Hou Yifan of China is the sole winner of the FIDE Women Grand Prix

The 5th tournament of the FIDE Women Grand Prix 2011-2012 took place from 17th to 28th July in Jermuk, Armenia. 12 players competed in the round robin event.

The reigning World Champion Hou Yifan of China is the sole winner of the tournament despite the last round defeat at the hands of Kateryna Lahno. Yifan finished with 7/11 points.

Waking on the final day the three Chinese representatives were placed on the top three positions. But Yifan, Ju Wenjun and Ruan Lufei all suffered defeats against Lahno, Humpy Koneru and Nadezhda Kosintseva, respectively.

Hou Yifan

Kateryna Lahno

While Yifan already secured the tournament victory in the penultimate round, her compatriots slipped down in the standings to be replaced on the shared second place by their slayers.

Replay the games with computer analysis

Final standings:

1. GM Hou Yifan CHN 2617 – 7
2-4. GM Kosintseva Nadezhda RUS 2516, GM Lahno Kateryna UKR 2537 and GM Koneru Humpy IND 2598 – 6.5
5-6. WGM Ju Wenjun CHN 2518 and WGM Ruan Lufei CHN 2483 – 6
7. GM Zhao Xue CHN 2556 – 5.5
8-9. GM Danielian Elina ARM 2480 and IM Mkrtchian Lilit ARM 2450 – 5
10. IM Kovalevskaya Ekaterina RUS 2417 – 4.5
11. IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag MGL 2447 – 4
12. IM Khurtsidze Nino GEO 2456 – 3.5

Nadezhda Kosintseva

Enjoying the nature in Jermuk

Official website

The first leg of the Women Grand Prix in Rostov was won by Yifan Hou, she repeated her success in the second event in Shenzhen. Zhao Xue had no problems winning the Nalchik Grand Prix, while the fourth competition was ashared victory by Yifan Hou and Humpy Koneru.

The crowd gathering outside the playing hall to follow the action on demonstration tables

Jermuk at night

20th International Troy Open Chess Tournament

The 20th International Troy Open Chess Tournament will take place on 6th-10th August 2012 at the Anafartalar Sport Hall in Canakkale, Turkey.

The 9-round Swiss event is organized by the Turkish Chess Federation and arranged in three playing groups: Category A (Over 1800 ELO), Category B (Under 1800 ELO) and Category Women.

Female players can also opt to participate in the Category A or Category B, according to elo.

There will be Blitz Tournament on 6th August 2012. Its regulation will be announced during the Technical Meeting.

The playing hall in Canakkale

The total 13.500 TL (6000 EUR) will be distributed as prize fund. First prize is about 1300 EUR.

Currently 213 players are registered to take participation. Top rated are GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan IRI 2577,GM Kuljasevic Davorin CRO 2564, GM Guliyev Namig AZE 2539, GM Bagaturov Giorgi GEO 2455, GM Haznedaroglu Kivanc TUR 2433, GM Sriram Jha IND 2428, IM Annaberdiev Meilis TKM 2433, WGM Iva VidenovaBUL 2328 and WGM Pourkashiyan Atousa IRI 2313.

Official website

30th Andorra Chess Open

The 30th Andorra Chess Open is taking place from 21st to 29th July 2012 at the Hotel Sant Gothard, Ctra. d’Arinsal s/n. Erts (La Massana), Andorra.

The 9-round Swiss event is organized by the Federació d’Escacs Valls d’Andorra. The tournament is played according to FIDE rules and is will be valid for title norms.

Grandmasters Jon Ludvig Hammer and Miguel Illescas have used the advantage of white pieces to defeat their respective opponents in the round six and move into the joint lead with 5.5 points each. The two will meet each other in the 7th round on Friday.

GM Jon Ludvig Hammer

The defending winner GM Kiril Georgiev won against GM Fernando Peralta and is now in the group of players following the leaders half a point behind.

