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30.10.2009
– Puerto Madryn is a city on the east coast of southern Argentina, in a geographical region known as Patagonia. In this remote place, where right whales and dolphins congregate, 84 of the most talented [...]

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24.10.2009
– GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia won it, but more relevantly this GM Open was staged in a luxurious five star hotel, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, with accommodation to the GMs provided in the hotel itself. And there was the free day pleasure trip to Kandy, a world famous tourist spot, where the players got to meet the Indian Ocean and a bevy of friendly elephants.

Ravana Challenge International, Colombo, Sri Lanka

By R. Anantharam – Chief Arbiter

It is rare that a GM open tournament is organized in a luxurious five star
hotel with accommodation to the GMs in the hotel itself. The Ravana Open in
Sri Lanka, with a prize fund of USD 20,000, is such a rarity. The tournament,
comprising twelve GMs and players from fifteen countries, was organized by the
Blue and Gold Chess Club from 12 to 19 September in the Ceylon Continental Hotel,
the first ever five star hotel in Sri Lanka. After the long war over many years
Sri Lanka is slowly on the rise, and chess is becoming popular here among the
die hard fans of cricket.

A view from a five-star hotel room

GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia was the top seed, followed by GM Alexander
Shabalov of USA. After defeating Shabalov, Elshan Moradiabadi, the grandmaster
from Iran, led with four points in as many rounds. In the sixth round, Mikheil
posted a win over Petr Kostenko of Kazakhsatan, Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium
defeated Krasimir Rusev of Bulgaria and Vladimir Georgiev of Macedonia overwhelmed
Tigran Kotanjian of Armenia to join Elshan at the top.

The playing hall, with Krasimir Rusev of Bulgaria battling it out with Sunil
Weeramantry,
step-father of the US champion Hikaru Nakamura

All the winners lien up for a group photo

The leaders drew among themselves, enabling Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan who
finished third in the famous Kolkata Open, his compatriot Anuar Ismagambetov
and Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia to catch them. In the eighth round Georgiev
emerged sole leader, defeating the Indian IM Dinesh Sharma. Mchedlishvili joined
him in the lead after the penultimate round, with a win over Vadim Malakhatko.
The summit clash between the two top seeds, Medlishvili and Shabalov, ended
in a fighting draw and a similar result between Georgiev and Merab Gagunashvili
of Georgia resulted in a tie between Mchedlishvili and Georgiev for the top
slot. The better tiebreak favored Mchedlishvili, who won the title and a cash
prize of 20,000 US dollars.

The winner of the tournament Mikheil Mchedlishvili

It is rare that a GM open tournament is organized in a luxurious five star
hotel with accommodation to the GMs in the hotel itself                                                                                

Final Ranking after ten rounds

Rk.	Title	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	GEO	2613	7.5	65.5	60.5	55.0
2	GM	Georgiev Vladimir	MKD	2537	7.5	60.0	56.0	51.5
3	GM	Shabalov Alexander	USA	2607	7.0	66.0	61.0	55.0
4	GM	Moradiabadi Elshan	IRI	2547	7.0	65.0	60.0	55.0
5	GM	Filippov Anton	UZB	2595	7.0	64.0	59.5	53.5
6	GM	Gagunashvili Merab	GEO	2564	7.0	64.0	59.0	53.5
7	GM	Malakhatko Vadim	BEL	2569	7.0	63.0	58.0	52.5
8	GM	Murshed Niaz	BAN	2398	7.0	60.0	55.0	50.0
9	GM	Ismagambetov Anuar	KAZ	2528	6.5	65.0	60.5	55.5
10	GM	Kotanjian Tigran	ARM	2553	6.5	61.0	56.5	51.0
11	GM	Kostenko Petr	KAZ	2491	6.5	60.5	56.0	51.0
12	IM	Toufighi Homayoon	IRI	2480	6.5	58.5	54.5	49.5
13	GM	Rusev Krasimir	BUL	2549	6.5	58.5	54.0	49.0
14	IM	Saptarshi Roy	IND	2389	6.5	55.5	51.5	47.0
15	FM	Maheswaran P	IND	2347	6.5	54.0	50.0	46.0
16	IM	Sharma Dinesh K	IND	2335	6.5	53.5	50.0	46.0
17	FM	Das Sayantan	IND	2235	6.0	59.5	55.0	50.0
18	IM	Zozulia Anna	BEL	2338	6.0	58.5	54.5	50.0
19	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	IND	2297	6.0	58.0	54.0	49.5
20		Hapuarachchi H L M	SRI	1998	6.0	46.5	45.0	41.5
21		Fonseka C K D	SRI	1981	6.0	45.5	45.0	41.5

