Chess News and Features from Duif's Place

Our news section features links to important tournament sites and news stories from the tournament chess world. For a calendar of upcoming major international events, look into Chessville's annual events calendar. However, if you want information on local tournaments, check with your local FIDE affiliate (such as the USCF in the United States).

September 2005:

September 28 - October 16: FIDE World Championship in Argentina

FIDE returns to longer time controls and top 15 players for its new World Championship format in Argentina. The invitees include 7 of the world's top 15 players plus the most recent FIDE Knockout Champion. While Kasparov (retired) and Kramnik (declined invitation) are not present, the field is strong and the format traditional, so it is likely that the winner WILL be accepted by the international chess community as a true world champion. Live coverage with commentary will be available at most chess servers, and Chessbase promises to have its usual excellent photo coverage. A historical note: this will also be the first time that a woman has competed for the highest title in chess.

February 2005:

February 23 - March 10: Linares invitational in Spain

The 22nd Linares invitational tournament in Spain brings together some of the top players in the world (including #1 rated Garry Kasparov) with local favorite GM Vallejo Pons and FIDE's 2005 knockout champion, GM Kasimdzhanov, for a double round robin event which many players consider the best "unofficial world championship. " Along with Kasparov, #2 GM Viswanathan Anand of India. #3 GM Topalov. and GM Peter Leko of Hungary (who recently won the Corus event) are playing.

With 7 players in the event, there are 3 games on each playing day with one player taking a bye. This format allows the 14 round event to be completed in just 16 days.

Topalov defeated Kasparov in their last round game, leaving these two players with 4 points each. The money was split evenly, with Kasparov winning the first place trophy based on tiebreak formulas. At the press conference following the event, Garry Kasparov stunned the chess world by announcing his retirement from professional chess.

The Week in Chess provides its usual excellent coverage, and Chessbase has some excellent photo features.

February 14 - February 24: Aeroflot Open in Moscow

The Aeroflot Open has become one of the strongest swiss system open events on the calendar, each year attracting upwards of 80 grandmasters for its top section. First prize is $30,000, with a total prize fund for all three sections of $175,000. Many rising IMs are also attracted to the opportunity to play very strong competition. This year the event was won by GM Emil Sutovsky of Isreal on tiebreak in a gorup of 5 GMs who finished with 6.5 out of 9. final standings.

January 2005:

January 15 - January 30: Corus Tournament at Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands

The tournament at Wijk aan Zee (now sponsored by Corus Steel Company) is one of the premiere events of the annual chess calendar. A privately organised event held in a round robin format at classical time controls, it has long attracted some of the top names in the chess world.

In 2005, the organisers outdid themselves--the event included the players rated #2 - #9 in the world, plus the winner of last year's Corus B section, Bruzon of Cuba. This was GM Judit Polgar's first event since taking a maternity leave of 15 months for the birth of her son.

And where was player #1? GM Garry Kasparov had intended to play in this event, as he often does. But at the time that invitations were issued, he was committed to playing a reunification match in Dubai at the same time. Since then, the Dubai match was cancelled, and missing this event is one of the main reasons Kasparov has decided not to continue with reunification efforts. (See note at the top of this page.)

The event was covered live on most of the chess servers. In addition, you can find excellent coverage at The Week in Chess, photo reports at Chessbase, and full coverage at the official site in Dutch and English.

In the end, it was GM Peter Leko of Hungary who won the tournament. Not only was he the only player in the 14 person field to go undefeated, he was also the only one to beat top-rated GM Viswanathan Anand of India. GM Judit Polgar, back from her 15 month maternity leave, played well, finishing tied for 4th and showing no particular signs of rust after being out of tournament play for over a year. Chessbase offers an excellent pictorial report.

November 2004:

November 23 - December 5: US Chess Championship

The 2005 (yes, you read that right) US Championship will be held in San Diego this year at the Hilton Torrey Pine Hotel. First round will be November 24th. This is a 9 round Swiss with a field of 64 players. Some of the players qualified by rating, others by placing near the top in specific events throughout the year.

One of the most interesting entrants is former US Champion Gata Kamsky, who is returning to chess after a layoff of several years while he attended law school. The defending champion for the event is GM Alex Shabalov.

There will be live game coverage on the official site and at the ICC. For more information, see the official site.

November 14 - December 1: Russian Chess Championship

Chess has long been an important part of Russian culture, and Russia has regularly produced a high percentage of the world's top players. In recent times, though, the Russian championship has not always been attended by the "best of the best," as its dates sometimes conflicted with those of important international events.