Round 6 standings:

1-2. Hammer Jon Ludvig NOR 2638 and Illescas Cordoba Miguel ESP 2601 – 5.5

3-7. Georgiev Kiril BUL 2680, Marin Mihail ROU 2548, Solodovnichenko Yuri UKR 2598, Iturrizaga Eduardo VEN 2628 and Arizmendi Martinez Julen Luis ESP 2559 – 5

8-19. Granda Zuniga Julio E PER 2657, Burg Twan NED 2470, Dgebuadze Alexandre BEL 2563, Negi ParimarjanIND 2661, Zoler Dan ISR 2527, Comas Fabrego Lluis ESP 2514, Norwood David R AND 2494, Alonso Rosell Alvar ESP 2502, Kogan Artur ISR 2587, Szabo Krisztian HUN 2548, Vila Gazquez Xavier ESP 2454 and Ibanez Aullana Ramon ESP 2288 – 4.5 etc

Round 7 top pairings:

Illescas Cordoba Miguel ESP 2601 – Hammer Jon Ludvig NOR 2638
Solodovnichenko Yuri UKR 2598 – Georgiev Kiril BUL 2680
Arizmendi Martinez Julen Luis ESP 2559 – Iturrizaga Eduardo VEN 2628
Negi Parimarjan IND 2661 – Marin Mihail ROU 2548
Alonso Rosell Alvar ESP 2502 – Granda Zuniga Julio E PER 2657
Kogan Artur ISR 2587 – Norwood David R AND 2494
Dgebuadze Alexandre BEL 2563 – Burg Twan NED 2470
Comas Fabrego Lluis ESP 2514 – Szabo Krisztian HUN 2548
Vila Gazquez Xavier ESP 2454 – Zoler Dan ISR 2527

Official website

Praggnanandhaa, Divya Wins U-7 National championship

Asian Under-8 champion R Praggnanandhaa of Chennai won the National Under-7 Chess Championship with a sweeping score of 11/11 score at Puducherry on July 24, 2012. He had won the title with a round to spare making it a one horse race for the title. Finally, he ended 2-points ahead of the field

The Girls section saw Divya Deshmukh of Maharashtra win with a 9.5/11 score. Here all players were defeated in atleast one game. Unrated Divya won by a one point margin.

The top three players will represent India in the Asian and World Under-8 Championships of 2013.

The Pondicherry State Chess Association organised the event smoothly. Chennai's R Srivatsan was the Chief Arbiter. The Chief Minister visited the event and inaugurated one of the rounds. The Sports Minister inaugurated the event. V Sabapathy, Speaker, Puducherry Legislative Assembly and Bharat Singh Chauhan, Honorary Secretary, AICF distributed the prizes. Trophies and cash prizes totalling Rs.1.50 lakhs were distributed.

Final placings (tie-break order):

Boys: 1 R. Praggnanandhaa (TN) 11/11; 2 Mahitosh Dey (Odi) 9; 3-4. Manthan Datta (Asm), G. Gnanasabesan (TN) 8.5 each; 5-11. Rishabh Anand (Odi), Rishabh Gokhale (Mah), B. Sriram (TN), Arka Bhakta (WB), Sudhanshu Nikam (Mah), Sathya Roopan (TN), Nikhil Mohanty (Odi) 8 each...139 players.

Girls: 1 Divya Deshmukh (Mah) 9.5/11; 2-3. Rakshitta Ravi (TN), Aditi Mohanty (Odi) 8.5 each; 4-7. Chinnam Vyshnavi (AP), Bhagyashree Patil (Mah), Jesica (Del), R. Mohana (TN) 8 each; 8 Ayantika Das (WB) 7.5...70 players.

Source:http://www.indianchessfed.org

The 21st Kavala International Open Tournament

The 21st Kavala International Open Tournament is set to take place from 25th July to 1st August in Kavala, Greece. The tournament is organized by the Kavala Chess Club and East Macedonia & Thrace Chess Union.

