Everything/Anything and…Chess…"Despite the documented evidence by chess historian HJR Murray, I've always thought that chess was invented by a goddess"–George Koltanowski: from the foreword to:"Women in chess, players of the Modern Age"
Vishy Anand, current World Champion and seven times winner of the Magistral, comes back to Leon to face the strongest Spanish player, Alexei Shirov, on the 24th edition. This tournament is already a classic, one of the most prestigious in the chess calendar.
Anand and Shirov will play in Leon with a large audio-visual setting that will allow the public to “see the chess stars thinking”, thanks to big screens and live audio comments (by GM Illescas, eight times Spanish champion) and IM Michael Rahal.
The rules, written by the prestigious arbiter Joaquin Espejo, indicate that Anand and Shirov will play six games (Friday to Sunday, two per day) with 45 minutes per side plus Thirty seconds increment after each move in the magnificent León Auditorium. If needed, there will eventually be a tie-break of several five minute games.
SCHEDULE Thursday, June 2nd PLAYERS ARRIVAL – 20.00 Drawing of lots, CONDE LUNA HOTEL. Friday, June 3rd GAMES 1 AND 2 (16.30), LEON AUDITORIUM. Saturday, June 4th GAMES 3 AND 4 (16.30), LEON AUDITORIUM. Sunday, June 5th GAMES 5 and 6 (16.30) and, eventually, tie-breaks, LEON AUDITORIUM. Monday, June 6th – Prize giving 14:30 Simuls (17.30), LEON UNIVERSITY.
Game 1 Anand vs Shirov:1/2
Game 2- Anand vs Shirov : 1-0 Click HERE to play through their games.
Game 3 – Anand vs Shirov 1-0
Game 4 Anand vs Shirov – 1/2
Game 5- Anand vs Shirov
Game 5 – Anand vs Shirov 1/2
I love this next picture which I put together in Fireworks – it is a combination of about 10 different images.
Ivanchuk’s last game…played in round 10…against Cheparinov…as by Kingscrusher of Chess World.
Image:chessdom
Image: discover-bulgaria.com…the building where the tournament is being held.
Ivanchuk the winner of Mtel…Final results…
Ivanchuk…image:chessdom
Ivanchuk Vassily 2740 UKR 8
Topalov Veselin 2767 BUL 6,5
Radjabov Teimour 2751 AZE 5,5
Cheparinov Ivan 2695 BUL 4
Bu Xiangzhi 2708 CHN 3
Aronian Levon 2763 ARM 3
Please click HEREto play through the games of round 10 — the final round.
Results round 10…the final round… Topalov, V vs Radjabov, T….1/2
Cheparinov, I vs Ivanchuk, V….0-1
Aronian, L vs Xiangzhi, Bu….1/2
Round 10 (final)…Aronian vs Xiangzhi…end position Round 10 — Cheparinov vs Ivanchuk…end position… 0-1
Round 10 — Topalov vs Radjabov…end position…1/2
Cheparinov…image:Chessdom
Aronian and Xiangzhi
Topalov
Standings after round 9:
Ivanchuk Vassily 2740 UKR 7
Topalov Veselin 2767 BUL 6
Radjabov Teimour 2751 AZE 5
Cheparinov Ivan 2695 BUL 4
Bu Xiangzhi 2708 CHN 2,5
Aronian Levon 2763 ARM 2,5 Please click HEREto play through the games of round 9. Round 9: Results… in blue…with the images… Xiangzhi beats Topalov!!
Round 9 Radjabov vs Cheparinov…after move 11 Round 9: End position – Radjabov vs Cheparinov… 1/2
Round 9: Xiangzhi vs Topalov…after move…13 Round 9: Xiangzhi vs Topalov…move 33 Round 9: End position….Xiangzhi vs Topalov….1-0!
Round 9: Ivanchuk vs Aronian ….. move…11
Round 9: Ivanchuk vs Aronian …end position….1/2 Results round 8
Topalov, V vs Cheparinov, I = 1-0
Aronian, L vs Radjabov, T = 0-1
Xiangzhi, Bu vs Ivanchuk, V = 1/2
Images:Europe-echecs
The amazing Veselin Topalov (artist’s impression pictured!) convincingly won his 8th round game against his countryman and friend, Ivan Cheparinov to close the gap to former runaway leader Vassily Ivanchuk to just half a point.
