HemmersChess

Tomorrow the first round of the 2010 Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament will be played, and we have a second preview video to get you warmed up. The world’s number one, Magnus Carlsen, is there. Vladimir Kramnik, who won many times, is there. Levon Aronian, who won the last two editions, is there. Who do you think will win?

The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place at the Palais de la Mediterranée in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco. The total prize-fund is ? 216,000.

Preview video by Macauley Peterson

The world’s number one player, Magnus Carlsen, is the top-seed in Nice. Also present are Levon Aronian, the winner of the past two Amber tournaments, and Vladimir Kramnik, who won the Amber tournament a record six times. These three players are clearly the big favourites, but what about Alexander Grischuk, who replaced Alexander Morozevich less than a week ago? Or the ever unpredictable Vasily Ivanchuk? Or Ruslan Ponomariov, who is back among the world’s elite?

The following twelve grandmasters will take part (between brackets their country and their rating in the March 1, 2010 world rankings): Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2813), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2790), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2782), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2756), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2750), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2750), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2748), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 2740), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2737), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2725), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 2713) and Jan Smeets (The Netherlands, 2651).

Every day four sessions will be played, two blindfold sessions and two rapid sessions. The first session starts at 14.30 CET. The fourth session finishes around 20.00 CET. The final round on March 25 starts at 12.30 CET. March 17 and 22 are rest days. The rate of play is 25 minutes per game per player. With every move made in the blindfold games 20 seconds is added to the clock, with every move made in the rapid games 10 seconds is added.

Like in previous years, many more will be posted on the official website during the tournament. Besides, you can expect something new this year: live chess with audio commentary, streaming footage from the playing hall and live commentary sessions with the top GMs!

Link

• Official website

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After five rounds of play, Zahar Efimenko, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Artyom Timofeev and Baadur Jobava are sharing the lead at the European Individual Championship in Rijeka. The four grandmasters scored 4.5 points and are chased by 23 GMs who are on 4/5.

The 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship is held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new Zamet Centre sports hall. The event is organized by chess club “Rijeka”, in agreement with the Croatian Chess Federation under the auspices of the City of Rijeka and the European Chess Union. It is open to all players representing the chess federations which comprise the European Chess Union (FIDE zones 1.1 to 1.9) regardless of their title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation.

The championship is based on Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. As always, the European Championship is a qualification event for the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify.

Rounds 4-5

Especially the 4th round in Rijeka saw a number of highly entertaining games and in this report we’ll present a few diagrams to give you an idea of how amazing the game of chess can be (if you didn’t knew already). Let’s start with the following brilliancy by Georgia’s number one player Baadur Jobava.

Krasenkow-Jobava
Position after 32…Rxe3
The whole game had been a big tactical squirmish, but up to this point Polish grandmaster Krasenkow was still in the game. A puzzle book would ask a question like: “Is 33.Qg2 good or bad here?”. The answer… (calculate first!) …is…bad, though White had obviously counted on it. With 33.Qh4 he might still be on top, but the obvious 33.Qg2? was answered by 33…Bd4!! 34.Rxd4 Re1+35.Qf1 Ne3!! and White resigned.

18-year-old Tamir Nabaty from Israel is a player without any title yet, but he’ll probably become at least an IM soon. In Rijeka he drew with GM Zoltan Gyimesi and then defeated GMs Gadir Guseinov and Ildar Khairullin, only to be stopped by top seeded GM Zoltan Almasi yesterday. The game against Khairullin had a nice finish.

Nabaty-Khairullin
Position after 31…Kc7

Again we can pretend to be writing a tactics book (perhaps we should do that, one day… and here we’ll ask: “Can White take on h8?” It’s a nice example of the theme “The deceiver deceived” because at first sight it looks like he cannot, because Black gives a check on e3 and then plays Qf2 (an important trick to know, often useful in blitz games as well). Then Rg1 can be answered by Re1, and after e.g. Ne8+, Kb6 Black controls the d4 square. But… if there’s a check in the position, always “check it”! The game went 32.Qxh8! Qe3+ 33.Kh1 Qf2 34.Nd5+! (the check that needed to be checked) Kd7 35.Qc8+!! (another one!) and Black resigned.