The players will be divided in three groups – Open A for those rated above 1900, Open B for the U2000 participants and Open C for U1050 and juniors born after 1.1.2000.

The playing venue is Foyer of Kavala Prefecture Amphitheatre (15 Erithrou Stavrou Str). Open A and Open B will be held over 9 rounds of Swiss system.

Top prizes in the Open A are 2.500 EUR, 1.500, 800, 500, 400, 300 etc. The total prize fund is 10.000 EUR.

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2 Be like Vishy (tribute to Vishy Anand) by Blaaze.
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Croatian Chess Federation

Garry Kasparov played against 18 opponents in a simultaneous exhibition in Split on 21st of July, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Croatian Chess Federation.

The Croatian media followed the event with great interest and the national HTV provided live coverage with commentary. Among Kasparov’s opponents were the famous singer Severina Vuckovic and her husband, the Serbian “Copper King” Milan Popovic, and the new coach of the national football team Igor Stimac. In a good show, Kasparov won all the games.

The ex world champion didn’t request a fee for the simul, as some days before the event he asked the Croatian Chess Federation to be their delegate at the upcoming FIDE Congress in Istanbul.

Garry Kasparov

However, Zlatko Matesa, President of the Croatian Olympic Committee, recommended that CCF should prefer to have a Croatian citizen as delegate. Consequently, the CCF Board voted 5-2 against Kasparov’s request to represent the Federation in the Congress.

Garry Kasparov issued a sharp-worded open letter to Zlatko Matesa. He hinted that the “foreign influence was taken into consideration”.

The Croatian media are unanimous in the conclusion that Kasparov wants to run for the post of FIDE President in 2014. As a longtime member of the Croatian chess clubs, and according to the FIDE Statute, he has the right to be nominated by Croatia.

Source:www.chessdom.com

2012 Sparkassen Chess-Meeting

The 2012 Sparkassen Chess-Meeting took place on 13th-22nd July 2012, in Dortmund, Germany. Ten players competed in the round robin tournament.

The top of the crosstable was crowded as five players entered the last round with equal 5 points. Fabiano Caruana(20 years old) and Sergey Karjakin (22 years), succeeded in winning in the 9th round to jointly finish on 6.0 points.

Caruana is awarded the winner’s trophy thanks to the better additional criteria (greater number of wins). This fine victory did justice to the young Italian who was seen as the winner of the recent Tal Memorial, but the unfortunate last round loss prevented him from taking the honours.

Fabiano Caruana

It should be noted that Caruana defeated the super-solid Vladimir Kramnik twice in the short time frame (Tal Memorial and Dortmund, both in the 8th round).

Sergey Karjakin also continued playing in fine shape, having recently won the World Rapid Chess Championship.

Four out of five German national players that took the gold medal at the 2011 European Team Chess Championship participated. Only Arkadij Naiditsch was in competition for the top ranking, eventually sharing the 3rd place behind the winners.

Sergey Karjakin

Replay the games with computer analysis

Final standings:

1-2. Caruana Fabiano ITA 2775 and Karjakin Sergey RUS 2779 – 6.0
3-6. Ponomariov Ruslan UKR 2726, Kramnik Vladimir RUS 2799, Naiditsch Arkadij GER 2700 and Leko PeterHUN 2730 – 5.5
7. Meier Georg GER 2644 – 4.0
8. Fridman Daniel GER 2655 – 3.5
9. Bartel Mateusz POL 2674 – 2.0
10. Gustafsson Jan GER 2629 – 1.5

Turkish Isbank Chess League

In the 11th round of the Turkish Isbank Chess League the team of İstanbul Beşiktaş Jimnastik Club won the match against Denizli Er Bakır Sport Club with 7:3 score. The fate of the match was decided on the lower boards while all Grandmasters made draws.

Besiktas continues to lead in the championship with 21 match points.