Picture Gallery

The legend says that Ravana was the king of Sri Lanka. According to some sources
(Forbes, History of Chess, 1860) the game was invented between four or five
thousand years ago, by the wife of King Ravana of Ceylon, when the capital was
besieged by Rama. The legends of Rama and Ravana is well known in India and
Sri Lanka and Ramas victory over Ravana is still celebrated in India.

Sri Lanka is a small tropical island at the bottom of India and is also known
as the pearl of the Indian Ocean due to the shape of the country. Sri Lanka
is known for its excellent beaches and quality tea and apparel. The tournament
in Ravana was a memorable one for most of the GMs, as they had a pleasure trip
to Kandy, a world famous tourist spot.

On the beach: IM Saptarshi Roy, IND, with GM Alex Shablov, USA

Hunks: GMs Merab Gagunashvili, GEO, and Vladimir Georgiev, MKD, after a swim

in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean

Free as a bird: GMs Tigran Kotanjian, ARM, and Vladimir Georgiev, MKD, enjoy
the breeze

GM Shablov with super-talent Under-12 World Champion Das Sayantan, IND

A Sri Lankan village which, Shablov said, reminded him of Latvia

GMs Vladimir Georgiev, MKD, and Rusev Krasimir, BUL, possibly seeking help from
a Hindu god

GM Malakhatco Vadim, BEL, IM Anna Zozulia, BEL, GM Alex Shabalov, USA, GM
Petr Kostenko, KAZ, GM Filippov Anton, UZB, GM Ismagambetov Anuar, KAZ, ready
to meet the elephants

Elephants taking a bath in the river

GMs Alex Shabolov, USA, and Peter Kostenko, KAZ, enjoying an elephant ride

Anna Zozulia on an elephant ride

Some players are satisfied with just befriending the elephants

GM Anuar Ismagamvetov, KAZ, getting a herbal massage

British Heitage: an old canon facing the sea near the hotel

R. Anantharam, Chief Arbiter

R. Anantharam is a retired professor of chemistry. He is a member of
Swiss pairings Programs Commission, FIDE, and has served as chief arbiter
in

• the World Schools Championship Singapore 2008
• the Asian Individual championship 2005
• the Asian Junior 2007,2008 and 2009
• the Asian Youth 2009 and deputy chief arbiter in World Youth Vietnam
  2008
• and as Technical Official – World Mind Sports, Beijing 2008

Links Official tournament site All available games in PGN (top 20 games) To read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light. This program also gives you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.

Chessbase.com

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18.09.2009
– We promised you one more report from this Chinese tournament, with the lovely
photos of Ye Rongguang, who
apart from being China's first GM, is an avid photographer. On the free day
[...]

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01.09.2009 – This is new: FIDE will now be publishing a rating list every two months, i.e. six times a year (instead of previously four, and before that twice). The two top GMs on the latest list, Topalov and Anand, have remained in place, neither having played any rated games since the previous list. Levon Aronian is now third, a point ahead of Carlsen and Kramnik. Top rankings and statistics.

Andrew Martin: The Scandinavian - The easy way 2nd edition It’s easy-to-learn and easy-to-play. Here is an opening for Black which will furnish good results in the shortest possible time. Which other opening could we be referring to apart from the Scandinavian or Centre-Counter Defence; 1 e4 d5 ! International Master Andrew Martin has written extensively on the Centre-Counter and here he turns his attention to 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3 Qd6!? Playing flat out for the win against 1 e4 is never easy, but here we encounter a variation where Black can do just that! All relevant second and third move alternatives for White are covered too! More information...

FIDE September 2009 Rating List

GM Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria holds the top slot, World Champion
Viswanathan Anand is in place two. Neither has played any rated
games since the July list was published. Armenian GM Levon Aronian
has advanced to place three in the world, one point ahead of Norwegian wonder-GM
Magnus Carlsen and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik,
who has retaken the rank of top Russian GM from Dmitry Jakovenko,
who has dropped from five to eleven, behind another Russian, Alexander
Morozevich at place ten. The big winners and losers are given at the
end of this table. The amazing Vassily Ivanchuk has jumped
from place 30 and a 2703 rating in the previous list to 2756 and place eight
in this edition. Also remarkable is the rise of Nigel Short
from place 44 to 29 – the 44-year-old is now part of the elite 2700+ club
and the top rated player in Britain.