Don’t miss Movsesian’s finish in his game against Chirila, Bologan’s handling of the King’s Indian against Babula or Nisipeanu catching Pelletier’s queen. And we didn’t even mention the game Motylev-Godena yet, a true 19th century chess classic! All below in the game viewer.


After five rounds Zahar Efimenko, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Artyom Timofeev and Baadur Jobava are sharing the lead. Today the top pairings include Timofeev-Jobava, Efimenko-Nisipeanu, Sutovsky-Almasi, Vallejo-Zvjaginsev and Adams-I.Sokolov. In the women’s section Arakhamia-Grant, T.Kosintseva and Socko are on 4.5/5.

European Championship 2010 | Round 5 Standings (top 40)

Full standings here

Selection of games rounds 4-5

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Photos courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

• Official website
• All details and statistics
• Games in PGN: Men | Women via TWIC

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Besides round reports, currently the website of the European Championship in Rijeka has two interesting news items. It’s reported that Silvio Danailov is running for President of the European Chess Union, and that 110 participants have protested against the zero-tolerance rule.

At the European Championship website we’re informed of the following:

Mr. Silvio Danailov, vice-president of the Bulgarian Chess Federation will host a reception for delegates and guests of the ECU General Assembly on Saturday, 13th March at 9PM, in Opatija at the hotel Millenium (M. Tita 109).

At the reception Mr. Danailov will announce his candidacy for the President of the European Chess Union at the upcoming elections and will present the basic guidelines of his programme.

Danailov is executive director of the Grand Slam Chess Association and manager of Veselin Topalov and Ivan Cheparinov. By running for ECU President, Danailov is rivalling against the other candidates: Ali Nihat Yazici, President of the Turkish Chess Federation, and Boris Kutin, the reigning ECU President.

Chessdom posted part of the program that the Danailov team is preparing, which we quote below:

Dear friends in chess,

I speak to you as a person who spent his best years as a chess player, trainer, manager and organizer. Doing my job, I have always tried to make it as professional as possible, bringing new ideas and aspiring to higher standards.

I am proud of the fact that some of my ideas and standards of organizing competitions have been accepted even at the most important chess tournaments in the world.

I have accepted the initiative of my friends and I am running for the President of the European Chess Union, but this doesn’t mean I am ready to give unrealistic promises.

My campaign to win your vote will be led under the slogan “I know…”
In the highest interest of the progress of the European Chess Union and chess in Europe in general, I am prepared to implement all those ideas and results I have reached so far in the following areas:

- Training and management of the leading chess players
- Organization of top-level chess competitions with the highest possible standards
- Drawing undivided attention of the media and sponsors towards chess
- Contacts with influential people for the prosperity of chess
Including youth competitions in elite tournaments…

I will be happy if I win your support with this program and if you bring along any new ideas.

Sincerely yours,

Silvio Danailov

Another interesting item at the European Championship website is the protest of 110 players against the zero-tolerance rule:

The participants of the 11. European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championsh have submitted a petition to the Organizing commitee and Boris Kutin (the president of European Chess Union) in which they request changing the delay tolerance from 0 to 30 minutes. They require this measurement to be valid from the 4th round and was signed by 110 participants.

Due to request, on the behalf of Organizing commitee, the president of the Executive Commitee Damir Vrhovnik said:

?The organizers are trying to do their best for the sake of our players. In accordance to that, on the behalf of Organizing commitee and myself, I support the participants’ request. However, this question is under the European Chess Union’ jurisdiction and therefore, they are the ones who must make the decision.?

We first mentioned the zero-tolerance rule in our article on all new rules in the FIDE Laws of Chess which came into effect on July 1st, 2009. Later, in our column ‘Too late to leave?’ we commented on the forfeiting of Li Chao and Wang Yue for arriving a little too late for their second rapid game in round 3 of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. This column provoked 174 comments.

Links

• Tournament website

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Yearbook 94 has just arrived!

