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"
Image: wikimedia – The World Chess Championship 1984 was a match between challenger Garry Kasparov and defending champion Anatoly Karpov. After 5 months and 48 games, the match was eventually abandoned in controversial circumstances with Karpov leading five wins to three (with 40 draws), and replayed in the World Chess Championship 1985.
Image: wikimedia – The Word CC 1985 The 1985 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov in Moscow from September 3 to November 9, 1985. Kasparov won. The match was played as the best of 24 games. If it ended 12-12, Karpov would retain his title.
2009 – September – and the word biggest Chess Engines meet again…25 years on. Follow their games live on the top link on my blog’s side bar or click HEREto follow their games live. [the best link to follow their games live is the next link at the bottom of this entry…the site is chessok.com]
Click on this link to play through their blitz-games. The link will open in a new window.
Chess is a game that rarely draws a massive amount of attention from the global public, but a rematch between Kasparov and Karpov reminds us that it throws up the occasional great rivalry.
When Garry Kasparov challenged Anatoly Karpov in 1984 for the chess world championship, it was the beginning of a titanic struggle.
The contest lasted five months and featured a series of successive draws of 17 and 15 games. It was controversially ended by the chess authorities over fears for the health of the players, both of whom had lost weight during the struggle. Kasparov had been resurgent at the end, although Karpov still held a lead.
In 1985, Kasparov beat Karpov for the title. They played for it again in 1986 and again Kasparov won. In 1987, Kasparov was one down going into the final game, but recovered to tie the series and therefore retain his crown.
It was a great chess rivalry, but it was more than that to the watching public and pundits.
“It was very symbolic of what was happening to the Soviet Union,” says grandmaster Raymond Keene, chess correspondent for the Times. “It was obvious the USSR was going through a period of great turmoil.”
And the rivalry was perfect in pitching a brilliant, brooding outsider against the Soviet establishment’s main man.
“Kasparov was a southerner, half-Jewish, half-Armenian, much younger, in the vanguard of a change, taking on the golden boy of the old Soviet Union,” says Keene.
Keene organised the London matches of the third series between the players in 1985, which took place both in the UK and Leningrad. He was surprised by the stark disparity between the Soviet and the Western ways of organising things.
In London, after the matches, a list of moves with annotation was faxed all over the world within 15 minutes of the conclusion. In Leningrad, a sheet bearing only the moves was typed up, a press officer with a minder was taken to the local party HQ where the only photocopier was to be found, the sheet was copied and then manually handed only to the journalists present at the event.
“They were still mired in Soviet bureaucracy and fear of publicity. I thought ‘this place is doomed’.
“It was a gigantic metaphor for the collapse of a creaking, unviable, introspective, conglomerate empire.”
There had been other rivalries that never succeeded in sparking the imagination. Mikhail Tal against Mikhail Botvinnik in the early 1960s had the same hallmarks of the non-Russian outsider against the Soviet stalwart, but failed to develop into a sustained struggle. And the earlier battle between Vasily Smyslov and Botvinnik is probably one for chess aficionados only.
The other rivalry that spread outside the world of chess was between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. Their famous 1972 world championship match became another symbol of the struggle between civilisations.
Fischer was the Western maverick up against Spassky, the emblem of the powerful Soviet machine. And Fischer won.
“It was about Western individualism, depth of analysis, use of the technology available,” says Keene.
And the notion that ideas of a greater struggle would be imposed on chess was an invention of the Stalinist era.
The Communist official Nikolai Krylenko took his board games seriously. He was reported to have said: “We must organise shock brigades of chess players, and begin immediate realisation of a five-year plan for chess.”
He might have approved of the great rivalries with an ideological flavour that grew up in the 1970s and 80s. He would have been less delighted that on both occasions the Soviet establishment’s representative was bested.
Other sports have individual rivalries. Tennis has had some great ones.
But perhaps only boxing, with its system of champion and challengers, comes close to replicating the way that the protagonists have to study each other’s play and personality, even live in each other’s skin, during the mind-bogglingly detailed preparations for a world championship series.
Please click HERE to play through annotated videos of the games of Anand and Kramnik, 2008. The link will open in a new window. It is also the “movies”-link on my blog..top page.