October 2004:

October 14 - 31: Chess Olympiad, Calvia, Majorca

Like the Olympics, the Olympiad attracts national teams from around the globe, with widely varying degrees of skill. Some of the best in the world will be here (including Viswanathan Anand of India, playing board 1 for his country), as well as many players who would otherwise qualify as amateurs. A fun event with some ecellent quality chess. Teams from over 120 countries are expected to participate. Ukraine finished first. See the official site for more information, including an excellent history of the Olympiad.

October 3 - 9: European Club Championship, Izmir, Turkey
ECC 2004

Many of Europe's top Grandmasters (including those in countries like Russia and the Ukraine) play for private club teams from time to time. Some are regulars--others are carried on the roster and just show up for an occasional game. And because private club rules generally do not require national citizenship, you also get foreign players like Viswanathan Anand of India or American or Russian players associated with German or French club teams. In fact, the very strong team from the NAO club of Paris includes GM Michael Adams of England, GM Grischuk of Russia, GM Vallejo Pons of Spain, and GM Radjabov of Azerbaijan (the world's #1 junior player), as well as 4 top French players.

These clubs play various local leagues throughout the year. In recent years, a new tradition has sprung up--the European Club Championship. Held once a year, it brings together a variety of private club teams in a Swiss team format. Very often you will see players from the world's top 20 playing. It is a shorter format than the Olympiad, and the rosters aren't always defined until the very last minute.

This year, the 20th occurrence of the event, the event includes the #1 FIDE rated player, Garry Kasparov, as well as GM Alexei Shirov (#10), GM Nigel Short (#21), GM Morozevich (#4), the very strong NAO team already mentioned, and over a dozen other players above 2600. See the official site for more information. Games are somewhat difficult to get, but the always reliable The Week in Chess seems to have the most current collection

#1 seed NAO Club of Paris took the gold medal in the event. Chessbase has a very nice pictorial report on the medal ceremony.

September 2004:

September 25 - October 18: Brissago, Switzerland

Classical World Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (who defeated GM Garry Kasparov in their 2000 match) finally had an opportunity to defend his title as he plays a match with Hungarian Peter Leko, currently ranked #5 in the world. Leko won the right to challenge Kramnik by winning the prestigious Dortmund tournament in 2002.

The match was 14 games, played at classical time controls. The winner earned the title of Classical World Champion and the right to play the FIDE World Champion (after the match between Kasimdzhanov and Kasparov) for the unified title.

Although Leko led by 1 point 3/4 of the wa thorugh the match, Kramnik won the very last game to tie the match 7-7. Under the rules, in the event of a tie, Kramnik retained his title.

News and photos are at the official site (although note that you really need to set your screen resolution at higher than 800 x 600 to view this site properly).

Games are also available in archives at most servers and at The Week in Chess. Games 12, 13, and 14 were particularly exciting.

July 2004:

July 22 - August 1: Dortmund

The chess world has a tradition of very prestigious, often long-running private events, organized by cities or company sponsors. Freed from the need for official "qualifying" channels, these events often invite the most interesting or most exciting players of the moment, and their ability to alter the invitation list up to a few months before the event leads to some of the most topical match-ups. Along with Corus (the Netherlands), and Linares (Spain), the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting (Dortmund, Germany) is one of the gems of the yearly chess calendar.

June 2004:

June 18 - July 13: FIDE World Championship Tournament in Libya

The 128 player FIDE World Championship Tournament is underway in Libya, not without some controversy. The requirement that participants get their visas for Libya at the Libyan embassy in their home country meant that players from countries such as Israel that do not have diplomatic relations with Libya generally chose not to attend, rather than risk arriving in Tripoli without a visa. Most US players (the exception being 16 year old Hikaru Nakamura) also chose not to attend. All in all 7 of the world's top ten, including Viswanathan Anand of India and Peter Svidler of Russia declined their invitations, with reasons as varied as the players themselves.

Still, some of the world's best are competing, including Topalov of Bulgaria, Ivanchuk of the Ukraine, and Adams and Short of England. 13 year old sensation Magnus Carlsen of Norway was also playing, although he was eliminated in the first round.

The format consists of 7 rounds of "mini-matches," with eliminations at each stage. In the first round, each mini match is two games, one game per day, with quick chess games used as tiebreakers if needed.

Coverage is available on most of the chess servers. The official site in English also has photos, daily reports, games, and standings.

And the winner is: GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan, who won in the tie-break games over GM Mickey Adams of England. The Kramnik-Leko Classical Chess World Championship will be held in the Fall of 2004. The current plan is for Kasimdzhanov to play GM Garry Kasparov of Russia, the world's #1 rated player, sometime early in 2005 for the FIDE title. The winner of that event will then play the winner of Kramnik-Leko later in 2005, thus reunifying the classical and FIDE titles.

