Nalchik 2009

Nalchik Live Games 2009

 It’s time for a chess entry! One of my favourite players, Ivanchuk is again playing and how can I miss this man if he’s playing! One other favourite  is Kamsky, although I haven’t played through more than a few games of him. Kamsky is an American player. I like the opening ceremony pics! They look spectacular! On the official site you can see even more. I think the players must have enjoyed all the attention they got from those beautiful girls!  Boris Spassky has been invited to comment the games of these chess masters in this FIDE Grand Prix Tournament. Click on the image-link for live games. All links will open in a new window. Click on images for a larger view.

Please click HERE for the Official site of Nalchik 2009.

Fourth FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik – The fourth FIDE Grand Prix Series Tournament has started on the 14th April and will continue till the 29th April in the Intour Hotel Sindica in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia. The fourteen participants include Ivanchuk, Aronian, Mamedyarov, Leko, Kamsky, Svidler, Karjakin and Grischuk. Average rating: around 2725 points. The total prize fund is 162,000 Euros.

The fourth FIDE Grand Prix will be the strongest in the series, and one of the strongest tournaments of the world this year. New functions on the FIDE website allow us to see the current rating changes of top-grandmasters. The average rating of the tournament in Nalchik will be around 2725 points based on the April 2009 list to be published soon. Previously the highest average rated tournament was held in the third stage of the series, Elista (2715 points).

The top-rated player of the competition is the World Cup 2005 and Olympiad winner Levon Aronian. Two players have also shown excellent results this year: Alexander Grischuk – the winner of the Linares and Elista super tournaments, and Sergey Karjakin, who won the Corus tournament in January in Wijk aan Zee. The World Cup 2007 winner Gata Kamsky this year has shown also a good performance during the Challenge match against Veselin Topalov. The tournament is so evenly balanced that every one of the 14 participants who comes to Nalchik is in a good position to win the tournament. Resource: Chessbase. All pictures of players in this post are from the official site.

Ivanchuk

Ivanchuk vs Svidler

Kamsky vs Bacrot (from France)

Boris Spassky, an old “friend” of Bobby Fischer.

All the players

Image: Chessbase

The entry hall of Hotel “Sindica”, where the games of the Grand Prix are being played.

Image: Chessbase

The city of Nalchik is situated at an altitude of 550 meters (1,804 ft) in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. It covers an area of 131 square kilometers (50.6 sq mi). Population: 275,000. The city is named after the Nalchik River, on the shores of which it is located. The word “Nalchik” literally means “small horseshoe” in Kabardian – it is a diminutive of nal, the Turkic and Turkish word for “horseshoe”. Nalchik was chosen the “second cleanest city of Russia” in 2003….Chessbase

Schedule

 

Round 5 results: click on the image for  a clear view

Standings after round 5

Nalchik Round 9 Ivanchuk vs Akopian end position 1/2

Nalchik Round 9 Grischuk vs Kamsky end position 0-1

Nalchik Round 9 Bacrot vs Mamedyarov end position 1-0

Nalchik Round 9 Gelfand vs Aronian end position 1/2

Nalchik Standings after round 9 – click on images for a larger view

Nalchik Pairings round 10 and round 11 – click on images for a clear view

Nalchik Pairings round 12 and round 13

Nalchik Round 13 – Bacrot vs Alekseev – final position

Nalchik Round 13 – Gelfand vs Sergey – final position

Nalchik 2009 : Final standings – click on images for a larger view

Read Full Post »

Hay-On-Wye

Chess champ takes on 20 opponents at Hay
May 25 2008 Media Wales

Former chess grandmaster Boris Spassky will today take on 20 opponents simultaneously – including one in Antarctica.

Spassky will take up the challenge at the Hay Festival, in mid Wales.

And, with Antarctica 8,000 miles away, it will be the longest distance live chess match ever attempted.

Spassky’s on-line opponent on the continent will be Ian McNab, a field technician with the British Antarctic Survey based on the Rothera Research Station.

His other 19 opponents, who include comedian Dom Joly, Liberal Democrat Welsh Assembly Member Peter Black, and a number of the area’s leading child chess prodigies, will play him in person.

Mr MacNab, 52, from Manchester, said: “I am not very optimistic. I would describe myself as an amateur, but I was quite good as a teenager. I don’t think that Boris has much to be afraid of.”

The former outdoor pursuits instructor is part of a British team of 21 scientists and experts who are undertaking a long-term monitoring of environmental and maritime changes in the region.

Their next physical contact with the outside world will not take place until the arrival of a supply ship in October 2008.

Spassky, a 71-year-old Russian, became grandmaster at the age of 18 and proceeded to win the Soviet Chess Championship twice.

He was in the world’s top ten players for most of the years between the mid 50s and the mid 80s.

The simultaneous chess match will take place at 6pm at Richard Booth’s Bookshop, in Lion Street, Hay-On-Wye.

The challenge pre-emts the former world number one’s talk at the annual literary festival tomorrow about his famous loss to Bobby Fischer, in Reykjavik, at the height of the Cold War in 1972.
Source of article : HERE …
 We visited Wales a few years ago and I wanted to travel back through this “town of books”…Hay-on-Wye…and on THIS LINK

you can read what I said about the town…I’ve added two pictures here from that link…and on THIS LINK you can see my pics about Aberystwyth, in Wales where we visited friends.

    

You can clearly see the slot to leave your money at the “Honesty Bookshop” in Hay-on-Wye.

 Hay Castle  is where the “Honesty Bookshop” is…where you pay 50p per book and you can see the slot on my first pic for the money!

…and this is the bookshop! image:travel.nytimes.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

 Please click HERE to visit the website of “Hay-On-Wey”…the “town of books”…

Read Full Post »

Boris Spassky pessimistic

 

Image: chessbase

Chess legend Boris Spassky visits rival Bobby Fischer’s grave

Tue Mar 11, 5:13 PM ET

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – Boris Spassky, the Soviet chess champ who famously squared off against Bobby Fischer in Iceland at the height of the Cold War, visited his former rival’s grave on Tuesday at a small cemetery near the capital.

Fischer, who died in January aged 64, bested Spassky in that headline-grabbing 1972 match to become the first, and still only, American world chess champion.

A clearly moved Spassky bent and dusted snow off the grave and flowers before straightening up and wiping his eyes.

“Do you think the spot next to him is available,” he joked to reporters afterward, adding, “We will see what happens.”

Fischer beat Spassky again in a 1992 rematch played in the former Yugoslavia that defied U.S. sanctions and turned him into a fugitive from his native United States.

He eventually became an Icelandic citizen after coming to the small North Atlantic island nation in 2005.

The former child prodigy was in his later life known as much for his incendiary remarks and his battle with U.S. law enforcers as for his facility at the chessboard.

Although he was Jewish, Fischer often made anti-Semitic remarks and said after the September 11 attacks he wanted to see his the United States wiped out.

Spassky has offered few comments about his former rival in the wake of Fischer’s death, saying only the man was a friend.

The Russian-born former champion, who now lives in Paris, was in Iceland with his wife for a chess event dedicated to Fischer’s memory.

Speaking with reporters in Iceland on Sunday, Spassky said chess now was just not the same as in his day.

“As for the modern chess, I am pessimistic because in my view computers killed classic chess,” he said.

Read article HERE ….

Read Full Post »