İstanbul Teknik University Sport Club is only one point behind the leader. The team, spearheaded by Viorel Bologan, managed to defeat Ceyhan Belediye Sport Club despite having almost hopeless situation during the match as the expected result could simply be 7:3 in favor of Ceyhan Belediye Sport Club.

Viorel Bologan - Vladimir Malakhov

Nevertheless, the team survived and even won the match with minimal score, as Elisabeth Paehtz held the position with a piece down, and Onur Kinzis tricked his opponent in the hopeless ending.

Members of Besiktas, who were almost ready to celebrate the victory in the championship, should keep fighting for the gold medal in the final two matches.

Live games with computer analysis

Interview with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Official website

Photo gallery

News and photos by Anastasiya Karlovich

Peter Heine Nielsen - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Turkish Isbank Chess League

After nine rounds of the Turkish Isbank Chess League the team of İstanbul Beşiktaş Jimnastik Club remains in the lead with seventeen points.

Two rounds were played on 18th of July. The toughest match in the 8th round happened between the leader Beşiktaş Jimnastik Club and the chasing team of Istanbul Teknik University Sport Club.

A very exciting game between Grandmasters Viorel Bologan and Dragan Solak finished the last and its outcome decided the match. The victory of the Moldavian player brought a tie for Istanbul Teknik University Sport Club which is now placed second, one point behind Besiktas.

Viorel Bologan - Dragan Solak

Ankara Gazi Üniversitesi Sport Club is on the third place with 13 points.

The Turkish Is Bank Chess League is taking place in Konya Rixos Hotel (Turkey) and will continue until July 22nd, 2012.

Live games with computer analysis

Official website

Photo gallery

News and photos by Anastasiya Karlovich

Viorel Bologan - Andrei Deviatkin

Pavel Tregubov and Viktorija Cmilyte

1st Elite Chess Championship 2012

Chromepet Chess Academy successfully conducted 1st Elite Chess Championship for school boys & girls on 14th & 15th July at Vivekananda Vidyalaya, chromepet.


More than 250 players from different schools actively participated in this event. Totally 160 prizes were given to the prize winners.

R.Ve. Krishna founder of CCA sharing words with the crowd

Mr.Ravindran correspondent of Vivekananda vidyalaya

Winners of the 1st elite Chess championship

CCA Prize winners!

Final Standings Top 5 

U-8 Girls

1. V.K. Vidula(CCA) 6

2. P.N.Kalpitha 5

3. R.Mohana(CCA) 4

4. Jaya shiva Priya 4

5. Sheba Sonali Thiagarajan 4

U-8 Boys

1. R.Aadith 7

2. R.Vignesh 6

3. S.Vishnu Prasath(CCA) 6

4. M.Hariprasath(CCA) 5

5. A. Bharath(CCA) 5

U-10 Girls

1. B.Preethika 5

2. Sneha Priya 5

3. Arputha Jasmine 4.5

4. Akshaya Lakshmi(CCA) 4.5

5. Swetha Balaji(CCA) 4

U-10 Boys

1. G.Sundhar Chokkalingam(CCA) 6.5

2. P. Bharath Koushik(CCA) 5.5

3. R. Dheekshith Kumar(CCA) 5.5

4. B.Mugesh 5.5

5. S. Bharath Narayan(CCA) 5.5

U-12 Girls

1. C.M.N. Sunyuktha 6

2. V.Aarthi(CCA) 5

3. R.Bhavani 4.5

4. J.Mahalakshmi 4

5. Padmaja Ramkumar 4

U-12 Boys

1. B. Rahul Bharadwaj 6.5

2. S. Karmukilan 6

3. V.K.Viekash(CCA) 5.5

4. K.Keerthi vasan(CCA) 5.5

5. Anirudh D Venkat 5.5

U-15 Girls

1. B.Swarnamala 6

2. G.Swetha(CCA) 5.5

3. K.S.Akshaya 4.5

4. S. Harinipriya 4

5. S. Mohanapriya(CCA) 3.5

U-15 Boys

1.J. Raghul Kumar 7

2. T. Vishwanathan 6

3. D.V.Rajarajan 5

4. S.Gokul 5

5. M.Karthikeyan 5

Click here to view the complete final list of the players.