Images: Official site
The big day has arrived! Opening ceremony on today…Monday 13th October
LIVE CHESS…click on the link on the top right of my blog! Follow this new link with the games I blog and chess graphics about their games….
14th October – 2nd November 2008….Who is going to be the winner?? The battle for the highest Chess Title! You can find the OFFICIAL LINK on my side-bar in the “Admin”-section as well in the “Chess” section…look out for the same image as the image in top of this post…I will be following the Championships and blog about it too…you can also find a link underneath my “welcome” image…on the side bar of my blog..(right hand side- top – the link will open in a new window) Please click hereto look at statistics between the 2 players on Wiki…the link will open in a new window. Schedule for the World Chess Championship 2008:
All games start at 3pm! 2pm UK local time and 9am Eastern USA time. Game 1 Tuesday October 14 —1/2 Game 2 Wednesday October 15 Game 3 Friday October 17
Game 4 Saturday October 18 Game 5 Monday October 20
Game 6 Tuesday October 21
Game 7 Thursday October 23
Game 8 Friday October 24
Game 9 Sunday October 26
Game 10 Monday October 27
Game 11 Wednesday October 29
Game 12 Friday October 31
Tiebreak Sunday November 02
On this link of Chessgamesyou can play through Kramnik and Anand’s games where they played one another. A new window will open when you click on the link! If you slide down to Anand, you will find more games to play through and at the bottom of this post you will find more links on my blog…- with games to play through- that were all played during tournaments.
Where: Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn
Overall Prize fund: 1,5 Million Euro
The match will consist of twelve games, played under classical time controls, in the period from October 14 to October 30, 2008. If there is a tie at the end of these games a tiebreak will be played on November 02, 2008. The prize fund, which will be split equally between the players, is 1,5 million Euro (approximately 2,1 million US Dollars) including taxes and FIDE licensee fees.
V. Kramnik and V. Anand. World Chess Championship Tournament Sep. 2007, Mexico City
Image: Official Site
1886 – 1946
Wilhelm Steinitz (Austria/USA) was the first official World Champion in the chess history. In 1886, he defeated Johannes Hermann Zukertort in the first classical tournament for the World Chess Champion title. They played 20 games against each other – and Steinitz won by 12.5:7.5 points. Steinitz defended his title up to 1894. Emanuel Lasker (Germany) deprived Steinitz of his title and remained champion for 27 years – a unique record in the chess history. The next World Chess Champions were José Raoul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine and Max Euwe.
1948 – 1993
Since 1948, World Chess Federation (FIDE) started to organize the World Chess Championships. After Alekhine´s death in 1946, the new World Champion had to be determined. Thus, there was a tournament with several players where Mikhail Botvinnik (USSR) became a winner. Since that time, the reigning Champion should defend his title in a match against a challenger. Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrossian and Boris Spassky – all of USSR – were the next World Champions. In 1972, Bobby Fischer (USA) broke through the dominance of the Soviet players by defeating Boris Spassky in Reykjavik. In 1975 Fischer refused to fight for his title, and as a result his challenger Anatoly Karpov was appointed as new Champion. Karpov – who played two times against Viktor Korchnoi and once against Garry Kasparov – kept his title until November 1985. Then it was Kasparov, who defeated Karpov by 13:11 points and became the new World Champion. 1986, 1987, and 1990 Kasparov succeeded in reserving his chess crown against Karpov, before he broke away from FIDE in 1993.
1993 – 2006
In 1993 Kasparov refused to defend his title under the conditions provided by FIDE – and together with his challenger Nigel Short (England) the World Champion decided to leave FIDE by holding the Championship match under the auspices of the new founded “Professional Chess Association” (PCA). Kasparov won the match against Short and retained the title of “Classical World Champion”. Two years later he won the next title match against Viswanathan Anand (India) in the New York World Trade Center. Finally it was Thursday, the 2nd November 2000, when Kasparov’s era ran out: with 8.5:6.5 victory Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) dethroned Kasparov, who did not manage to win a single game. Kramnik, at that time 25 years old, became the 14th Classical World Chess Champion. In October 2004 the next Championship took place: In Brissago (Switzerland) Kramnik held out against the attacks of the Hungarian Peter Leko and kept his title. Leko was qualified for this match by having won the Candidates’ tournament in 2002 in Dortmund.