Ivanchuk was definitely second best in his game but hung on to draw against Bu Xiangzhi. Since his 5/5 start, Ivanchuk has now drawn his last three games.
Please click HEREto play through the games played in round 8.
Pairings round 9:
Xiangzhi, Bu vs Topalov, V
Ivanchuk, V vs Aronian, L
Radjabov, T vs Cheparinov, I
Round 7: Xiangzhi vs Radjabov…end position
Round 7: Topalov vs Ivanchuck…end position
Round 7: Aronian vs Cheparinov … end position
***This post will be updated as the tournament goes… so everyday’s results – till round 10 – will be added in this post. Click on images for a larger view. Please click on THIS LINK to see the results of rounds 1-5…also, to read about Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria where this Master’s tournament is taking place!
On this link HEREyou can play through games played in earlier rounds and see the results of round 6 and see two video annotations about Ivanchuk’s games in rounds 4 and 5.
On THIS LINK you can follow the video reports after each round….and HERE you will find the games from all the rounds being played. On my blog’s side bar you will find a LIVE “MTel”- link to the current games of the day they’re busy playing.
Results round 7:
Ivanchuk vs Topalov 1/2
Radjabov vs Xiangzhi 1-0
Cheparinov vs Aronian 1/2
Round 8: May 16, 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC)
Round 9: May 17, 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC)
Round 10: May 18, 14.00 EEST (11.00 UTC)
Tie breaks: 19.00 EEST (16.00 UTC)
Closing ceremony: 20.00 EEST (17.00 UTC)
Cocktail party: 21.00 EEST (18.00 UTC)
Images:MTelmasters.com… the official site
Sofia, 15 May 2008- Author’s copy of the ancient Bulgarian icon “St. Trinity” will be the special prize of the winner in the super chess tournament M-Tel Masters 2008. The author of the icon is the famous Bulgarian painter Katya Bajlekova the size if the icon is 62 x 46 cm and the image is aged by a special technology.
The special prize will be handed to the winner in M-Tel Masters 2008 at the official closing ceremony of the tournament on May 18.
Traditionally, for a fourth year in a row the winner of the Sofia super chess tournament receives as a special prize a copy of an ancient Bulgarian icon. As a three-time winner of M-Tel Masters Veselin Topalov already has in his collection a copy of the icons “Entering Jerusalem”, “St. George the Winner” and “Four Saints – Warriors” by the same painter.
Source: Mtelmasters.com This video is about the final round…round 10
This video is about round 6….Ivanchuck against Radjabov
This next video is about Topalov playing round 8 against Cheparinov by Chess World.
Nigel Short, British GM won this game due to the Fide-rule that chess players should shake hands at the start of a game. He offered his hand twice to his opponent. Read the press report here on Corus and you can also listen to Nigel Short in the Youtube video.
January 20 2008 – Corus Chess Press
At the start of round 8 of the Corus Chess Tournament, Ivan Cheparinov, top seed in Grandmaster Group B, lost his game against Nigel Short for refusing to shake the Brit’s hand. According to an article on the FIDE website:
“Any player who does not shake hands with the opponent (or greets the opponent in a normal social manner in accordance with the conventional rules of their society) before the game starts in a FIDE tournament or during a FIDE match (and does not do it after being asked to do so by the arbiter) or deliberately insults his/her opponent or the officials of the event, will immediately and finally lose the relevant game.”
Chief Arbiter Thomas van Beekum was a witness when Cheparinov refused Short’s offer to shake hands twice and the Bulgarian’s game was declared a loss as a result.
The Tournament Organization has received an official protest by Mr. Ivan Cheparinov regarding his loss against Mr. Nigel Short. The matter will be put forward to the Appeals Committee
Rest in Peace Bobby Fischer —b. 1943 – d. 2008
You can read my Bobby Fischer-poem HERE… On THIS LINK you can read an article about him that was published in the UK Times.
I was age 11, when I got my first chess set and chess book. It was a book written by Cor Nortje in Afrikaans…”Skaak!” In the back of the book, there are the games of Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. I used to play through those games to “teach” myself a bit more of the game. Nobody else in the family played chess! I got to like Bobby F and he was always – and will always be! – my favourite chess player! It’s very sad to know that he’s passed away, and as somebody said on the chess site… at the age of 64! A “good” number, as there are 64 squares on the board!! Bobby had an IQ of 187! A very gifted and talented player, for sure… What happened to him was really sad and even more sad that the American government “chased” him because of violating sanctions… that means that you don’t have the freedom to do what you love and what you are brilliant at! Sad….that is what politicians are good at…ruining other people’s lives! ..and sometimes with their “fantastic” ideas… even divide nations all over the world!
