Chess - Blog
Posted in ChessBase on Ноя 5, 2009
05.11.2009
– Organisers don't like the 'all games drawn' headline. But in round one of the
very strong Tal Memorial all were more or less hard fought. Carlsen, Anand and
Leko had at some [...]
Posted in ChessBase on Ноя 5, 2009
05.11.2009
– Shabtai Kalmanovich, a former Israeli double agent who penetrated Golda Meir's government on behalf of the KGB, has been shot dead in Moscow. An unidentified gunman fired at least 20 shots into his chauffeur-driven Mercedes Benz. Why do we report this? Because Kalmanovich was a patron of women's basketball and chess. News reports.
Shabtai Kalmanovich was born in Soviet Lithuania in 1949, emigrated to Israel
in 1971 and in 1988 was sentenced to seven years in jail for spying for the
KGB. He had been active in the Israeli Labor Party, had worked in the government's
press office and as a parliamentary aid in the Knesset. According to his indictment,
Kalmanovich had handed over information to the Soviets over a period of 17 years.
He was released after five years due to medical problems. Following his release,
he made his way to Sierra Leone, where he made a fortune in the diamond trade
and worked as a representative for Israel.
After his return to Russia, he promoted concerts for stars such as Michael
Jackson, Jose Carreras and Liza Minnelli. Since 1994, Kalmanovich was director
general of the large Tishinsky shopping center in Moscow. Kalmanovich was a
passionate antique art collector.[citation needed] He also sponsored three basketball
clubs, and became general manager of the Russian women's basketball team in
2008.
Unidentified assailants armed with a 9 mm automatic and a pump-action shotgun
opened fire on Kalmanovich, 59, the owner of the Russian women's basketball
club Spartak-Vidnoye, as he sat in his black Mercedes S500 on Moscow's Krasnopresnenskaya
Embankment on Monday. He died instantly. His driver, who initially tried to
give chase, was forced to pull over outside the capital's 16th century Novodevichy
Convent due to serious injuries. Investigators have said the attack bears all
the hallmarks of a contract killing. They have also not ruled out that the murder
was linked to Kalmanovich's business activities.
Kalmanovich, who later became a prominent businessman and allegedly had links
with the Russian mafia,... was a figure with a colourful if chequered past.
He and his Jewish family immigrated to Israel from Lithuania in 1971. After
becoming an Israeli citizen, he joined the Israeli Labour Party, was appointed
to a position in the government press office and became a mole for the KGB.
He later moved to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, as an aide, and successfully
forged close relations with several leading government figures, including the
former prime minister Golda Meir. According to the CIA, Kalmanovich was responsible
for passing on to Moscow sensitive American intelligence that Israel had acquired
from Jonathan Pollard, an American national now serving life in prison for spying
for Israel.
Kalmanovich fled to Africa in the 1980s, becoming the proprietor of the only
bus operating in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone – while continuing
to spy for the KGB. He was later extradited to Israel, where he served five
years in prison before being handed back to the Russians in 1993 as part of
an intelligence deal.
In Russia, Kalmanovich reinvented himself as an entrepreneur and man-about-town.
Quickly making a multi-million pound fortune, he brought Michael Jackson and
Liza Minelli to Moscow to stage massively popular concerts. He also became a
patron of women's basketball and took over Spartak Moscow, one of the game's
most successful teams. Spartak's female players were housed in a lavish lakeside
villa outside Moscow that seemed more Playboy Mansion than training camp.
Russian police said there could be a link between the murder and Kalmanovich's
ownership of the Spartak basketball club – which could suggest that the
killing was mafia related.
10.04.2009 – The chess section of the women's basketball club which Kalmanovich
sponsored, Spartak Moscow, won the Russian Women's League in April this year.
The team had been been coasting, but suffered a big setback by losing in the
final round. Their main rival AVS drew their match, leaving both teams tied
for first. But Spartak had 18 board points to AVS's 17 and so took gold. IM
Tatiana Kosintseva scored 6.0/7 on board two with an incredible 2750 performance.
Posted in ChessBase on Ноя 5, 2009
05.11.2009
– This event, which ended on Tuesday, brought us lively games and a dramatic finish. But being staged in a remote place at the other end of the world there was a dearth of pictorial material. Which was a shame, since the venue, the southern end of South America, is scenically beautiful. Well, thank heavens for Åse Østebø, captain of the Norwegian squad. She has sent us this spectacular report.