On the other hand, FIDE continued organizing its own World Chess Championships from 1993 on. The FIDE title holders between 1993 and 2006: Anatoly Karpov (1993), Alexander Khalifman (1999), Viswanathan Anand (2000), Ruslan Ponomariov (2002), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (2004) and Veselin Topalov (2005).
The split of the chess world into two competitive championships ended in 2006. The duel between the Classical World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik and FIDE World Chess Champion Veselin Topalov took place in Elista from 23 September to 13 October 2006. In a historic battle this unification match combined both titles in one FIDE World Chess Championship. Having won this important event, Vladimir Kramnik became an undisputed World Chess Champion. Continue to read more on the Official site here: http://www.uep-worldchess.com/
Image: chessgames.com
VLADIMIR KRAMNIK
(born Jun-25-1975) Russia
Vladimir Kramnik was born in Tuapse, on June 25, 1975. In 1991 he won The World Under 18 Championship, and began a string of international success. At the Manila Olympiad 1992, he achieved a gold medal for best result on reserve board. Major tournament triumphs were soon to follow, such as Dortmund 1995, Tilburg 1997, and Wijk aan Zee 1998. Dortmund became a favorite stop, as Kramnik would go on to win seven more times, either as shared champion, or clear first. In 2000 Kramnik won his first Linares tournament, completing his set of victories in all three of chess’s “triple crown” events: Corus, Linares, and Dortmund. Kramnik would later capture additional Linares victories in 2003 (shared) and 2004.
In 2000 Kramnik reached the pinnacle by defeating long-time champion Garry Kasparov for the World Championship in London by the score of 8 1/2 to 6 1/2. Kasparov was reported as saying, “He is the hardest player to beat in the world.” The year 2002 saw Kramnik play an eight-game match against the program Deep Fritz (Computer) in Bahrain. The match ended in a 4-4 tie, with Kramnik and the computer each winning two games and drawing four. In 2006 the German organization Universal Event Promotion (UEP) would stage a return match of six games, which Kramnik lost, +0 -2 =4.
In 2004, Kramnik successfully defended his title by drawing a 14 game match against Hungarian GM Peter Leko in Brissago, Switzerland. His next title defense was in 2006, in a reunification match with the holder of the FIDE world title, Veselin Topalov. As part of his preparation for the match, Kramnik played first board for Russia in the 37th Chess Olympiad (2006), where he won the gold medal for best performance rating of all participants (2847). He also took part in the Dortmund Sparkassen (2006) supertournament, tying for first place with Peter Svidler.
The $1 million Kramnik-Topalov World Championship Match (2006), was played in Elista from September 21 to October 13, and drew record numbers of online followers on most major chess sites. After much controversy surrounding a forfeit in round 5, Kramnik won in the tiebreak phase, thereby becoming the first unified World Chess Champion since the schism of 1993.
Kramnik lost the unified World Champion title when he finished second to Viswanathan Anand at the Mexico City FIDE World Championship Tournament (2007). Kramnik will exercise his entitlement to a match for the World Championship against Viswanathan Anand in Bonn, Germany, starting 14 October 2008.
NOTABLE GAMES:
Kramnik vs Leko, 2004 1-0
Kasparov vs Kramnik, 1996 0-1
Leko vs Kramnik, 2004 0-1
Gelfand vs Kramnik, 1996 0-1
Kramnik vs Kasparov, 1994 1-0
Kramnik vs Kasparov, 2000 1-0
Leko vs Kramnik, 2004 1/2-1/2
Kramnik vs Anand, 2004 1/2-1/2
Kramnik vs Kasparov, 2001 1-0
Kramnik vs Morozevich, 2007 1-0
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Kasparov-Kramnik World Championship Match (2000)
Kramnik-Leko World Championship Match (2004)
Kramnik-Topalov World Championship Match (2006)
It is an almost senseless challenge to describe Vladimir Kramnik in only a few lines. His personality has too many facets; his areas of interests are too diverse. What is clear is that Kramnik is not solely fixated on chess. Current affairs interest him just as intensively as numerous sport and cultural activities, several of which he regularly engages in. The cosmopolitan would love to enjoy life ever more intensively, but his drive to succeed holds this inclination within limits. What is it that marks out a world chess champion in him even though he doesn’t focus exclusively on chess?