Fisher died in a Reykjavik, Iceland, hospital on Thursday of kidney failure after a long illness.
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Fischer faced criminal charges in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions.
This chess book is written in Afrikaans and was my first chess book at the age of 11. It has all the games of Spasski and Fischer.
Robert James “Bobby” Fischer (born March 9, 1943), won the World Chess Championship on September 1, 1972 and lost the title when he failed to defend it on April 3, 1975. He is considered to be one of the most gifted chess players of all time and, despite his prolonged absence from competitive play, is still among the best known of all chess players.
“Chess is war over the board.
The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.” – Bobby Fischer
“I am the best player in the world and I am here to prove it.” – Bobby Fischer.
He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, emerging occasionally to make erratic and often anti-Semitic comments.Fischer, whose mother was Jewish, once accused “the Jew-controlled U.S. government” of ruining his life.
He fell into obscurity before resurfacing to win a 1992 exhibition rematch against Spassky on the Yugoslav resort island of Sveti Stefan in violation of sanctions imposed to punish then-President Slobodan Milosevic.
A fierce critic of his homeland, Fischer became wanted in the United States for violating the sanctions.
“The United States is evil. There’s this axis of evil. What about the allies of evil — the United States, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers,” Fischer said.
Source: Click here for the news. Fischer told reporters that year that he was finished with a chess world he regarded as corrupt, and sparred with U.S. journalists who asked about his anti-American tirades.
He renounced his American citizenship and moved to Iceland in 2005.
Japanese Release Bobby Fischer
Ex-Chess Champ Heads to Iceland
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A14
NAGOYA, Japan, March 24 — Bobby Fischer, the chess legend who feared deportation to face charges in the United States, was freed Thursday by Japanese authorities after eight months in prison, the Justice Ministry said. He left immediately for the airport to fly to Iceland.
The deal to free Fischer came after Iceland — a chess-loving nation that hosted his historic Cold War-era victory over the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky in 1972 — granted Fischer citizenship this week in a move to help him avoid trial in the United States. Fischer, 62, who grew up in New York, has dodged a U.S. arrest warrant since playing a chess match in Yugoslavia in 1992 in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Read the rest of the article HERE …
Bobby as a 15 year old teenager….and America’s champ!
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, Fischer was a U.S. chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15. He beat Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America’s first world chess championship in more than a century.But his reputation as a genius of chess soon was eclipsed by his idiosyncrasies.A few years after the Spassky match, he forfeited the title to another Soviet, Anatoly Karpov, when he refused to defend it.
Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, has died. He was 64.
Fischer died Thursday in a Reykjavik hospital, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said. There was no immediate word on the cause of death.
Fischer’s first Filipino friend: He was very special
By Artemio T. Engracia Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:10:00 01/20/2008
MANILA, Philippines–FLORENCIO CAMPOMANES, the country’s chess pioneer and former president of the International Chess Federation (Fide), was Bobby Fischer’s original Filipino friend.
They met in New York in the mid-1950s when Fischer was emerging as a chess phenom barely into his teens and Campomanes was shuttling between New York and Washington DC while working for the State Department Read the complete article here.
For Corus Chess 2009 Live please click on the link. The post you’re in now, is the 2008 Corus Chess and this link will take you to the Corus Chess 2009 Live link! Thank you!
The Corus Tournament is a true chess festival in Holland. Read on the links more and try follow the games of the Grand Masters and other players! In the top corner of my blog, – if you click on “home” – you will find the link to Corus Live Chess too!! The Corus logo is there too.
WATCH THE GAMES LIVE here on this red link! The first round starts today! – local time in Holland 1:30pm. Click on THIS link to go to the official site of Corus to read more.
Read on THIS link more where the table of group A comes from.