Congrats to all the Prize Winners on behalf of CCA.

GM Peter Prohaszka is the winner of Ikaros Open 2012

The quantitative superiority of the young players at Ikaria this year (more than 50% of the participants were juniors!) transformed to a qualitative one with the 20-years old Hungarian GM Peter Prohaszka finishing clear first and undefeated at the Open Aegean Championship “Ikaros” 2012 with 7.5/9 (6 wins, 3 draws).

The 2nd place was shared among the Ukrainian IM I. Nester, the Greek WGM and champion A.M. Botsari, G. Goumas, P. Christodoulou, E. Kourousis and K. Vafiadis all with 7/9 but with Nester and Botsari having the better tie-break. A.M. Botsari won also the first prize in the ladies category.

In the following places we find S. Malikentzos, N. Galopoulos, M. Maki-Uuro and A. Papargyriou all with 6.5/9 and a very low age average.

In the special categories the prizes went to S. Georgitsis (<8 years of age), G. Papadoulis (<10 years of age), N. Georgiadis (<14 years of age), Ch. Karzias (<16 years of age), D. Papaikonomou (<18 years of age) and H. Pountzas (veterans). Final results and detailed statistics of all players can be found at: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr76782.aspx?art=13&lan=1

The three winners of International Chess Tournament Ikaros 2012 (from right: P. Prohaszka, I. Nester and A.M. Botsari) with the mayor of Ikaria H. Stavrinadis and the tournament director M. Venios (left)

Alexandros and Stefania Koukoufikis are Aegean Champions 2012!

2nd Lev Polugaevsky Memorial

The 2nd Lev Polugaevsky Memorial was held from 5th to 13th July in the Russian city Samara as a 9-round Swiss competition. 102 players competed.

GM Alexei Fedorov from Belarus, one of the few foreigners in the field, started furiously with six consecutive wins but then he slowed down and took only half a point from the remaining three games.

The final round was relatively peaceful with a bunch of draws on the top tables. Only the top seeded GM Denis Khismatullin won his game.

Eventually, IM Aleksey Goganov, GM Igor Kovalenko and GM Nikolai Kabanov shared the first place with 7 points each. Goganov takes the winner’s trophy on best additional criteria.

The total prize fund is 11.000 EUR and the tournament is a qualifier for the 2012 Russian Cup.

The 1st Polugaevsky Memorial was held in 2011 with the participation of 122 players. GM Semen Dvoirys from Chelyabinsk was the sole winner with 7.5 points.

Tournament website (in Russian)

Final Top 10 standings:

1 IM Goganov Aleksey RUS 2509 – 7
2 GM Kovalenko Igor UKR 2556 – 7
3 GM Kabanov Nikolai RUS 2496 – 7
4 GM Fedorov Alexei BLR 2562 – 6.5
5 GM Khismatullin Denis RUS 2664 – 6.5
6 GM Timofeev Artyom RUS 2641 – 6.5
7 Predke Alexandr RUS 2464 – 6.5
8 GM Ovetchkin Roman RUS 2501 – 6.5
9 GM Yemelin Vasily RUS 2577 – 6
10 GM Smirnov Pavel RUS 2592 – 6

1st Elite Chess Championship

Only Kanchipuram District players are eligible to participate in the forthcoming 1st Elite Chess Championship for school boys & girls organising by Chromepet Chess Academy.

Participants can register their name for the event till tonight up to 10pm !

Prizes:

Total 160 Prizes and Winners of the each category will receive bi-cycles!

Special prize for Schools for registering maximum entries!

Contact:

R.Ve.Krishna (9884017267)

C.V.Raghuram Balaji(9176012119)

E-mail:write2cca@gmail.com