I travelled to Argentina as the head of the Norwegian delegation. It was not
a very large one: just me, my son Lasse, who played in the event and Katrine
Tjølsen, took part in the girl's championship. Lasse and I travelled
from Stavanger on the south-western coast of Norway to Puerto Madryn, leaving
on a Tuesday morning (October 20th) at 11 am local time, via Oslo, Paris and
Buenos Aires, arriving in Puerto Madryn on Wednesday night around 10 p.m. (which
would be 3 a.m. Thursday morning Oct. 22nd in Norway). So it took a while to
get there!
Rain in Buenos Aires: on the bus from the city centre to Jorge Newbery airport
Exhibit at Jorge Newbery airport for domestic flights
A view of Buenos Aires from the airport, just before taking the flight to
Trelev
Arrival at the bustling Trelew Airport
Use + or to zoom in or out, left mouse key to pan, or view
larger map
A view from the hotel room just after arrival
The same view the next morning
Our hotel Rayentray, directly at the beach
There was always a very sharp wind whistling outside our living quarters
This is the way cars get sandblasted along the sea shore
The playing venue – in the basement of the hotel
The start of a round of the Junior World Championship 2009
The girls' section, with one of the ultimate winners: Betül Yildiz of Turkey
Another winner: Sergei Zhigalko, who shared first in the boys' section
WIM Rout Padmini, 2331, finished eighth, one of three Indian girls in the top
ten
An important game: French GM Vachier defeated Britain's David Howell in round
nine
In round eleven Zhigalko took a 21-move draw. Vachier, watching in the background,
won his game against Lenderman in 89 moves and caught the leading Zhigalko.
The hotel lobby was used frequently to get onto the Internet – when it
worked
Katrine Tjølsen, Norwegian participant in the girls' championship,
at work with the computer
Katrine's mother Charlotte, who works in Brazil and was in Puerto Madryn for
a few days
A top encounter in round six: the third and first seed drew their game in 13
moves
Dinner time, and David Howell's coach Nigel Short (in the white shirt) joins
the
South Africans on the left and the Norwegians squad on the right
A meal with the famour Argentine beef – at 7 Euros ($10) reasonable
and good
We saw him a number of times: a dog that travelled on the roof of his owner's
car
Underground? No, electricity is transported the old-fashioned way
has become
popular all over the globe
This is helped by the permanent stiff breeze at the beach
Penguins on the beach remind you which hemisphere you are on
The sign shows us the area with the largest breeding colony of penguines in
the world
This big guy is an elephant seal, one of a large colony
A late inhabitant of the beach
Before five-star hotels: the earliest inhabitants of Puerto Madryn lived
in these caves
Our farewell photo: one of the incredible sunsets we had every evening
Our photographer Åse Østebø
I must say it has been an experience being in Patagonia and Puerto Madryn!
Everything takes a bit longer in Argentina – no one seems to be in a hurry.
For example we were told at the hotel reception that lunch everyday should be
from 12 noon to 3 p.m., but it was never ready before 12:30 at the earliest
and usually only around 1 p.m. The reception area was always full of hungry
young chess players waiting to get a meal. Thankfully no-one lost a game by
showing up late, because they were all given 15 minutes extra to show up. And
when we got to the closing ceremony, which was scheduled for 5 p.m. we were
told to come back an hour later.
Åse Østebø is a high-school teacher of Mathematics and
Chemistry at the International Baccalaureate department at a high school in
Stavanger. She is the mother of the Norwegian player Lasse Østebø
Løvik. As we go to print Åse and Lasse are on their 40-hour journey
back to Stavanger.
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World Junior Chess Championships 2009 in Patagonia |
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Zhigalko leads World Junior in Patagonia |
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Vachier-Lagrave, Zhigalko win World Junior |
Links
To read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the |
Posted in ChessBase on Ноя 5, 2009
05.11.2009
– The annual Tal Memorial starts on Thursday, November 5th and ends on November
14th. At category 21 (average Elo 2764) it is one of the strongest of all time
and includes Anand, [...]
Posted in ChessBase on Ноя 5, 2009
05.11.2009
– The European Team Championship in Novi Sad witnessed an exciting final
round in which the decision as to who would win the gold medal came as the
result of a rook ending. Vugar Gashimov, White, absolutely [...]