“All serious chess players should read these outstanding books”, is what Carsten Hansen wrote about The Chess Player’s Guide to Opening News on ChessCafe

Please, have a look at the full contents.

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Having read mostly chess improvement books and opening manuals lately, I was delighted to see a new publication in the best tradition of chess writing: a serious tournament book. Strangely, it’s a tradition that seems rather unpopular these days – a very unfortunate development indeed.

The tournament book tradition has given us many classics, e.g. Bronstein on Zürich 1953, Alekhine on Nottingham 1936 and, more recently, Jan Timman on Curacao 1962. Nowadays, tournament books are a rare guest among the countless opening guides, chess tutorials and personal game collections. Still, a serious tournament report has many advantages over these other genres.

If a single game is like a newspaper column, and a game collection is like a short story, a collection of all games from one tournament is, in my view, like a full-grown novel, with different story-lines and intricate plots, small personal dramas and highlights, seemingly trivial details and an intricate plot leading up to a satisfying or thought-provoking finish. I would like you to see Mihail Marin and Yuri Garrett’s Reggio Emilia 2007/2008, published by Quality Chess, as an intriguing and well-written novel, rather than ‘just another’ chess book on the market.

On of the characteristics of a good tournament book is that all games are seriously analysed. As Garrett, the tournament’s technical director, writes in the introduction, in the current book, 25 out of the total of 45 games are analysed by at least one of the combatants, 3 of them present the views of both players and the remaining 20 have been annotated by GM Mihail Marin.

One of the very nice things is of this is that quick, ‘boring’ draws are also seriously analysed. This is something you don’t see in regular game collections or in New in Chess magazine, but I’ve always found it very instructive to see how the big guys make these draws, especially with such an outstanding explicator as Marin commenting them:

Korchnoi-Almasi
Reggio Emilia (2) 2007

How realistic are White’s chances of retaining even a tiny edge? In the absence of knights, there is no way to take advantage of the relative weakness of the d6-square. Speaking about “ifs”, under certain circumstances a knight jump to f6 would have been devastating. The way it is, I see only one (highly unrealistic) possibility: exchange all the rooks in order to avoid any form of counterplay, install the queen on e4 to dominate both wings, and advance (by some miracle) the b-pawn to b5, in order to put the black pawns placed on dark squares in potential danger. Admittedly, there is no way all this could happen.

16.Bxb7 Maybe Korchnoi’s initial intention was to keep control of the long diagonal with 16.Qf3. However, in this case he would have lost control of another important avenue, the d-file, after 16…Bxe4 17.Qxe4 Rad8 18.Rad1 Rd7! followed by …Rfd8. This would also have led to plain equality.

16…Qxb7 17.Qe2 Rfd8 18.Rad1 Qc6 19.f4 g6 20.Qg2 This is the only way to try to activate his position, but the almost complete simplifications that follow lead to a dead draw.

20…Qxg2+ 21.Kxg2 h5 22.Kf3 Kf8 23.Ke4 Rxd1 24.Rxd1 Rd8 25.Rxd8+ Bxd8 26.h3 Ke8 27.g4 hxg4 28.hxg4 Kd7 When this position was reached, Korchnoi said in a loud voice, “What can I do?” A draw was agreed.

Of course, the tournament not only consisted of solid draws, but also of some very spectacular and beautiful chess. And again, Marin takes us by the hand towards a crystal-clear understanding of the games.

Almasi-Marin
Reggio Emilia (5), 2008

28.e6! White sacrifices his central pawn to clear the e5-square for his knight and make the e-file available for his rook. Black’s contorted piece coordination, which was quite functional in the closed position before Almasi’s breakthrough, will soon lead me to defeat. (…

28….Qxe6 29.Ne5 c6 To tell the truth, I was still optimistic at this point, especially since, judging from his physical reaction, I knew Almasi had overlooked this defensive resource. My pleasant state of mind was not altered by his next strong move.

30.Bd2!! I would have enjoyed playing one of my favourite type of defensive positions – an exchange down – after 30.Nxg6 hxg6. Then Black has practically no weaknesses and his structure is much better than White’s. Moreover, if the black knight reaches the e4-square, White would be in trouble.