FIDE September 1st 2009 – Top 100 Players

The big winners at the top are (first two columns are their rankings):

The biggest fall is the descent of US GM Gata Kamsky, who has dropped from
place 18 to 38. Dmitry Jakovenko has given up his top Russian slot to Vladimir
Kramnik, Michael Adams his in Britain to Nigel Short, and Etienne Bacrot his
in France to youngster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

FIDE Top 100 Women September 2009

Of course Judit Polgar still leads, dropping slightly (from 43 to 46) in the
rankings without changing her rating. Koneru Humpy has lost 28 rating points
to dip below the 2600 mark, leaving Judit Polgar 92 points ahead of her. 15-year-old
Chinese GM Hou Yifan is breathing down Humpy's neck, just ten points behind.
After Hou there is a gap of 43 points.

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2687	0	1976
2	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2595	25	1987
3	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2585	9	1994
4	Zhao, Xue	g	CHN	2542	8	1985
5	Kosintseva, Tatiana	m	RUS	2536	11	1986
6	Cramling, Pia	g	SWE	2535	35	1963
7	Dzagnidze, Nana	g	GEO	2535	27	1987
8	Muzychuk, Anna	m	SLO	2533	18	1990
9	Stefanova, Antoaneta	g	BUL	2527	29	1979
10	Sebag, Marie	g	FRA	2519	10	1986
11	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	g	RUS	2516	0	1984
12	Chiburdanidze, Maia	g	GEO	2506	0	1961
13	Hoang Thanh Trang	g	HUN	2501	0	1980
14	Pogonina, Natalija	wg	RUS	2501	0	1985
15	Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan	g	SCO	2499	18	1968
16	Kosintseva, Nadezhda	m	RUS	2493	11	1985
17	Danielian, Elina	m	ARM	2489	20	1978
18	Zhu, Chen	g	QAT	2488	18	1976
19	Ruan, Lufei	wg	CHN	2486	0	1987
20	Xu, Yuhua	g	CHN	2485	0	1976
21	Lahno, Kateryna	g	UKR	2483	9	1989
22	Dembo, Yelena	m	GRE	2482	26	1983
23	Paehtz, Elisabeth	m	GER	2482	20	1985
24	Cmilyte, Viktorija	m	LTU	2477	19	1983
25	Socko, Monika	g	POL	2476	27	1978
26	Harika, Dronavalli	m	IND	2474	29	1991
27	Javakhishvili, Lela	m	GEO	2472	9	1984
28	Mkrtchian, Lilit	m	ARM	2468	9	1982
29	Qin, Kanying	wg	CHN	2466	0	1974
30	Rajlich, Iweta	m	POL	2465	20	1981
31	Zatonskih, Anna	m	USA	2462	9	1978
32	Krush, Irina	m	USA	2458	16	1983
33	Zhukova, Natalia	wg	UKR	2457	9	1979
34	Romanko, Marina	m	RUS	2453	18	1986
35	Shen, Yang	wg	CHN	2453	0	1989
36	Hunt, Harriet V	m	ENG	2452	0	1978
37	Khukhashvili, Sopiko	m	GEO	2451	14	1985
38	Tairova, Elena	m	RUS	2450	0	1991
39	Ushenina, Anna	m	UKR	2448	15	1985
40	Skripchenko, Almira	m	FRA	2448	11	1976
41	Korbut, Ekaterina	m	RUS	2448	0	1985
42	Ovod, Evgenija	m	RUS	2447	0	1982
43	Atalik, Ekaterina	m	TUR	2445	9	1982
44	Muzychuk, Mariya	m	UKR	2443	8	1992
45	Ju, Wenjun		CHN	2443	0	1991
46	Repkova, Eva	m	SVK	2439	8	1975
47	Gaponenko, Inna	m	UKR	2438	26	1976
48	Khotenashvili, Bela	m	GEO	2438	15	1988
49	Gunina, Valentina	wf	RUS	&n Read Full Post » Iranian GM smashes Guinness simultaneous chess world record Posted in ChessBase on Авг 30, 2009 30.08.2009 – 29-year-old Iranian GM Morteza Mahjoob spent months preparing for the record attempt, which until then stood at 360 simultaneous games, set earlier this year by Bulgarian GM Kiril Georgiev. Mahjoob broke it by taking on 500 opponents and scoring 397 wins, 90 draws, 13 loses (= 88.4%). The effort lasted over 18 hours and was closely followed by the Iranian TV. Big illustrated report with videos. Adrian Mikhalchishin: Arkhangelsk The Ruy Lopez represents one of the oldest and best openings for the first player, and everyone going for the Spanish game with Black faces the question of how he wants to tackle the white ideas. One of the more aggressive fighting methods is the move order 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 b5 6.Bb3 Bb7, which was developed in the early sixties by players from the north Russian town of Archangelsk and has carried this name ever since. More information... Morteza Mahjoob breaks Guinness Simultaneous Chess World Record The Guinness World Record for the largest number of simultaneous games played in a single session was initially set