Le Quang Liem Wednesday won the Aeroflot Open in Moscow. Like at the Moscow Open, the grandmaster from Vietnam finished on an undefeated 7/9, which this time was enough for clear first and qualification for the Dortmund tournament later this year. The 9th Aeroflot Open took place February 9-17 2010 in Moscow, Russia. It’s one of the biggest tournaments (and certainly the strongest) of the calendar, and as always sponsored by airline company Aeroflot and organized by the Russian Chess Federation in cooperation with the Committee on Tourism of the Municipality of Moscow. The festival had the same prize fund as in 2009 amounting a total of 180,000 EUR (which includes the prizes for the World Blitz Qualification Tournament which will be held afterwards).
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Le Quang Liem wins Aeroflot, qualifies for Dortmund
Chernyshov wins Moscow Open 2010
The Moscow Open took place from January 30th to February 7th 2010, just before the 9th Aeroflot Open (February 8–19), which meant that many strong players had travelled to the Russian capital to participate in both tournaments. The Moscow tournament was won by four players who shared 7.0/9 points. First prize went to Konstantin Chernyshov on tie-break, with the decisive factor being that he had the most wins.
In the final round Chernyshov Konstantin won first by playing a 40-move draw against GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam, who finished third on tiebreak.
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Michael Adams Wins the 8th Gibtelecom Masters
John Saunders reports: The photo below shows the winner of the 8th Gibtelecom Masters, Michael Adams of England, being congratulated by master of ceremonies and tournament commentator GM Stuart Conquest. Also in the photo are the women's prize-winner Natalia Zhukova (who also achieved a GM norm, surpassing the required TPR by a huge margin) and CEO of Gibtelecom, Tim Bristow.
Adams Wins The Final
John Saunders reports: English grandmaster Mickey Adams has won the 8th Gibtelecom Masters after a four-player play-off. He did it the hard way, losing the first game of his semi-final against German GM Jan Gustafsson and having much the worst of the second game before Gustafsson blundered a piece. There followed an Armageddon game, with Adams obliged to win, which he did in some style. In the other semi-final Paco Vallejo Pons of Spain won his first game quite comfortably against Chand Sandipan of India. He was comfortable in the second game but Sandipan fought back to the point where he should have won, only the make a terrible blunder which cost him the win. The final saw Adams in his best form, soon securing a strong advantage which he carried through to victory. In the return, Vallejo Pons got a bad position but his attempt to mix the game up cost him a piece and he could only draw. The two-game mini-matches were played at a time control of 10 minutes with 10 second increments and the Armageddon game at 5 minutes to 4.
CORUS 2010: Final Standings
Carlsen Wins Corus 2010
After a thrilling final round, the world's #1 ranked player Magnus Carlsen (pictured) won the 72nd Corus tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.
Going into the final round, Carlsen could only be caught by Kramnik, Shirov and Anand. Kramnik made no impression on Karjakin and soon agreed a draw. Anand had some chances against Van Wely, but also offered a draw after 39 moves.
Shirov came the closest to achieving a win, using up a lot of time in the early stages of his game against Dominguez trying to build a kingside attack.
However, Shirov's cogitations left him perilously short of time, and he eventually agreed a draw with just a few seconds remaining on his clock. Although the tournament features a 30 second increment, playing accurately with just this allowance is not easy even for GMs!
That left Carlsen only needing a draw against Caruana to win the tournament, but after an early oversight it was a tense struggle for the Norwegian to hang on in a tricky knight ending. But hang on he did, to win the Corus 2010 title, a berth at the Bilbao Grand Slam Final later this year, and a cheque for 10,000 euros.
The most extraordinary game of the final round saw Nigel Short choose a rare sacrificial line against Smeet's choice of the Petroff Defence. Both players used huge amounts of time on the early moves, and by move nine Smeet's king was on the g5 square! However, with clocks running low, both players backed away from a rapid-fire finish to share the spoils with a repetition.
The only decisive game of the last round came from Hikaru Nakamura who ground out an endgame win against Sergei Tiviakov in the last game to finish in any of the groups.
In the 'B' Group 15 year old Anish Giri (pictured left) wrapped up the tournament with a comfortable draw against Negi to earn an invite to the 'A' Group in 2010.
In the 'C' Group Li Chao (pictured right) had already assured himself of first place, but he won again to finish on an amazing 10/13.
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GROUP A
GROUP B
GROUP C
CORUS 2010: Round 13 Results
The B and A-Group winners, Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen.