People close to Kramnik often claim that this has something to do with his creative nature and strategic gifts. Kramnik considers chess less as a sport and more as the art of carrying out a long-term plan. The harmonious interplay of his pieces and the beauty of his game are already legendary. He is always searching for creative and new solutions, particularly when he is playing.
In many games, they say, he sees things that no computer can calculate and no other grandmasters could discover. The ingenious ideas would come to him quite easily, providing him with moments of pure joy. The artistic vein in the 32-year-old Muscovite must have been given to him in his cradle. His father Boris is a well-known sculptor; his mother Irina a music teacher. No wonder that journalists all over the world have dubbed Kramnik an “artist” or “painter”.
Kramnik started to play chess at the age of five. At 12, his enormous talent was recognized in Moscow and encouraged. As a teenager, Kramnik got better and better – at only 16, he won the U18 World Championship. The list of his victories is long. He has already finished all major tournaments in the world as the victor. And he holds a record which made sporting history: Kramnik was unbeaten at the highest level in 86 classical games over 18 months up to July 2000. World Championship
Thursday, November 2, 2000, London: Vladimir Kramnik became the World Chess Champion with a brilliant 8.5-6.5 result against Garry Kasparov (Russia), who could not win a single game. After Garry Kasparov had congratulated him, the greatest dream of his life became true. Exulting, Kramnik threw his arms up into the air in triumph. The audience’s applause and the subsequent tumult will not be forgotten. It was a historic moment in the history of chess: Kramnik had not only won the lion’s share of the two-million dollar prize money; his victory had ended Kasparov’s 15-year-long reign on the chess throne.
First Challenge
In 2004, he faced off in another World Championship Match, this time in Switzerland : Kramnik successfully defended his title against the Hungarian super grandmaster Péter Lékó. In a complex strategic battle, he pulled off a supreme coup, winning in the 14th game – the last in the match – with a 7:7 tie. Kramnik was lucky because it was agreed before the match that he had to be beaten outright based on points – the challenger Lékó came heart-wrenchingly close to doing so.
2005 was a year of ups and downs for the World Champion. Kramnik was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, entered intense medical treatment, and disappeared from the tournament hubbub for six months. The break seemed to rejuvenate the Russian – at his comeback in the 2006 Chess Olympiad in Turin , he had the best individual score of all 1,000 participants. Kramnik was successful in several tournaments thereafter and on 1 January 2008 he again occupied the no. 1 position in the FIDE world ranking list.
The Unification Match
In October 2006, Kramnik faced the biggest challenge: the unification match that would decide who the next unique, absolute World Champion would be. In a historic fight against all sort of adversities, Kramnik defeated the FIDE champion Veselin Topalov ( Bulgaria ) to become the first unified World Champion after 1993, the one and only official World Chess Champion. His win in Elista was one of the most impressive victories in all of sports history.
Highlights:
– World Chess Champion 2000-2007
– Undefeated in three World Championship Matches
– Three-time Olympiad winner as a member of the Russian team
– Russian Honoured Master of Sport
– Current ELO rating: 2788
Please click HERE to play through Kramnik’s games on chessgames.com The link will open in a new window.
VISWANATHAN ANAND All games on these links will open in a new window.
Please click HEREto play through a ‘Petrov Defence’- game which was played in 2003. This Sicilian game was played in 2001and this Sicilian Najdorf was played in 2003. (born Dec-11-1969) India
Viswanathan Anand, or “Vishy” as he is known to his fans, became in 1984 the youngest Indian to earn the title of IM at the age of fifteen. At the age of sixteen he became the Indian Champion. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Championship. At the age of eighteen, he became India’s first grandmaster. His prowess at quick-play chess earned him the nickname “The Lightning Kid.”
Anand contested a match with Garry Kasparov for the PCA World Chess Championship in 1995, but lost. Three years later he won a knockout tournament in Groningen to qualify to play for the FIDE title against Anatoli Karpov, but was defeated in rapid tie-breaks. a game by them in 1996 with the Reti-opening.