in 1996 Swedish Grandmaster Ulf Anderson, who took on 310 opponents. This record was broken in 2004 by British IM Andrew Martin, author of many of our openings training DVDs. Martin played against 321 opponents, scoring 294 wins, 26 draws and 1 loss for a winning percentage of 95.64%. In August 2005 GM Susan Polgar played against 350 players simultaneously at the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Finally, in February this year, Bulgarian GM Kiril Georgiev played a simultaneous exhibition against 360 opponents. The latest record attempt by Iranian GM Morteza Mahjoob Recently Iranian GM Morteza Mahjoob, 29, took it on himself to break this record – actually smash it to little pieces. He planned a simultaneous exhibition against 500 players, which entailed walking for about 40 kilometers and staying awake and sharp for up to 24 hours. The training phase: Morteza Mahjoob preparing for his physical ordeal The GM had to be ready to walk 40 kilometers and stay awake and fit for 24 hours The name of the world record attempt was Rokh-dar-rokh 500 (rook vs rook 500). The opening ceremony began on August 13th at 9:00 a.m., with nearly 700 participants (500 players and 200 reserve players) present. In addition there were nearly a thousand spectators at the playing venue "Yadegar-e-Emam", a multi-purpose sport saloon in the "Engelab Sport Complex" in Tehran. A crowd has collected at 9:00 a.m. in front of the Engelab Sport Complex in Tehran Dignitaries: Kiomars Hashemi, Vice President of the Iranian National Sports Organization; FIDE Vice President Nizar Elhaj (middle), President of the Iranian Chess Federation Dr. Mohammad Ebarahim Maddahi (right) The President of the Iranian Chess Federation Dr. Mohammad Ebarahim Maddahi Iranian soccer star and manager Peyrovani is interviewed at the site Iranian Taekwondo champion Behzad Khodadad (watch him in action here) The President of the Iranian National Olympic committee, Mohammad Ali Abadi, who is also the Iranian vice President, some of his deputies were also at the location: FIDE Vice President Nizar Elhaj, who came as the official observer for FIDE, the President of the Iranian Chess Federation Dr. Mohammad Ebarahim Maddahi and many well-known Iranian sportsmen such as Hadi Saei, three times Olympic medal winner and recent Olympic Champion in Taekwondo, who is a member of the Tehran Council. Finally a number of famous actors and movie stars participated in the ceremony. Preparing the venue for the mammoth event Everything is in place, the simultaneous master and his opponents can start playing Iranian TV talks to GM Morteza Mahjoob before the start of his record attempt The GM and Hadi Saei, Olympic medalist in Taekwondo, are interviewed The games officially started at 10:00 o'clock. The 500 players all were present at the time on their boards. GM Morteza Mahjoob executed his first five moves in two hours. The first (and only) break, for lunch, was after the ninth move at 14:30 to 15:00. After the break all players came back to their boards and games continued. GM Morteza Mahjoob starts his simul on board one of five hundred at 10:00 a.m. An Iranian lady helps her grandson to prepare for his game against the grandmaster The master moves from board to board, making his first moves in this exhibition 1.Nf3 was one of the opening moves the grandmaster used The jacket is off for the second round of moves Just after midnight there were 130 players left. Many of them had no chance of winning, but they insisted on playing on. There were some kids and semi-professional teenage players who resisted for more than 15 hours. Their parents helped them by massaging them. Some of the players who hung on for 15 hours needed medical attention. One of Morteza Mahjoob's chess students, who is six years old, won his game against his teacher. This kid was amongst the last ten players in the simul. A very youthful opponent, a student of the Master, won his game in the simul At 23:30 Morteza had succeeded in achieving 