Schedule of grandmaster group A
Round 1 – Saturday the 12th V. Kramnik – L. van Wely
T. Radjabov – A. Anand
S. Mamedyarov – M. Carlsen
P. Eljanov – P. Leko
M. Adams – B. Gelfand
L. Aronian – V. Topalov
V. Ivanchuk – J. Polgar
Round 2 – Sunday the 13th L. van Wely – J. Polgar
V. Topalov – V. Ivanchuk
B. Gelfand – L. Aronian
P. Leko – M. Adams
M. Carlsen – P. Eljanov
A. Anand – S. Mamedyarov
V. Kramnik – T. Radjabov
Round 3 – Monday the 14th T. Radjabov – L. van Wely
S. Mamedyarov – V. Kramnik
P. Eljanov – A. Anand
M. Adams – M. Carlsen
L. Aronian – P. Leko
V. Ivanchuk – B. Gelfand
J. Polgar – V. Topalov
Round 4 – Tuesday the 15th L. van Wely – V. Topalov
B. Gelfand – J. Polgar
P. Leko – V. Ivanchuk
M. Carlsen – L. Aronian
A. Anand – M. Adams
V. Kramnik – P. Eljanov
T. Radjabov – S. Mamedyarov
Round 5 – Thursday the 17th
S. Mamedyarov – L. van Wely
P. Eljanov – T. Radjabov
M. Adams – V. Kramnik
L. Aronian – A. Anand
V. Ivanchuk – M. Carlsen
J. Polgar – P. Leko
V. Topalov – B. Gelfand
Round 6 – Friday the 18th L. van Wely – B. Gelfand
P. Leko – V. Topalov
M. Carlsen – J. Polgar
A. Anand – V. Ivanchuk
V. Kramnik – L. Aronian
T. Radjabov – M. Adams
S. Mamedyarov – P. Eljanov
Round 7 – Saturday the 19th P. Eljanov – L. van Wely
M. Adams – S. Mamedyarov
L. Aronian – T. Radjabov
V. Ivanchuk – V. Kramnik
J. Polgar – A. Anand
V. Topalov – M. Carlsen
B. Gelfand – P. Leko
Round 8 – Sunday the 20th L. van Wely – P. Leko
M. Carlsen – B. Gelfand
A. Anand – V. Topalov
V. Kramnik – J. Polgar
T. Radjabov – V. Ivanchuk
S. Mamedyarov – L. Aronian
P. Eljanov – M. Adams
Round 9 – Tuesday the 22nd M. Adams – L. van Wely
L. Aronian – P. Eljanov
V. Ivanchuk – S. Mamedyarov
J. Polgar – T. Radjabov
V. Topalov – V. Kramnik
B. Gelfand – A. Anand
P. Leko – M. Carlsen
Round 10 – Wednesday the 23rd L. van Wely – M. Carlsen
A. Anand – P. Leko
V. Kramnik – B. Gelfand
T. Radjabov – V. Topalov
S. Mamedyarov – J. Polgar
P. Eljanov – V. Ivanchuk
M. Adams – L. Aronian
Round 11 – Friday the 25th L. Aronian – L. van Wely
V. Ivanchuk – M. Adams
J. Polgar – P. Eljanov
V. Topalov – S. Mamedyarov
B. Gelfand – T. Radjabov
P. Leko – V. Kramnik
M. Carlsen – A. Anand
Round 12 – Saturday the 26th L. van Wely – A. Anand
V. Kramnik – M. Carlsen
T. Radjabov – P. Leko
S. Mamedyarov – B. Gelfand
P. Eljanov – V. Topalov
M. Adams – J. Polgar
L. Aronian – V. Ivanchuk
Round 13 – Sunday the 27th V. Ivanchuk – L. van Wely
J. Polgar – L. Aronian
V. Topalov – M. Adams
B. Gelfand – P. Eljanov
P. Leko – S. Mamedyarov
M. Carlsen – T. Radjabov
A. Anand – V. Kramnik
Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe – Indian proverb
South Africa, Part I
By Jennifer Shahade
Click HERE to read about Jennifer’s visit to South Africa during May 2007. And….on THIS LINK you can read even more about Jennifer.
Jennifer with Carmen de Jager, South Africa’s Woman’s Closed Champion.
and….Melissa Greeff…SA’s Woman’s Open Chess Champion…read on JENNIFER’s blog more about them all! Last year, Melissa (13) won the girls section of the African Junior Chess Championships (U20) in December 2006 in Botswana, and was awarded a Woman International Master title (WIM) and her first Woman Grand Master norm.
"The Americans fight for a free world, the English mostly for honour, glory and medals, the French and Canadians decide too late that they have to participate. The Italians are too scared to fight, the Russians have no choice. The Germans for their Fatherland. The Boers? Those sons of Bitches fight for the hell of it." American General, George 'Guts and Glory' Patton.
Chessalee 