Magnus Carlsen wins Wijk aan Zee 2010
The top seed and long-time leader of the A-Group, Magnus Carlsen, drew his final game, as did his main contenders, which left the 19-year-old Norwegian the sole winner of the tournament. His FIDE ranking in the next list will be the second highest in history. Kramnik and Shirov share 2nd-3rd. In the B-Group Anish Giri was first, ahead of top seed Naiditsch.
GROUP A - Round 13
L. van Wely - V. Anand ½-½
N. Short - J. Smeets ½-½
H. Nakamura - S. Tiviakov 1-0
M. Carlsen - F. Caruana ½-½
V. Ivanchuk - P. Leko ½-½
A. Shirov - L. Dominguez ½-½
V. Kramnik - S. Karjakin ½-½
GROUP B - Round 13
A. Naiditsch - E. l'Ami 1-0
W. So - A. Muzychuk ½-½
V. Akobian - D. Howell 1-0
P. Negi - A. Giri ½-½
P. Harikrishna - T. Nyback ½-½
L. Nisipeanu - E. Sutovsky ½-½
D. Reinderman - Ni ½-½
GROUP C - Round 13
D. Vocaturo - S. Swaminathan 1-0
S. Plukkel - B. Bok ½-½
L. Chao - Z. Peng 1-0
R. van Kampen - S. Kuipers 1-0
K. Lie - M. Muzychuk 0-1
N. Grandelius - R. Swinkels 0-1
A. Gupta - R. Robson 1-0
CORUS 2010: Round 13 Pairings
Wijk aan Zee in January – the sea, the beach, the ice, the dunes.(photo by: Nadja Woisin)
The 13th or LAST ROUND starts on Sunday 31st at 12:30 Royal Dutch time, an hour earlier than usual (you can translate this to your own time zone here). And you can watch the live games here.
GROUP A - Round 13
L. van Wely - V. Anand
N. Short - J. Smeets
H. Nakamura - S. Tiviakov
M. Carlsen - F. Caruana
V. Ivanchuk - P. Leko
A. Shirov - L. Dominguez
V. Kramnik - S. Karjakin
GROUP B - Round 13
A. Naiditsch - E. l'Ami
W. So - A. Muzychuk
V. Akobian - D. Howell
P. Negi - A. Giri
P. Harikrishna - T. Nyback
L. Nisipeanu - E. Sutovsky
D. Reinderman - H. Ni
GROUP C - Round 13
D. Vocaturo - S. Swaminathan
S. Plukkel - B. Bok
L. Chao - Z. Peng
R. van Kampen - S. Kuipers
K. Lie - M. Muzychuk
N. Grandelius - R. Swinkels
A. Gupta - R. Robson
CORUS 2010: Round 12 Results
The A Group leader and world #1, GM Magnus Carlsen, with 8.0/12 (photo by: Nadja Woisin)
Anand beats Kramnik, Carlsen leads
Vishy Anand drew the first nine games of this event, and was to be found in the bottom half of the field. Today the World Champion beat his 2008 challenger Vladimir Kramnik, and after a win in round ten he is now in place four. After a draw against Peter Leko Magnus Carlsen lead alone, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Shirov. The final round games begin an hour earlier today.
GROUP A - Round 12
V. Anand - V. Kramnik 1-0
S. Karjakin - A. Shirov ½-½
L. Dominguez - V. Ivanchuk ½-½
P. Leko - M. Carlsen ½-½
F. Caruana - H. Nakamura ½-½
S. Tiviakov - N. Short ½-½
J. Smeets - L. van Wely 1-0
GROUP B - Round 12
E. l'Ami - D. Reinderman ½-½
Ni - L. Nisipeanu ½-½
E. Sutovsky - P. Harikrishna ½-½
T. Nyback - P. Negi 1-0
A. Giri - V. Akobian ½-½
D. Howell - W. So ½-½
A. Muzychuk - A. Naiditsch 0-1
GROUP C - Round 12
S. Swaminathan - A. Gupta 0-1
R. Robson - N. Grandelius ½-½
R. Swinkels - K. Lie ½-½
M. Muzychuk - R. van Kampen 1-0
S. Kuipers - L. Chao ½-½
Z. Peng - S. Plukkel 0-1
B. Bok - D. Vocaturo 1-0
CORUS 2010: Round 12 Pairings
British Champion David Howell with 5.5/11, 8th position in Group B (photo by: Nadja Woisin)
GROUP A - Round 12
V. Anand - V. Kramnik
S. Karjakin - A. Shirov
L. Dominguez - V. Ivanchuk
P. Leko - M. Carlsen
F. Caruana - H. Nakamura
S. Tiviakov - N. Short
J. Smeets - L. van Wely
GROUP B - Round 12
E. l'Ami - D. Reinderman
H. Ni - L. Nisipeanu
E. Sutovsky - P. Harikrishna
T. Nyback - P. Negi
A. Giri - V. Akobian
D. Howell - W. So
A. Muzychuk - A. Naiditsch
GROUP C - Round 12
S. Swaminathan - A. Gupta
R. Robson - N. Grandelius
R. Swinkels - K. Lie
M. Muzychuk - R. van Kampen
S. Kuipers - L. Chao
Z. Peng - S. Plukkel
B. Bok - D. Vocaturo
CORUS 2010: Round 11 Results
GM Li Chao, CHN, 2604, 8.5/11 is now in the sole lead in Group C
Carlsen wins again, catches Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik was in a bit of trouble with his Petroff against Alexei Shirov, but his defences held. Meanwhile his main rival in this tournament, Magnus Carlsen, kept up the pressure and his opponent Leinier Dominguez cracked in time trouble. With that he caught up with Kramnik on the scoreboard. Carlsen's trainer Garry Kasparov showed us some lines in a previous game.
