated still - Movsesian & Bacrot
Most draws - 8 - Koneru
Most wins - 5 - Movsesian & Short
Most losses - 7 - Spoelman
Most results - (only 2 draws) - Krasenkow & Spoelman

Group C
Undefeated still - N/A
Most draws - 6 - Peng, Reinderman, van der Wiel
Most wins - 7 - Caruana
Most losses - 8 - Ruijgrok (teribble nightmare tounament)

Most results - (only1 draw) - Ushenina

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008 - 2 Rounds to go, Who wins?

2008-01-25T22:32:00.000+05:30

Just 2 rounds to go, who will win?

Group A:

Aronian only needs 1 win and 1 draw to win the Corus Chess Tournament 2008 title!
In next 2 rounds, if none of Radjabov, Carlsen & Anand had a win,
then Aronian needs only a win & draw to get atleast joint 1st place

To be on the safe side, Radjabov, Carlsen & Anand had to win the last 2 rounds

For Anand, in the last round, it looks difficult to win as he has to play against Kramnik, the ultimate solid draw game player, assuming Anand wins one of the most erratic van Wely (now in the last position, along with Eljanov, who surprised Polar in 11th round, his only win!)

For Carlsen, the chances are very weak, as the has to play the most motivated Rajbadov, and the Kramnik.

For Radjabov he has to force a win against Carlsen which is that easy too, else his chances at winning on Leko, the most solid chess player, is very mere!

Lets not hope all (or most) these will loose one game, some one from the 3rd position will come to 2nd/ 1st place! Quite possbile!

Anand shud win this tournament to prove, again, he is Master! of Corus Chess! too!

Group B:

Looks most probably one of these will win:
1. S. Movsesian 8
2. E. Bacrot, N. Short 7½

4. P. Harikrishna, I. Nepomniachtchi 6½

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008, Round 11, Anand won!

2008-01-25T22:12:00.000+05:30

Anand won!

Carlsen Vs Anand played a complicated game!
Ofcourse, complicated game for us and Carlsen, not for Anand!
Anand was played like breeze.

Carlsen gave all the pawns and other material for Queening a pawn his only hope, just to find it not possible, so he resigned!

33rd move of Carlsen is critised as a move which weakened his chances of a draw

Great fight though by Carlsen!
Anand won! with Black!

So, Anand got 1 more point, and Carlsen at the same points.

What a climbing! - Recall that Anand was the bottom!, now at the 2 place!

Here is the game!

Aronian easily won on Van Wely!
Aronian gave Knight (step 26) for FREE!, can't believe Van Wely took it, as in 2 more steps, Van Wely had to pay the price giving his Queen
15 more moves were played just like that!

Aronian won! and got the Sole lead position!

Here is the game!

Gelfand was busy picking up pawns (35th move), just to find that he was force-checkmated by Rajbadov! in 3 steps (??). Guess, Gelfand shud be more attentive!

Rajbadov's had easy win!

Here is the game!

Hence,

Aronian, previously 2nd, now became 1st position!

Rajbadov, Anand & Carlsen tie at 2nd position! (half point behind the leader)

As Kramnik could only draw his game, he will be at the 3rd position only

The winner of Ivanchuk Vs Adams drew joined at 3rd position!

Also, good tactic win by Eljanov on Polgar.

Topalov could only draw on Mamedyarov, with white.

---------

In group B standings

1. S. Movsesian 8
2. E. Bacrot, N. Short 7½
4. P. Harikrishna, I. Nepomniachtchi 6½

Harikrishna won on, recently more in the news, the handshake one, I. Cheparinov

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008, 24th Jan, rest day!

2008-01-25T01:23:00.000+05:30

Corus Chess 2008

24th Jan, is rest day so Round 11 will resume tomorrow.

Wish you a great day ahead!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Good Chess Lessons 2

2008-01-24T19:16:00.000+05:30

"Attacking" or "Check"ing the opponent's king is not the goal of Chess, Checkmate is!

Corus Chess 2008, round 10

Negi won! on Ruijgrok
Here furious attack by opponent, but the kool mind young Indian prodigy Negi won! on his opponent
Watch the opponent sacrified the Queen too, in the attacking combination, like Topalov yesterday (previous posts), but it was not "completely analysed" attack, so had to pay for it!