In this fragment, we see Marin at his best. He honestly describes his emotions yet manages to stay objective all the time, enabling him to explain the technical details without ever becoming boring or repetitive. He also shows a constant concern for the reader trying to make assessments of the arising positions. Marin even comes to the rescue in annotations by the other participants, when they have not been explicit enough to Marin’s satisfaction. The very first game of the book is a good example: Zoltan Almasi analyses his victory over Pentala Harikrishna in a solid, but rather clinical fashion, so Marin jumps in at several points in the analysis to add useful comments like “It may seem that Black has regrouped his forces harmoniously and his kingside counterplay is developing without problems. However, White’s space advantage in the centre and on the queenside should not be underestimated.”

Reggio Emilia 2007/2008 (it started on December 29, 2007) was in many ways perfect for a tournament book. Not only were there a number of world-class players such as Vugar Gashimov and David Navara, but also the legendary Viktor Korchnoi was present, as well as two rising stars from Asia (Pentala Harakrishna and Ni Hua), and of course Mihail Marin himself. As is good practice in a literary review, I won’t give away the ending of the ‘novel’, nor any other spoilers. In the end, however, it’s the moves and the games that tell the story of this tournament, not the results.

I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself into this tournament (even though I had never seen a single game from it before), identifying with the players and the problems they were facing during the games, and I suddenly felt it as a real loss that such books are hardly ever written anymore these days. I think a tournament book is the closest a chessplayer can come to identifying with fictional characters, and it’s a true pleasure to be able to enjoy the excitement of chess for once without having to think about improving my own game or updating my opening or endgame knowledge. This is simply top level chess entertainment.

Apart from the tournament itself (the heart of the book) there are numerous interesting extras in Reggio Emilia 2007/2008, such as excellent interviews with the players, a history of the Reggio Emilia tournament (including some memorable games from past editions) and a sympathetic description by Garrett of how this particular tournament was organised. Garrett is a keep observer who not only loves to watch the games but also the players themselves:

It was also interesting to witness the cultural differences between the players, ranging from Almasi’s assertive comments to the hesitant and modest ones by the Chinese warrior, Ni Hua (…. Gashimov whispered his fascinating comments, which were charcterized by a wildly tactical approach (albeit with that raw touch so typical of the young player who has yet to fully exploit his potential).

I hope readers will consider buying this very charming book; perhaps it will energize publishers to publish more serious tournament reports. It’s too beautiful a tradition to be written off already.

Links

• Get yourself a copy of Reggio Emilia 2007/2008
• Read more book reviews

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Naiditsch, Vallejo, Jobava, Pelletier, Timofeev, Martinovic, Skoberne, Krasenkow, Inarkiev, Nisipeanu, Efimenko, Maiorov and Nepomniachtchi are the names of the thirteen players who are still on 100% in Rijeka. Three rounds at the European Individual Championship have been played.

The 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship is held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new Zamet Centre sports hall. The event is organized by chess club “Rijeka”, in agreement with the Croatian Chess Federation under the auspices of the City of Rijeka and the European Chess Union. It is open to all players representing the chess federations which comprise the European Chess Union (FIDE zones 1.1 to 1.9) regardless of their title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation.

The championship is based on Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. As always, the European Championship is a qualification event for the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify.

Rounds 1-3

Top seed Zoltan Almasi started with a draw with Black against Italian GM Lexy Ortega. In this first round, played on Saturday, Russian top GMs Alexander Motylev and Evgeny Tomashevsky, the reigning European Champion, also started with draws. The biggest upsets were IM Artem Smirnov beating GM Evgeniy Najer, IM Pavel Potapov beating Viktor Laznicka, FM Burak Firat beating GM Konstantin Sakaev and FM Danny Raznikov beating GM Zaven Andriasian. On one of the lowest boards, Dutch GM Friso Nijboer was held to a draw by Denis Kadric (2171).