88.42% over 364 boards. The remaining games continued and finally at 04:12 on August 14, 2009 he finished the last game. The final result over 500 boards was: 397 wins, 90 draws, 13 loses, with total score of 442/500 points and score percentage of 88.4%. The long cycle time between moves was not just tiring for the master Even the older players felt the strain Women's chess is definitely on the rise in Iran The main sponsor of this event was Candy, an Italian producer of home appliances. The sponsor covered all organizing expenses as well as cash prizes for every winner and everybody who could make draw. There were also some prizes from their products, drawn by lottery, for spectators. The organizer of the event was the Iran Chess Federation. Chief organizer and technical director was IO Hadi Karimi, Chief Arbiter was IA Hosseingholi Saloor, first deputy of chief arbiter was IA Hamid Reza Pourshahmari. Three other Deputy Arbiters were: IA N. Kananazar, IA F. Eskandary, IA. H. Kazemiashtiyani. Two FIDE Aribiters and 48 National Arbiters refereed in this event. Near 30 people helped in the organizing team. The arbiters and organisers pose for a group photot The oldest and youngest players were 81 and 4 years old. Many international and national rated players participated and showed stiff competition. Also three strong blind Iranian chess players competed all the way until the final hours. A blind Iranian chess player amongst Mahjoob's simultaneous opponents Many TV channels and other Media covered the event from beginning to end. The games had live coverage by IRIB3 (Iranian National broadcasting) for near two hours in three different segments. All daily newspapers as well as all news agencies put the event on the front page. Flowers for the record-breaking GM from football manager Farhad Kazemi The simultaneous master at the end of his 18-hour ordeal All photos provided by Mehdi Mahjoob Videos of the record simul (in Farsi) Part one Part two Part three Links The website of event Iran 500 web site of Morteza Mahjoob Our previous background report – also translated into Farsi Chessbase.com Read Full Post » 5 из 6 « 1 2 3 4 5 6 » Календарь Июль 2010 Пн Вт Ср Чт Пт Сб Вс « Июнь       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31   Архив Выберите месяц Июль 2010 Июнь 2010 Май 2010 Апрель 2010 Март 2010 Февраль 2010 Январь 2010 Декабрь 2009 Ноябрь 2009 Октябрь 2009 Сентябрь 2009 Август 2009 Июль 2009 Июнь 2009 Май 2009 Апрель 2009 Март 2009 Февраль 2009 Январь 2009 Ноябрь 2008 Май 2008 Февраль 2008 Декабрь 2007 Категории Выберите рубрику Blog  (1) BlogSpot  (20) ChessBase  (826) exd5  (9) Moles  (9) Regnum  (68) Us asked  (50) В мире  (25) Мои Фотки  (1) Разное  (196) Эстония  (380) Облако Тэгов Chess 2009 Game New Player Move Comp Line Old Second Program Free Playing Master Best Detail Elo 2008 Piece Carlsen Club 2007 Learn Pieces India Moscow Video Local Anand Book People Key Tournaments Classic Online School 2005 Idea Version Ivanchuk German 2004 2006 Coach Computer Championships Shirov Jakovenko Аронян Engine Mode Books Software Malakhov Job 1997 Friends Attention 2000 Mistake Dad Background 1995 Iran Simultaneous 1998 Expert Wijk aan Zee Balance Bobby Fischer Amateur Absolute Tkachiev Education Advice Gunina 1993 Gift C42 Линарес Instruction Speed Learning Clever viewer B10 Memory Academy Вейк-ан-Зее Modes Patience Speech Fridman Genius Strategies 1974 1950 Yahoo Latvia Санкт-Петербург Карлсен Fortune Volokitin 1956 Крамник 1936 High School Deep Fritz B12 D38 Playing Chess Яков Борис Play Chess 1938 Austria Топалов леко Акопян Голландия 1932 Yahoo Chess Odds Chess Program Chess Game Обновления Fabiano Caruana wins Biel 2010 Kavalek at Huffington: Fooling the gullible chess world Biel: Three players share first, tiebreaks on Thursday World School Championship – getting to know you… Of bishops and giant pawns Honorary Doctorate for chess grandmaster Daniel King: what can be done about the Catalan? 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