16th Unive Chess Tournament

The 16th Unive Chess Tournament will be held from 19th to 27th October at the town hall in Hoogeveen, Netherlands. The tournament consists of the Crown Group, the Unive Open and two Amateur events.

The Crown Group is traditionally a four-player double round-robin, this year featuring the Women World Champion Hou Yifan, the US champion Hikaru Nakamura, the top Dutch player Anish Giri, and the former European Champion Sergei Tiviakov.

Last year winner was Vladimir Kramnik.

Hou Yifan

Hikaru Nakamura

Anish Giri

The Unive Open is a nine-round Swiss event for up to 90 players rated 2000 or above. The prize fund is 7500 EUR with 3000 EUR reserved for the winner.

Currently top rated are GM L’Ami Erwin NED 2631, GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2593, GM Timman Jan NED 2578,GM Van Kampen Robin NED 2570, GM Ernst Sipke NED 2554, GM Nijboer Friso NED 2525, IM Liu Qingnan CHN 2514 and GM Brynell Stellan SWE 2500.

There will also be two Amateur events (afternoon and morning Groups) for the players rated U2100.

Official website

Judit Polgar Vs Yifan Hou

Judit Polgar

The long expected Judit Polgar – Yifan Hou match has now been now officially announced. It will take place in China September 26th – October 2nd, 2012. The organization plans for 4 classical games and 4 rapid games.

The match announcement comes only a month after their game at the Gibraltar Chess Festival where Yifan Hou won the direct encounter with white and went on to share first place, only to lose in the rapid tiebreak against Short.

The Judit Polgar – Yifan Hou match will be at a perfect moment, as Judit is at her highest moment for the last 3 years with ELO 2709, while Yifan Hou is at a virtual ELO 2650, the highest of her career.

Source:Chessdom.com

Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan will play in the Reykjavik Open

The Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan, from China, will be among players in the Reykjavik Open, which starts on March 6th at Harpa Concert Hall, the spectacular waterfront concert hall in downtown Reykjavik.

She is the second reigning Women’s World Champion to take part in the history of the tournament. Nona Gaprindashvili played in the inaugural 1964 edition (won by Mikhail Tal).

The arrival of Hou Yifan, who shared the first place in Gibraltar with Nigel Short, makes the roster of participants in Reykjavik even more interesting than before. The tournament already boasts world no. 7, Fabuano Caruana(2767), who will is the highest ranked player, followed by David Navara, the other 2700+ player in the tournament.

Other registered players include Ukrainians Yuriy Kryvoruchko (2666), Yuriy Kuzubov (2616) and Vladimir Baklan(2612), which all have been among winners in recent years, the Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov (2659), Gawain Jones(2653) from England, Robert Hess (2625) from USA, as well as the famous chess book author and theorist Boris Avrukh (2605) of Israel, who will hold a lecture for interested players during the tournament, and of course perennial participant and Iceland friend, Ivan Sokolov (2641), who has been among winners two last years.

There is already a record number of participants, both in terms of number of players (185) and countries represented (37)!

Hannes Stefansson (2534), the most successful player in Reykjavik Open history with five wins, Henrik Danielsen(2536) and Hjorvar Gretarsson (2470), who famously beat Shirov at the European Team Championship in Porto Carras, are among the home defending team of 72 Icelandic players.

There will be big media coverage from the tournament, including 12 games live during each round, in addition to live 30 minutes panel discussion at the end of each round, hosted by the ever entertaining English GM Simon Williams and Icelandic IM Bjorn Thorfinnsson.

Click here to visit the official website.

Source:www.chessdom.com

Gibraltar Chess Festival R4

No one has a perfect score at the Gibraltar Chess Festival after four rounds. The top two boards were drawn and Le Quang Liem beat Ruben Felgaer. The match between Judit Polgar and Humpy Koneru ended in a draw. Swedish IM Patrik Lyrberg drew with 200-points higher rated GM Constantin Lupulescu. He had warlier draw with Alexei Shirov and beaten Eduardo Iturrizaga.

There is a huge tie on the first place: GM Hou Yifan CHN 2605, GM Adams Michael ENG 2724, GM Short Nigel D ENG 2677, GM Le Quang Liem VIE 2714, GM Laznicka Viktor CZE 2704, GM Sasikiran Krishnan IND 2700, GM Movsesian Sergei ARM 2700, GM Brunello Sabino ITA 2581, GM Gopal G N IND 2566, GM Rapport Richard HUN 2543 and GM Dzagnidze Nana GEO 2535 are all with 3.5 points.


Replay the games with computer analysis. Round 5 live broadcast starts at 15:00 CET.

Top round 5 pairings are GM Adams Michael – GM Brunello Sabino, GM Short Nigel – GM Le Quang Liem, GM Gopal G N – GM Laznicka Viktor, GM Dzagnidze Nana – GM Movsesian Sergei, GM Sasikiran Krishnan – GM Hou Yifan and GM Almasi Zoltan – GM Rapport Richard.


Source: www.chessblog.com