Here is the game!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008, round 10

2008-01-24T00:36:00.000+05:30

Carlsen strikes back! winning on Van Wely - went into sole lead!
I felt 35 & 36 moves of Van Wely are somewhat suspicious.

Later there was a fatal attack by Carlsen! and Van Wely resigned.

Here is the game!

Good win by Ivanchuk, his first win in this tournament.
Also he is undeafted till now!

All others drew in A group

Negi won! on Ruijgrok
Furious attack by opponent, but the kool mind young Indian prodigy Negi won! on his opponent.

Here is the game!

Also lots of wins in other groups in this round.

Group A standings:
1. M. Carlsen 6½
2. L. Aronian 6
3. V. Kramnik, T. Radjabov, M. Adams, V. Ivanchuk, V. Anand 5½
8. S. Mamedyarov, V. Topalov, P. Leko 5
11. J. Polgar 4½
12. L. van Wely 4
13. B. Gelfand 3½

14. P. Eljanov 3

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus chess - Topalov won on Kramnik - A possible continuation

2008-01-23T18:09:00.000+05:30

Corus chess 2008, Round 9

We know Topalov won on Kramnik (given in the earlier posts).

What would have happened, if Kramik played till he got checkmated?

Here is the game!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Good Chess Lessons

2008-01-22T23:13:00.000+05:30

Good chess lessons - Corus chess 2008, Round 9

Chess Lesson 1:

Denying the King Castling of the opponent (even if by sacrificing the Material, or even if Queen) to get a very very strong attacking on Enemy King => Opponent is in severe pressure => You are winning! (even if the opponent is World Number 1!)

Mr. Topalov, The ultimate entertainer along with Anand

Here is the game!

Chess Lesson 2:

Winning material is not the ultimate goal!, Checkmate is!

The game between Grivas & Li illustrates this lesson. Li won the game.

Opponent was grabbing all the stuff, Li was creating the mating net!

Check the end game, last 10 steps.

Here is the game!

Chess Lesson 3:

Pinning the peices to King, will immobilize the development => you are losing the game!

Cheparinov pinned the opponent's Knight & pawn to King, making them not to move at all!

Opponent can't move peices, if he does, he looses the peices and the game. Opponent resigned! Cheparinov won!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus chess 2008, Round 9, Leko won on Carlsen!

2008-01-22T22:43:00.000+05:30

After the Topalov, the Ultimate entertainer along with Anand, won on Kramnik (earlier post, before this post), there are some other good games.

Utimately,
Leko (considered as the most solid chess player) defeated the young prodigy, Carlsen! (who was undefeated till now, round 9!)
In the end game, with a peice less, and opponent Queening his pawn Carlsen resigned. Leko won!

Here is the game!

Adams won! on Van Wely.

Koneru Humpy Vs Harikrishna game ended in draw.
Negi could draw with black!

Group A, standings after round 9:

1 - L. Aronian, M. Carlsen - 5½
3 - V. Kramnik, T. Radjabov, M. Adams, V. Anand - 5
7 - S. Mamedyarov, V. Ivanchuk, V. Topalov, P. Leko - 4½
11 - J. Polgar, L. van Wely - 4
13 - P. Eljanov, B. Gelfand - 3

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus chess 2008, Round 9, Topalov won(!!!) on Kramnik(?)

2008-01-22T21:39:00.001+05:30

WoW!!!

Corus chess 2008, Round 9

Topalov won!!! on Kramnik

Fearless Topalov sacrified his Knight, against the most solid draw player, Kramnik.
Looked like Kramnik has chances to win for his Knight up, if he can hold his position.
On the other side of coin, Topalov denied Kramnik's castling when he sacrified his Knight & got a better position for attacking Kramnik's king side.

Topalov's attacking was fatal. Kramnik's greediness to take Knight costed him the game.

After being defeated by Anand in the last round, great comback again by Topalov! to win on Kramnik.

With this new win, suddenly Topalov is also in the race! to the Top spot.

Here is the game!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 8 continuation - Short won!

2008-01-21T23:53:00.000+05:30

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 8 continuation

Yesterday, Game between Short & Cheparinov was completed in 1 move each. This was due to Cheparinov not giving handshake to Short for 2 times. After losing the game, Cheparinov sited earlier reasons on what Short commented.

Today, due to clear rules, the game continued on a rest-day.