The second round saw two draws on the top boards, in Stefansson-Bacrot and Movsesian-Ragger. Moldav top GM Viktor Bologan lost to Bulgarian GM Valentin Iotov and GM Avetik Grigoryan defeated GM Kiril Georgiev. Ivan Cheparinov, long-time team member of Veselin Topalov, lost to Spanish GM Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez, but another Bulgarian of the same generation did better: IM Momchil Nikolov defeated GM Boris Savchenko. FM Hamitevici Vladimir managed to beat GM Mateusz Bartel in this round.

Round 3 was played on International Women’s Day, and all the women playing in the tournament received a rose “as a small sign of appreciation to all women players and all the ladies participating in the organization of this big sporting event”.

In the women’s section there are four leaders with a perfect score after three rounds: Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS), who is the only survivor from the ten best rated players, Monica Socko (POL), Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (SCO) and Irina Chelushkina (SRB).

Back to the men. After three rounds there are still 13 players with a 100% score. Among them are the two young international masters Sasa Martinovic (CRO) and Jure Skoberne (SLO) who in round 3 defeated GMs Vorobiov and Howell respectively. David Navara, these days boasting a 2708 rating, lost to Yannick Pelletier yesterday. Cheparinov went down again, this time against IM Artem Smirnov. IM Pavel Povatov and FM Burak Firat had more successes: the former defeated GM Tomi Nyback, the latter beat GM Gregorz Gajewski.

Today’s round will see some interesting encounters: Vallejo Pons-Timofeev, Krasenkow-Jobava, Naiditsch-Efimenko, Pelletier-Inarkiev, Skoberne-Nisipeanu, Nepomniashtchi-Maiorov and Adams-Martinovic. In the women’s section there are two clashes at the top: Arakhamia-T.Kosintseva and Socko-Chelushkina.

European Championship 2010 | Round 3 Standings (top 40)

Full standings here

A nice curiosity about the European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship in Rijeka

For the first time, there will be a ‘priest’ to represent – unofficially – the State of Vaticano. Unofficially because Vaticano is not (yet) affiliated to FIDE.

The name of the priest who will partecipate to the European Championship is Don Valerio Piro, from Neapolis; he got the formal authorization from Cardinal Sepe (note that Cardinal is more than Bishop; the Cardinal reports directly to the Pope).

Don Valerio is candidate-master for the Italian Chess Federation. Officially he is registered as Italy, but he will play with the flag of Vaticano. This is the first partecipation of a representative of the little State that is not afffiliated to FIDE. But only for the moment, as there are many priest that are good chessplayer.

Historically, the first (important) was Ruy Lopez – the inventor of the famous opening. The last one is William Lombardy, assistant of Bobby Fischer.

There is the idea to organize a championship for ‘ecclesiastics’ (priests, friars, monks, nuns), then there will be the possibility to create a Chess Federation of the state of Vaticano. So may be that it will be possible to see a team fom Vaticano also in the Olympiads.

The news had a good interest in the Italian newspapers and press agency. Please find enclosed the links (sorry, but the articles are in Italian!). Please note that the most important ‘catholic’ newspaper, Avvenire, dedicated a complete page to the news.

• http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/regioni/campania/2010/02/28/visualizza_new.html_1709041681.html
• http://napoli.repubblica.it/dettaglio/scacchi-parroco-di-boscotrecase-primo-sacerdote-agli-europei/1875352
• http://www.ilvesuvio.it/index.php?page=0&news=8711
• http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Regioni/Campania/Prete-ai-Campionati-europei-di-scacchi-Al-mio-rientro-lezioni-in-parrocchia_70956501.html
• http://www.libero-news.it/regioneespanso.jsp?id=360194

Thanks and best regards!
Adolivio Capece

Selection of games rounds 1-3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Photos courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

• Official website
• All details and statistics
• Games in PGN: Men | Women via TWIC

Read more...

On March 3 Chessbase published a press release in which it was announced that Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov won’t continue their training sessions.

With those achievements a major target has been met in the cooperation between these two chess players, even earlier than anticipated. Therefore it has been decided that their cooperation should take a different direction this year. Magnus will be responsible for all career decisions, without constant guidance, as this is the natural next stage in his chess development. For the time being there are no plans for chess camps or regular coaching during events. Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen have agreed to remain in contact, and Carlsen will still have the opportunity to confer regularly with Kasparov.