June 10 - June 15: Armenia vs the Rest of the World

FIDE has declared 2004 officially the Year of Tigran Petrosian as a memorial to the former World Champion (and Armenian sports hero). Since his reign Armenia has consistently produced multiple grandmasters in the world's top 100--although few in the world's top 10. Chess remains a popular Armenian pastime, and many fans follow the international scene. So chess organizers in Armenia have responded with a really exciting event, one that combines both glamour (in a chess sense) and first class chess. Of course it helps that the #1 rated player in the world, GM Garry kasparov, was born in Armenia and has an Armenian mother--and that another top player, Hungarian Peter Leko (the challenger to Vladimir Kramnik for the classical chess title) has an Armenian wife. Add in a Russian, Boris Gelfand, who was the #1 student at Petrosian's famous school of chess, plus 3 Armenian GMs from the world's top 100, and Armenia produces a very strong team indeed.

Who to get for the Rest of the World (ROW) team? How about 2 of the world's top 10 who will NOT be competing in the Libyan World Championship (Anand and Svidler), and another who probably will (Mickey Adams), plus great players like Bacrot (FRA), van Wely (NED), and Vallejo Pons (ESP).

May 2004:

May 14 - 31: European Championship in Turkey

74 players, including GM Ivanchuk (UKR), GM Milov (SUI), and GM Mikhail Gurevich (BEL) are participating in a 13 round Swiss event for the European Championship. The first prize is 8,000 euros. According to current FIDE regulations, the top 12 finishers will qualify for the 2005 World Championship Knockout event. Games, pictures, and results are available at the official site in English.

March 2004:

Just call this "crazy chess" month--there are two events in March involving top world players and both feature unusual formats.

March 20 - April 1: Amber Blindfold/Rapids Event in Monaco

This event has a long history, and used to be the "fun stop" for players after the grueling competition of Linares. The format is one of the most unusual in the chess world. There are two games per day--one rapids game and one played blindfold! The players receive scores in 3 categories: points for rapids; points for blindfold; and overall (the two other scores added together). This year's field includes world #2 Kramnik and #3 Viswanathan Anand. Anand has previously won this event 3 times (including last year); Kramnik has won it 4 times.

These days the "blindfold" games are played using computers and special software. Each players sits at a computer that shows a chessboard on the screen, but the pieces are invisible. Moves are made with the mouse. When a move is made, the piece briefly appears, and the screen shows the piece, its from square, and its destination square. This appears on the screens of both players for a brief period, and then that piece, too, goes invisible.

March 17 - 21: Reykjavik Rapids Tournament in Iceland

So if the #2 and #3 rated players are in Monaco playing rapids chess, where's the world's #1? In Reykjavik, Iceland, winning the Reykjavik Rapids event! This event is a single elimination format, which means lose any round and you're out. Each round is a "mini-match" of two games, one with white and one with black, at a rapids time control of 25 5. If these games are tied, they play even faster blitz games (time control 5 3) until the tie is broken. Round 1 started with 32 players, then 16 in round 2, 8 in round 3, etc. One round (which means two games minimum) per day.

February 2004:

February 19 - March 5: Linares Supertournament in Spain

Always a favorite, this select event brings together 5 of the world's very best plus two rising GMs (one local, one junior), in a double round robin format that allows for lots of high level chess. This year the field includes the world's #1 Garry Kasparov and #2 Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, as well as Leko (Hungary), Shirov (Spain), Topalov (Bulgaria), the young Spanish GM Vallejo Pons, and 16 year old Radjabov of Azerbaijan. Leko took first on tie-breaks last year over Kramnik due to having more wins, after an uncharacteristically poor performance from Kasparov, who finished tied for 3rd.

Final result: Kramnik wins. Kasparov and Leko finish half a point back.

The schedule is available on the official site. ("Descansa" means resting, and indicates the player who sits out that day.) The Week in Chess offers an excellent preview with photos and brief bios of the players. Coverage on most sites, including live audio commentary on www.chess.fm and a great round by round wrap-up with photos on Chessbase news. Chessbase also offers two more wonderful sets of photos that give you a real sense of what the event is like:

• photos from the start of the event
• photos from half-way through

January 2004:

January 10 - 25: Corus Supertournament at Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands

The organizers of this event always start the new year off right for chess fans! Now in its 66th year, this wonderful tournament brings together some of the top players in the world to play classical slow chess under excellent conditions.

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