At 43 step, Cheparinov gave up his Rook for Short's Bishop, just after that, after the exchange of Queens, the end game looked as Short better, as his Rook dominates Cheparinov's Knight. Otherwise equal with 2 pawns & a black-square Bishop each.

Good play by Short, removed one pawn each of the board, then forced oppnent's King to the side off the board, pinned the Bishop to King with his Rook.

After all the peices are traded each left with a pawn, Cheparinov resigned, as his King can be driven away, and Short can win by Queening his pawn after taking off opponent's pawn!

Here is the game:

(Good to notice that, according to Short, both shook hands before & after this game!)

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess round 8 - Anand Vs Topalov - Possible continuation of game

2008-01-21T09:09:00.000+05:30

Corus chess tournament 2008, in Round 8, As we know Anand won on Topalov

(Game is given, in the "earlier post", you may see it below this post).

We are not Anand/Topalov, so what would have happened if it was continued?

Here is a possible continuation (along with full game):

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess round 8 - Anand! won on Topalov

2008-01-21T00:19:00.000+05:30

Anand! won on Topalov. As expected Anand is climbing up, with successive wins.

In the last game, Anand won against Judit Polgar.

With the new win, Anand is just 1 point behind the leader of Group A Carlsen, and 1/2 point behind Kramnik & Aronian.

Here is the Anand's game!

Other Group A games ended in draws (?)

Harikrishna could only settle for draw with White against L'Ami, although a pawn ahead.

Koneru Humpy had a long fight with Black against Bacrot.
This is really cool game, Bacrot wants to win on Koneru Humpy, and both were moving only kings, away and near, repeatatively.
According to a chess software, I think, this was a rule about the distance between both Kings, i.e; the number of squares, to make a draw.
Also here the problem is Black King can't go too far, or the white may sacrifice a pawn and win.
Very long game with 123 moves, and Koneru Humpy with Black peices could draw!

Here is the game!

Negi! won on Peng, impressive progress by Negi, steadily climbing to the top.

Here is the game!

Leader of C group, Caruana got a nice win against Braun & maintains the lead in round 8 too!
After good Queen exchange, that was really a good placement of Rook by Caruana, in the endgame, which won a peice and game!

Here is the game!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 7 - Anand, Koneru Humpy, Negi & Aronian won!; Harikrishna draw!

2008-01-19T23:39:00.000+05:30

Corus Chess 2008 Tournament - Round 7

Anand!! won! on Judit Polgar
After 30 moves, Polgar had an ambitious attacking game against Anand, she gave up her Queen for 2 Rooks of Anand.
And, after 20 more moves, the board was all clear! Polgar can't stop Anand's pawns queening, and her Rook & Knight became spectators
However, great attacking loss to Polgar, and definitely great win to The Mr. Kool! Anand!

This is the 1st win for Anand!!! (after 1 loss then 5 draws).
Yes, it is right time to start correct things, as half tounament is already over (Round 7 of total 13), and Anand is 1&1/2 points behind the leader.

Here is the great attacking game!

Aronian! won on Radjabov, this was excellent game!
In the end game, Radjabov gave up the Knight to Queen a pawn which can "never" become a Queen. Why? Due to threat on King!, the mate in one after exchanging of Rooks.
Could be time trouble, for this kind of overlooking by Radjabov, as he had a great tournament till now!

Here is the great game!

Kramnik & Ivanchuk, Topalov & Carlsen, Gelfand & Leko, Eljanov & Van Wely, Adams & Mamedyarov all draw.

Koneru Humpy won! on Krasenkow.
Got a better endgame in her favour with 2 Bishops versus opponent's 2 Knights, besides 6 pawns eachside.
Ofcourse, opponent had a passed pawn on d file.
But, it was excellent play by Koneru, got a win!

Here is the game!

Negi, with white, crushed Krush. After Negi took his Queen all the way into Krush's king & Krush resigned.
Negi is now just 1 point behind the leader!

Here is the game!

