FIDE Grand Prix

The first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in London started at 2pm local time with the first move played by the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

Most of the games started smoothly and the Chinese player Wang Hao was playing very quickly the first 20 moves, with still 1h56m on his clock. His opponent was British number one Michael Adams who replaced GM Peter Svidler at the last minute. Adams took his time to fully equalize after exchanging the Queens. Adams was pushing the whole game, got a pawn up in a rook endgame but it was not enough to win. Draw.

The Cuban player Dominguez faced the solid Petroff defence of the young Dutch star Anish Giri. White got a slightly more comfortable position after the opening. Anish played very accurately in the middlegame and fully equalized. The Dutch player had 3 pawns on the “c” line but got a pawn up during the middlegame. Not enough to win the rook endgame however – draw.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov declined to go into the main line of the Berlin defence played by Peter Leko. 16…Qf6! was a very accurate move from the Hungarian player which eventually equalized the position. Players went into a Bishop versus Knight endgame, which ended in a draw in 34 moves.

Ivanchuk has chosen today the Nimzo-Indian, which apparently didn’t surprise Mamedyarov who picked up a rare line based on 9.Bg5. The Azeri player had some difficulties to castle and was able to do it only after 22 moves. Black got a very slightly better position in the Rook+knight endgame. In time trouble, Vasily managed to win a pawn and arrived in a Knight+3 pawns against Knight+2 pawns endgame. However despite several attempts black could get no more than a draw.

Replay the games with computer analysis

Report by Grandmaster Robert Fontaine

Round 2 pairings:
GM Leko Peter 2737 – GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
GM Adams Michael 2722 – GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
GM Giri Anish 2730 – GM Wang Hao 2742
GM Grischuk Alexander 2754 – GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
GM Gelfand Boris 2738 – GM Topalov Veselin 2752
GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684 – GM Nakamura Hikaru 2783

Official website

Sergey Karjakin is World Rapid Champion!

Sergey Karjakin is the new World Rapid Champion! He won the competition in Astana with 11,5/15, a full point ahead of the second Carlsen, after completing a fenomenal third day with 4,5/5. This adds yet another brilliant trophy to the carrer of Sergey Karjakin and one more time justifies the transfer that the Russian Chess Federation made a few years ago.

Magnus Carlsen was brilliant during day 1 and day 2 of the World Rapid chess championship in Astana. However, his third day games were in total contrast to the general performance so far. He started with a logical win against Ismagambetov, but scored back-to-back loses against Ivanchuk and Grischuk. A draw against Radjabov left him without much practical chances for the title, while in the last game he could have even lost the silver, had Veselin Topalov seen a forced mate in the endgame.

Topalov himself had yet another strange mixture of irregular performances. He made normal draws with Ismagambetov and Gelfand, and exploded in the right moment with a beautiful sacrifice in a key game against Grischuk. However, right when he was touching the silver, he missed the already mentioned mate in the game with Carlsen.

Grischuk and Mamedyarov had good chances for the bronze medals during the third day, up to the last moment they were possible top finishers. In the final table Grischuk has equal points with Topalov and will share the prize money with him, while Mamedyarov is half a point behind.

The classical chess finalist Boris Gelfand showed solid chess to take the 6th position, half a point ahead of Ivanchuk, Svidler and Radjabov. Alexaei Dreev is clear 10th, followed by Morozevich, Bologan, Kurnosov, Kazhgaleyev, Tkachiev, and Ismagambetov.

 More about the World Rapid Chess Championship

Participants list and information (in Russian here) / Semi Finals Day 1 / Semi Finals day 2 / Live games

World Rapid finals day 1 / World Rapid Finals day 2

Final standings

1	GM	Karjakin, Sergey	RUS	11.5
2	GM	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	10.5
3	GM	Topalov, Veselin	BUL	9.5
4	GM	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE	9.5
5	GM	Grischuk, Alexander	RUS	9
6	GM	Gelfand, Boris	ISR	8
7	GM	Ivanchuk, Vassily	UKR	7.5
8	GM	Svidler, Peter	RUS	7.5
9	GM	Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	7.5
10	GM	Dreev, Aleksey	RUS	7
11	GM	Morozevich, Alexander	RUS	6.5
12	GM	Bologan, Viktor	MDA	6
13	GM	Kurnosov, Igor	RUS	6
14	GM	Kazhgaleyev, Murtas	KAZ	6
15	GM	Tkachiev, Vladislav	FRA	4.5
16	GM	Ismagambetov, Anuar	KAZ	3.5

More about Sergey Karjakin

Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin is born January 12, 1990 in Simferopol. He is a chess prodigy and holds the record for both the youngest International Master (eleven years and eleven months old) and youngest grandmaster in history (at the age of twelve years and seven months). He is currently 6th in the world with ELO rating 2779, whilehis highest mark is 2788 in July 2011.
During the Chess World Cup 2007, which served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2010, Karjakin reached the semi-finals, in which he lost to Alexei Shirov. On the January 2008 FIDE rating list, published just before Karjakin’s eighteenth birthday, he passed the 2700 mark for the first time, with a new rating of 2732 and a world rank of 13.

In July 2008 Karjakin played a ten game rapid chess match against GM Nigel Short and won convincingly with a score of 7.5-2.5. In February 2009 he won the A group of the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee (category XIX) with a score of 8/13.

Later he also won the ACP World Rapid Cup which was conducted from 27 May to 29 May 2010. He defeated Dmitry Jakovenko in the final game by 4-3.

In November 2011 Karjakin tied for 3rd–5th with Vassily Ivanchuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi in the category 22 Tal Memorial in Moscow.

Vienna Children Chess Festival

This year’s Vienna Children Chess Festival was headlined by Veselin Topalov. The world champion of 2005 played a clock simul against the top U18 players from Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

It was a hard fought and close match, and after four hours Topalov came out victorious 5:3, but he had to concede defeat to Hungary’s Richard Rapport and Austria’s best talent Martin Christian Huber, who is only 13.

Topalov – Rapport HUN 0-1
Juhasz HUN – Topalov 0-1
Topalov – Kriebel CZE 1-0
Handler AUT – Topalov draw
Topalov – Druska SVK draw
Wertjanz AUT – Topalov 0-1
Topalov – Menezes AUT 1-0
Huber AUT – Topalov 1-0

The junior players' welcoming applause for Topalov just before the match

After the simul, while Topalov enjoys a coffee, Richard Rapport from Hungary explains how he just beat the former world champion

The match took place on 27th April in the Hall of Muses of the prestigious museum Albertina. The event had started in the morning with a strategy seminar on the chances which by the support of the European Parliament is creating for chess in schools.

Experts from eight countries attended the session. ECU President Silvio Danailov opened it with reflections on his lobbying effort at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Jan Callewaert presented the strategy and next steps of the Kasparov Chess Foundation Europe, which he chairs and sponsors.

Malcolm Pein from the UK charity Chess in Schools and Communities brought useful suggestions to organise chess in school programmes and campaigns. Stanislav Vlcek reported on the Slovak experience with the FIDE programme “CIS 100″.

Topalov surrounded by Austrian juniors, including Martin Christian Huber, 13, who beat him (second from right) and Hungary's Kristof Juhasz (third from right)

Topalov also shared some chess fun with Vienna children

The meeting was chaired and organised by Stefan Loeffler from the Austrian charity Spielend Schlauer, whose aim is to bring chess into primary schools.

Read also about Topalov’s simul in Scotland

Photos: Regine Hendrich for Spielend Schlauer

Veselin Topalov, Robert Zsifkovits, Vice President of the Austrian Federation, and Silvio Danailov, ECU President

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