GROUP A - Round 11
J. Smeets - V. Anand ½-½
L. van Wely - S. Tiviakov 1-0
N. Short - F. Caruana ½-½
H. Nakamura - P. Leko ½-½
M. Carlsen - L. Dominguez 1-0
V. Ivanchuk - S. Karjakin ½-½
A. Shirov - V. Kramnik ½-½
GROUP B - Round 11
A. Muzychuk - E. l'Ami ½-½
A. Naiditsch - D. Howell ½-½
W. So - A. Giri 0-1
V. Akobian - T. Nyback ½-½
P. Negi - E. Sutovsky ½-½
P. Harikrishna - Ni ½-½
L. Nisipeanu - D. Reinderman ½-½
GROUP C - Round 11
B. Bok - S. Swaminathan 1-0
D. Vocaturo - Z. Peng 1-0
S. Plukkel - S. Kuipers 0-1
L. Chao - M. Muzychuk 1-0
R. van Kampen - R. Swinkels 1-0
K. Lie - R. Robson 0-1
N. Grandelius - A. Gupta 0-1
Another chess prodigy (Part 6): Parimarjan Negi
Parimarjan Negi, one of the well-known prodigies, at the age of 13 years, 4 months, and 22 days became the youngest Indian to earn the Grandmaster title. He broke the previous record of Pentala Harikrishna (GM at 15), who broke Viswanathan Anand's (GM at 18). And he is also the second youngest Grandmaster ever (second only to Sergey Karjakin, who achieved this feat at the age of 12 years and 7 months, however, holds the World's Youngest GM title), beat Magnus Carlsen record by becoming the second-youngest person in history to complete all the requirements for the grandmaster title by a five-day margin. In a mere six months span, he made three GM norms. The first one in Hastings, January 2006; the second just a couple of weeks later in the same month at the Parsvnath International Open in his hometown, Delhi; and the final norm in July the same year at the Chelyabinsk Region Superfinal Championship at Satka in Russia. And as per January 2010, he is at his rating peak, 2621.
Personal life
Born on 9 February 1993, in Uttaranchal. At a very early age, the family shifted its base to Delhi. His father is an Air Traffic Controller while his mom is an executive in Life Insurance Corporation of India. Parimarjan Negi started learning chess before he was 5 years of age when his father's friend taught him the basics of chess. Parimarjan is a student at the Amity International School (Saket) in Delhi. He is one of the toppers in his class and in spite of his long absences, he passes his exams with excellent results and is able to strike a balance between chess and studies.
Achievements
In 2002, Negi registered his maiden international success, when he won the Asian championship at Tehran and Commonwealth Championship 2003, both in the under-10 category. He awarded as "Best Sub Junior Award" in 37th Biel International Chess Festival 2004. In July 2005, he scored his third and final IM norm at the international Open in Sort, Spain, which made him the world's youngest International Master in chess. While in 2006, he made his biggest achievement by becoming a second-youngest Grandmaster in the world. Joint champion in the ‘World Youth Stars’ tournament held at Kirishi, Russia and ranked fourth in Corus Grandmaster group ‘C’ tournament in Netherlands in 2007. In January 2008 he got second position in Corus Chess Tournament “Grandmaster Group C”. In the same year, Negi marked his improvement with joint first place at the Kaupthing Open in Luxembourg and clear first at the Philadelphia Open. He was runner-up behind Abhijeet Gupta in the World Junior Championship 2008 in Turkey with 9.5/13. In year 2009, he won the Malaysian Open Chess Championship Malaysia and Politiken Cup in Copenhegan, Denmark. He was qualified for the 2009 World Cup in Khanty Mansisyk, Russia from “Asian Continental Chess Championship 2009” but knocked out at round 1 by Swiss Vadim Milov 1½-3½. In the recent Asian Team Chess Championship which held in Kolkata, India, December 2009, he got the best 4th board prize while his team won the tournament. And now Parimarjan is struggling in Corus Group B and is at 6th placed with 5,5/10 from 13 games will be played.