Harikrishna gave up a Rook for the opponent's Knight, to get a Kind side attack!
The endgame got 2 pawns more for Hari, besides his lesser Bishop to opponent's Rook
Then, it came to 2 pawns for Hari, besides his lesser Bishop to opponent's Rook
It was quite interesting.
Then, it came to totally, Rook & Bishop of Harikrishna Vs Rook of opponent
Harikrishna could only draw with Black!, and is 1 behind the leaders

Group A
Carlsen 5
Kramnik & Aronian 4½
Anand 3½

Group B
Movsesian & Bacrot 5
Harikrishna, Stellwagen, Smeets & Short 4
Koneru Humpy 3

Group C
Caruana & Braun 5
Nijboer, Reinderman, Grivas 4 1/2
Negi 4

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 6 - Calrsen!!, Topalov & Kramnik won!; Anand & koneru draw!; Negi & Harikrishna(?) lost

2008-01-19T01:13:00.000+05:30

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 6

Calrsen, child prodigy, won his game on Judit, the strongest female player ever!
Calrsen is up with 2 pawns in the endgame with Polgar, with a Bishop & Horse!
Excellent tactics by Calrsen!

Here is the game

Kramnik won! on Aronian
Topalov! won on Leko, with Black!
Great end game by both!

Anand's & Ivanchuk had a quick draw (25 moves).
So are Radjabov & Adams (18 moves).
And, so are Van Wely & Gelfand (shortest game with 16 moves).

Harikrishna (with White) & Negi went down to their opponents

Humpy Koneru held Cheparinov to draw with Black peices!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 5 - Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Topalov, Negi, Bacrot win and Anand, Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy draw

2008-01-18T00:09:00.000+05:30

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 5

Radjabov gave a shocking defeat to Eljanov, almost, came to a position with mate in 1!!!!, against Eljanov, in the end game. To hold on for some more moves, Eljanov has to give his Queen for Radjabov’s Knight. That was indeed great play by Radjabov!

(There are too good games of Radjabov in this tournament, including defeating of Anand, in the very 1st round, and a long draw with Van Wely that made the retired Kasparov to talk about chess gain!)

Here is the game:

Even a bigger shocking defeat to Smeets, in the game with Bacrot. Here is he got a “complete checkmate!”, i.e; King is checked and there is no move!, I think, this is very rare in the highlevel chess, here it looked like Smeets is planning a good for the next move, but for him there is no next move!

Bacrot won!, and now leading the B group! ½ point ahead of Harikrishna

Here is the game:

Mamedyarov pawn went all the way to Van Wely's home to become a Queen, so Van gave up a Rook to stop it!
Then Van tried to make his own additional Queen, and overlooked a check which will also lose the would-be-Queen pawn! With a Rook less and mate near, Van gave up to Mamedyarov

Here is the game:

The Mr. Dynamic, Topalov got a full point due to Gelfand slight casual play!

Gelfand took a pawn, and got into trouble, and gave away Queen & game too.

(This is really cool! to watch, a pawn challenges to eat the Queen, and it has no safe square to move, Gelfand played very good tournament in World chess championship, where Anand won!, but in this tournament, he is without luck with many losses)

Here is the game:

Aronian-Anand and Adams-Kramnik shared a single point!

Harikrishna managed a draw with Black on Movsesian!

Less in material (2 Bishops against opponent’s Rook & Knight), but has 2 healthy passed pawns on A and B file, but Koneru Humpy could not convert it to a win with White, on Sargissian, and spilt a single point

Negi played cool today with Ushenina, got to a position where moving the pawn will threaten the Rook. By moving Rook away and with a good play, the opponent will be left with only a Knight against the Two Bishops and a Rook for the Negi, as though this isn’t enough, on B file Negi also has a passed pawn (which can not be stopped by opponent's pawns!). The Game was clearly over! Negi won!

Here is the game:

After Round 5
Group A - Radjabov joined Aronian & Carlsen as 1st (Anand last 2nd)
Group B - Bacrot 1st - Harikrishna 2nd (Koneru last 2nd)

Group C - Braun 1st - Caruana 2nd (Negi 4th)

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

Corus Chess - Round 5 Pairings - Tomorrow

2008-01-16T19:54:00.000+05:30

Corus chess tournament

Round 5 pairings which is Tomorrow, on Thursday 17th

Group A
S. Mamedyarov - L. van Wely
P. Eljanov - T. Radjabov
M. Adams - V. Kramnik
L. Aronian - V. Anand
V. Ivanchuk - M. Carlsen
J. Polgar - P. Leko
V. Topalov - B. Gelfand

Group B
D. Stellwagen - N. Short
W. Spoelman - Y. Hou
S. Movsesian - P. Harikrishna
J. Smeets - E. Bacrot
I. Nepomniachtchi - M. Krasenkow
E. L’Ami - I. Cheparinov
H. Koneru - G. Sargissian