© 2010, José Diaz

Links

• Interview with José Diaz
• José Diaz Official Website

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Alexander Morozevich has withdrawn from the Amber tournament, which starts in six days from now in Nice, France. The Russian is replaced by his compatriot Alexander Grischuk. To get you a bit in the mood already, today we present a video with footage from 2008 and 2009.

The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place at the Palais de la Mediterranée in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco. The total prize-fund is ? 216,000.

The world’s number one player, Magnus Carlsen, is the top-seed in Nice. Also present are Levon Aronian, the winner of the past two Amber tournaments, and Vladimir Kramnik, who won the Amber tournament a record six times.

The following twelve grandmasters will take part (between brackets their country and their rating in the March 1, 2010 world rankings): Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2813), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2790), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2782), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2756), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2750), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2750), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2748), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 2740), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2737), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2725), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 2713) and Jan Smeets (The Netherlands, 2651).

Every day four sessions will be played, two blindfold sessions and two rapid sessions. The first session starts at 14.30 CET. The fourth session finishes around 20.00 CET. The final round on March 25 starts at 12.30 CET. March 17 and 22 are rest days. The rate of play is 25 minutes per game per player. With every move made in the blindfold games 20 seconds is added to the clock, with every move made in the rapid games 10 seconds is added.

Below you’ll find an appetizer video. Like in previous years, many more will be posted on the official website during the tournament. Besides, you can expect something new this year: live chess with audio commentary, streaming footage from the playing hall and live commentary sessions with the top GMs!

Video

Link

• Official website

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Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!

S. Didukh
2003

White to play and win

Next week the solution.

---

Solution last week

I. Aliev
2008

Game viewer by ChessTempo

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Today the first round of the European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship will be played. In Rijeka (Croatia), Almasi, Bacrot and Movsesian are the top seeds. In the women’s section the favourites are Antoaneta Stefanova, Nadezhda Kosintseva and Anna Muzychuk.

The 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship will be held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new sports hall ?Center Zamet?.

The event is organized by chess club “Rijeka”, in agreement with the Croatian Chess Federation under the auspices of the City of Rijeka and the European Chess Union. It is open to all players representing the chess federations which comprise the European Chess Union (FIDE zones 1.1 to 1.9) regardless of their title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation.

The championship will be based on Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The playing time will be 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. As always, the European Championship is a qualification event for the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify.

Yesterday the opening ceremony was held at the Sports Centre Zamet in Rijeka. From the organizers’ press release:

The Championship was officially opened with the symbolic first move by Rijeka’s Mayor Vojko Obersnel who pointed out that the City of Rijeka, the neighbouring City of Opatija and the entire Region shall live the next two weeks in the rhythm of this Championship. He also said that the hosts can not wait to show their hospitality to all the chess enthusiasts. Obersnel wished good luck and a lot of success to all the players, wishing that this event will be unforgettable for them.

A warm welcome was also offered by the Executive Committee President Damir Vrhovnik who said that it is a special pleasure to host 590 chess players coming from 41 different European countries, among whom there are 246 grandmasters, and that this confirms that this Championship in Rijeka is the strongest male and female chess championship ever held in the organization of the European Chess Union. ?I believe that this chess spectacle, along with invested efforts and our wish for its best possible organization will position Rijeka and Croatia on the European chess map?, Vrhovnik concluded.

Representing Croatian Chess Federation, its president Stjepan ?urlan greeted the guests and pointed out how this Championship is a great honour for Rijeka, as well as for the Federation, which is proud of its rich tradition and organization of chess competitions.

The President of European Chess Federation, Boris Kutin, pointed out that there is no need to be a chess expert to understand that in this moment Rijeka is the capital of the chess world. ?I wish everyone a pleasant stay, good luck and success, but also to enjoy the competition?, Kutin said.

A musical introduction to the typical local atmospehere of the city and the region that hosts this competition was given by a fenale capella group singers Klapa Luka, and at the end, the ceremony was closed by the dance group Flash Dance Unit.