CORUS 2010: Round 11 Pairings
Sergey Tiviakov, who at 4.0/10 is playing approximately in sync with his rating
The 11th round will be played at Friday the 29th
GROUP A - Round 11
J. Smeets - V. Anand
L. van Wely - S. Tiviakov
N. Short - F. Caruana
H. Nakamura - P. Leko
M. Carlsen - L. Dominguez
V. Ivanchuk - S. Karjakin
A. Shirov - V. Kramnik
GROUP B - Round 11
A. Muzychuk - E. l'Ami
A. Naiditsch - D. Howell
W. So - A. Giri
V. Akobian - T. Nyback
P. Negi - E. Sutovsky
P. Harikrishna - H. Ni
L. Nisipeanu - D. Reinderman
GROUP C - Round 11
B. Bok - S. Swaminathan
D. Vocaturo - Z. Peng
S. Plukkel - S. Kuipers
L. Chao - M. Muzychuk
R. van Kampen - R. Swinkels
K. Lie - R. Robson
N. Grandelius - A. Gupta
CORUS 2010: Round 10 Results
In Group C Ray Robson lost for a second time in a row, in a round where all games were decided (and Black won four games)
Anand and Carlsen win, Kramnik leads
We had to wait ten rounds for this: World Champion Vishy Anand won his first game, with a little help from opponent Alexei Shirov. Magnus Carlsen surprised everyone in the world by playing the French Defence for the first time in a tournament game – and won it against his permanent rival Sergey Karjakin. Vladimir Kramnik drew and is in the sole lead
GROUP A - Round 10
V. Anand - A. Shirov 1-0
V. Kramnik - V. Ivanchuk ½-½
S. Karjakin - M. Carlsen 0-1
L. Dominguez - H. Nakamura ½-½
P. Leko - N. Short ½-½
F. Caruana - L. van Wely ½-½
S. Tiviakov - J. Smeets 1-0
GROUP B - Round 10
E. l'Ami - L. Nisipeanu ½-½
D. Reinderman - P. Harikrishna 1-0
H. Ni - P. Negi ½-½
E. Sutovsky - V. Akobian ½-½
T. Nyback - W. So 0-1
A. Giri - A. Naiditsch ½-½
D. Howell - A. Muzychuk ½-½
GROUP C - Round 10
S. Swaminathan - N. Grandelius ½-½
A. Gupta - K. Lie 1-0
R. Robson - R. van Kampen 1-0
R. Swinkels - L. Chao 0-1
M. Muzychuk - S. Plukkel 1-0
S. Kuipers - D. Vocaturo 1-0
Z. Peng - B. Bok 0-1
CORUS 2010: Round 10 Pairings
Hikaru Nakamura has slipped to fifth place, with 5.0/9 (photo by: Nadja Woisin)
GROUP A - Round 10
V. Anand - A. Shirov
V. Kramnik - V. Ivanchuk
S. Karjakin - M. Carlsen
L. Dominguez - H. Nakamura
P. Leko - N. Short
F. Caruana - L. van Wely
S. Tiviakov - J. Smeets
GROUP B - Round 10
E. l'Ami - L. Nisipeanu
D. Reinderman - P. Harikrishna
H. Ni - P. Negi
E. Sutovsky - V. Akobian
T. Nyback - W. So
A. Giri - A. Naiditsch
D. Howell - A. Muzychuk
GROUP C - Round 10
S. Swaminathan - N. Grandelius
A. Gupta - K. Lie
R. Robson - R. van Kampen
R. Swinkels - L. Chao
M. Muzychuk - S. Plukkel
S. Kuipers - D. Vocaturo
Z. Peng - B. Bok
CORUS 2010: Round 9 Results
Top seed Magnus Carlsen, 19, in third place with 5.5/9 (photo by: Nadja Woisin)
Kramnik beats Carlsen, leads with Shirov
It was a fateful day – in all three groups. Vladimir Kramnik beat Magnus Carlsen after the latter blundered in terrible time trouble. Smeets, van Wely and Karjakin won their games, against Caruana, Leko and Short. In Group B Anish Giri suffered his first loss against Anna Muzychuk, while Ray Robson also dropped the full point against his main rival Li Chao.