Group C
F. Nijboer - I. Krush
P. Negi - A. Ushenina
Z. Peng - S. Li
M. van der Werf - J. van der Wiel
D. Ruijgrok - A. Braun
D. Reinderman - P. Carlsson
E. Grivas - F. Caruana

Results after 4 rounds:

Group A
L. Aronian & M. Carlsen, are leading with 3 points
Anand is at 1 & 1/2

Group B
P. Harikrishna, J. Smeets & E. Bacrot, are leading with 3 points
H. Koneru is at 1

Group C
A. Braun is leading with perfect score of 4 points

P. Negi is at 2

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

CCT - Round 4 - Polgar, Van Wely, Kramik, Harikrishna (now leader in B group!) & Negi win! Anand & Koneru draw!

2008-01-15T23:50:00.001+05:30

Round 4 - Corus Chess Tournament

Excellent game by Adams! with Black peices, held Anand to a draw

Harikrishna now became a leader in Group B, after also winning on Spoelman (who had all losses to date!)
Here is the game!

Koneru Humpy could hold on! with Black, drawn the game with Short!

Negi won! on Li
He capitalised 2 mistakes of the Opponent Li, in the end game, and won all the pawns
Li's 1st mistake looked like was placing the Knight before his Rook, that closed its own rook's file, and that also it pinned itself!, by Negi's next move!
Later Li, due to pin pressure, gave away Rook and accepted Negi's sacrifice of Knight and Pawn for
Thats all the end the story of Li. Negi won!
Here is the game!
Negi winning on the ferocious fighter Li!

Polgar's great win! on Gelfand.
Gelfand, to win a Polgar's peice!, compromised his King's safety, which costed him the game!
Here is the game!

Van Wely & Kramik won too!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

CCT - Round 3 - Great fight by Radjabov! Koneru loses again

2008-01-15T01:07:00.000+05:30

Round 3 - Corus Chess Tournament

What a fight for saving the game, draw in 93! moves, by Radjabov! on Van Wely

I felt Van Wely could have taken the Radjabov's king just one more step away before sacrificing his Rook for the opponent's Bishop & Pawn, to promote his pawn to Queen!. Looked like he lost patience, at the end, just when he is a step away from Victory!

Here is the game!

Anand drew. Hard fought draw by Harikrishna, with Black. Humpy loses again.

In Group A, Anand is at the bottom? Difficult to believe. Lets wish he will come back!

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

CCT - Round 2 - Great games!

2008-01-14T19:05:00.000+05:30

2nd round of the Corus Chess Tournament

Excellent draw by Radjabov with Black, on Kramnik! - 79!! moves

Here is the game!

Great work from Carlsen & Aronian! - 2 wins in 2 rounds - 2/2 score!

Anand & Koneru Humpy only got a draw with white peices. Hari won!! (Good job!)

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/

CCT - Round 1 - Sensational win by Radjabov, on Anand!

2008-01-13T16:34:00.000+05:30

1st Round of the Corus Chess Tournament
Anand lost to Radjabov

Here Anand played with Black
Anand in the 1st half wanted to surprise (as mentioned in the Chess Championship in 2007 where he did surprise many and won!) the opponent with the bold attack with just 2 pawns and Queen!, Radjabov was cool enough at that movement, exchanged Queens and gained those 2 pawns too! & equalized Anand's attack (Anand could not surprise, so looked like a considerable mistake, the attack should have been when there was enough developement of other peices too). In the end game the Radjabov was up due to Anand had a Bishop against Radjabov’s Rook, as Radjabov did an excellent exchange of his Bishop!! to a Anand's Rook. Then, Radjabov slowly entered Anand’s king territory and Anand left his own! (Looked like there was a problem here too!, or is he forced to leave?, atleast Anand shud have tried for a draw here with his vast experience). End was enviable when Radjabov triple attacked with his King! & both Rooks on the weak pawn, & Anand gave up!. Radjabov is said to be highly motivated. A well known website said Radjabov may do only chess in the home too!? (For a young boy, that is what is required in the youth, indeed!)
Let’s wish Anand to come back, in grand style, & win the tournament.

Here is the game!

In the other games, Koneru Humpy also lost with black pieces. Hari made a draw.

You are @ http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/