Today the 1st round starts at 15.30 PM. Live games here.

Links

• Official website
• All details and statistics

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Alexei Shirov and Andrei Volokitin scored final round victories, while Vassily Ivanchuk won another game, this time against Pavel Eljanov in a queen ending. Magnus Carlsen held Ukrainian co-prodigy Sergey Karjakin to a draw to take the category 19 tournament by a full point, with a 2877 performance. He will be number two in the next world rankings ? if FIDE rates this event.
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What long-term strategical implications do the moves 1.e4 c5 carry with them? Well, any at all? Yes, says none less than former world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. His DVD "Strategy ? Step by Step" is a real eye-opener for most of us. Starting with the very first moves of the games he analyses six of his strategic masterpieces in great depth. Buy it now or read more.
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The US Championship, "between a woman with a Russian-sounding name and another woman with a Russian-sounding name," was decided by "the most ridiculous tie breaker in sports history," writes an AOL blogger. On this side of the Atlantic we were taken to task for carelessly naming regions from an archipelago that lies to the northwest of Europe. Excerpts from your letters with addenda.
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Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Loek van Wely with the black pieces to join Pavel Eljanov (who drew against Karjakin) in second place. Alexei Shirov defeated Peter Svidler in a Slav, and Magnus Carlsen drew a marathon 79-move game against birthday boy Andrei Volokitin. With a round to go Carlsen is a point and a half ahead and therefore already the winner of Aerosvit 2008. Round ten report.
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Romania's Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu defeated Alexei Shirov after a fatal king move by the latter. Magnus Carlsen played a 16-move draw today, while one of his nearest rivals, Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov, defeated compatriot Andrei Volokitin to come within theoretical striking distance. With two rounds to go Carlsen leads by a point and a half. And before we forget: Happy Birthday, Pyotr!
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He began as the ultimate chess prodigy, an assistant to a world championship candidate at eleven, the youngest grandmaster in history at twelve and a half. On Wednesday night our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos shows us how today, at 18, Sergey Karjakin is able to combine positional and tactical motifs to match the best players in the world. The show is free.
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Ten teams are part of this league, which is played on weekends (Fridays in Iran) in different cities all over Iran. The first rounds started this year, 1387 according to the Iranian calendar. Sixty players, including five GMs, four IMs and nine FMs were present ? one was very sadly missed: GM Karen Asrian, who passed away tragically last week. Pictorial report by Arash Akbarinia.
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Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Alexei Shirov on the black side of an Exchange Gruenfeld, in 36 moves. With this he advanced into the group of three "chasing" Magnus Carlsen, who is two full points ahead. Evgeny Alekseev beat Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Loek van Wely beat Andrei Volokitin. Carlsen drew against tail-ender Alexander Onischuk. Round eight report.
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The city of Druten in The Netherlands is paying host to an exposition of chess paintings and artifacts ? "Schaakkunst" in Dutch. They include new works and new artists, fifteen in all, who have produced a wide variety of realistic and surrealistic objects, most of which you can buy in the online chess shop. We bring you some sample paintings that make for a visual treat.
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"Where were we? Ah, yes, the winning streak..." Magnus Carlsen came out of the free day refreshed and ready to rumble. His opponent, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, playing white, went down to the typical relentless pressure exerted by the 17-year-old Norwegian. Magnus once again has a performance of over 3000. Report with pictures of a new weapon against the Petroff.
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The Karen Asrian Memorial rapid chess tournament in Yerevan ended today with a clear victory for Armenia's top GM Levon Aronian, who defeated Michael Adams 1½:½ in the last two games; while Peter Leko, who had been leading most of the time, lost ½:1½ to Alexander Morozevich. The draw average in this event was 65%. Final report.
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The final tiebreak game that decided the 2008 US Women's Chess Championship in favour of Anna Zatonskih led to a protest by Irina Krush, who lost in a controversial manner. The critical phase was caught on video, which our readers could view in slow motion. "This film has been dissected as much as the Zapruder JFK assassination film," writes Julian Wan of Ann Arbor, USA. Selected letters.
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