GROUP A - Round 9
S. Tiviakov - V. Anand ½-½
J. Smeets - F. Caruana 1-0
L. van Wely - P. Leko 1-0
N. Short - L. Dominguez ½-½
H. Nakamura - S. Karjakin 0-1
M. Carlsen - V. Kramnik 0-1
V. Ivanchuk - A. Shirov ½-½
GROUP B - Round 9
D. Howell - E. l'Ami 0-1
A. Muzychuk - A. Giri 1-0
A. Naiditsch - T. Nyback 1-0
W. So - E. Sutovsky ½-½
V. Akobian - H. Ni 0-1
P. Negi - D. Reinderman 1-0
P. Harikrishna - L. Nisipeanu ½-½
GROUP C - Round 9
Z. Peng - S. Swaminathan ½-½
B. Bok - S. Kuipers 1-0
D. Vocaturo - M. Muzychuk 1-0
S. Plukkel - R. Swinkels 0-1
L. Chao - R. Robson 1-0
R. van Kampen - A. Gupta 1-0
K. Lie - N. Grandelius 0-1
Another chess prodigy (Part 5): Wesley So
Wesley So is a Filipino chess grandmaster. He achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 7th youngest person to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess.
Wesley So was born in Bacoor, Cavite on October 9, 1993. He was aged 6 when his father taught him to play chess and was 9 when he started to compete in junior active chess tournaments. In 2006, Wesley So became the youngest member of the national men's team to participate at the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy at the age of 12. In December of the same year, he also became the youngest National Open Chess Champion. In May 2007, he went on to become the youngest National Junior Open Chess Champion. Wesley won the gold medal on board one at the 2007 World Under 16 Team Championship with a score of 9½/10. He achieved his third and final Grandmaster norm on December 8, 2007 at the third Pichay Cup International Open (Manila, Philippines), thus becoming the youngest Filipino Grandmaster at the age of 14. He also became the seventh youngest to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess, edging out French GM Etienne Bacrot from that spot by a few days. So got his first GM norm in the Offene Internationale Bayerische Schach Meisterschaft in Bad Wiessee, Germany and his second GM norm in the 2007 U-20 World Junior Chess Championship in Yerevan, Armenia. Since December 2007, Wesley So has been considered to be the world's youngest Grandmaster at the age of fourteen. On the January 2009 FIDE rating list, GM So's ELO rating is 2627 making him the highest ranked chess player in the Philippines ahead of other notable Filipino Grandmasters such as Mark Paragua, Rogelio Antonio, Jr. and Eugenio Torre (who is second with 2560 ELO rating). The latest ratings put Wesley So on the 9th spot of the world top 20 juniors list. He won and is currently the Corus Group C 2009 champion besting his nearest rival by 1 point. Clinched his ticket to the prestigious World Cup by placing 2nd during Zone 3.3 Chess Championship which was held on 23-29th July 2009 in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. In November-December at the 2009 Chess World Cup he defeated Gadir Guseinov and had shocking victories over former world championship contenders Vassily Ivanchuk (ELO 2739) and Gata Kamsky (ELO 2695) before being knocked out by Vladimir Malakhov in Round Four.
He is now playing in Corus B and scored 5 out of 8 with 2 wins and 6 draws. There are still 5 more rounds to play, we wait for good news from The Whizkid
CORUS 2010: Round 9 Pairings
Vladimir Kramnik now in second-third place, with 5.5/8 and a 2823 performance (photo by: Nadja Woisin)
The 9th round will be played at Tuesday the 26th
GROUP A - Round 9
S. Tiviakov - V. Anand
J. Smeets - F. Caruana
L. van Wely - P. Leko
N. Short - L. Dominguez
H. Nakamura - S. Karjakin
M. Carlsen - V. Kramnik
V. Ivanchuk - A. Shirov
GROUP B - Round 9
D. Howell - E. l'Ami
A. Muzychuk - A. Giri
A. Naiditsch - T. Nyback
W. So - E. Sutovsky
V. Akobian - H. Ni
P. Negi - D. Reinderman
P. Harikrishna - L. Nisipeanu
GROUP C - Round 9
Z. Peng - S. Swaminathan
B. Bok - S. Kuipers
D. Vocaturo - M. Muzychuk
S. Plukkel - R. Swinkels
L. Chao - R. Robson
R. van Kampen - A. Gupta
K. Lie - N. Grandelius