In 1998, he won the strongest Linares tournament ever, with an average rating of 2752, making it a category 21 event. In 2000, he beat Alexey Shirov to become the FIDE World Chess Champion. He is a four-time winner of the Chess Oscar award and the 2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion. In spring of 2006, following a record-extending fifth victory at Corus Wijk aan Zee (2006), Anand became only the fourth player ever to crack the 2800-Elo mark in FIDE ratings, following Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Veselin Topalov. 2007 was a year of two memorable milestones for Anand. First, he finally achieved his longtime goal of becoming world #1 in ratings. After winning his second victory at Linares-Morelia (2007), he overtook Topalov to claim first place on FIDE’s April list. His second great success came at the FIDE World Championship Tournament (2007). Leading throughout the event, Anand captured the unified World Chess Champion title with an undefeated +4 score. A few months later, he won the Morelia-Linares (2008) outright for the third time. Anand’s first title defense will be in a match against challenger Vladimir Kramnik in October 2008. Please click HERE to play through the games of Anand. The link will open in a new window.
NOTABLE GAMES: Karjakin vs Anand, 2006 0-1
Anand vs Topalov, 2005 1/2-1/2
Anand vs Lautier, 1997 1-0
Anand vs Bologan, 2003 1-0
Anand vs Kasparov, 1995 1-0
Anand vs Ponomariov, 2002 1-0
Radjabov vs Anand, 2002 0-1
Kramnik vs Anand, 2004 1/2-1/2
Anand vs Karpov, 1996 1-0
Anand vs Kramnik, 2005 1-0
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Kasparov-Anand World Championship Match (1995)
Karpov-Anand World Championship (1998)
FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2000)
FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2001)
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Kasparov-Anand World Championship Match (1995)
Karpov-Anand World Championship (1998)
FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2000)
FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2001)
Acclaimed as the Fastest Brain in the world, Viswanathan Anand is the World Number one and World Champion. It is his success in the world scene that has made this ancient Indian game, a mass sport in India.The critics rate him as one of the biggest natural talents ever in the history of chess. His hallmark lightening speed and intuitive play came to be recognised when he became the first Indian Grandmaster in 1987.
On 29th September 2007 Anand became World Champion for the second time in his career. By winning the event in Mexico Anand becomes the Undisputed Champion, ending many years of schism in the chess world. An feat that is unique as he achieved it while being the World No.1. A honour shared by a select few. Anand became the first Asian to win the World Championships in 2000. In 2007 Anand reached the number one spot on the world ranking lists by winning the prestigious Linares tournament. He becomes the seventh person in modern chess history to reach the coveted spot. This is the first for an Indian and Asian . He won the prestigious Melody Amber, Blind & Rapid chess in Monaco in 2003, 2005, 2004(Rapid), 2006, 2007(Rapid). The Leon Magistral for the seventh time, Corsica Masters five times & the Mainz Classic a staggering ten times. His results in rapid chess make him one , if not the greatest player ever in chess history . If his talent as a Rapid chess player is legendary, his records in classical chess have been superlative. In January 2006, he became the only player in chess history to win the Corus Chess event 5 times in the tournament’s 70-year history. He has won the prestigious Corus event 5 times (1989,1998,2003,2004 & 2006), Linares Super Tournament 3 times (1998 , 2007 and 2008), Dortmund Sparkassen 3 times (1996,2000 & 2004) and other important events like, Madrid Masters, Biel etc.
One of the few non-Soviet players in the sport, Viswanathan Anand has been feted with many international awards. He is the proud recipient of the Chess Oscars given for the best player of the year . He received this award four times. (1997,1998, 2003,2004) (An unique distinction he shares with Bobby Fischer).In India he has received the civilian awards, Padma Vibhushan,Padma Bhushan, the Padmashree and the Arjuna Award. He is the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. He has received other prestigious awards from private organisations .
Having travelled to close to 50 countries, Anand is also fluent in Spanish and German. One of the projects closest to heart is the NIIT Mind Champions Academy which aims at taking chess to over 1 million children from both Government and Private schools in India . Known as the Gentleman Champion in the chess world, Anand is a spokesperson for Vidyasagar, a NGO that crusades for the Inclusion of children with cerebral palsy and he also represents Avahan, the Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation initiative on AIDS. Anand is a keen follower of current affairs, world business and astronomy. Source: http://www.uep-worldchess.com/
On all of these links – on my blog – you will find games of Kramnik or Anand which you can play through — games they played during different tournaments.
Image: switec.ch Grandmaster Tournament 2008 This post will be kept updated as the tournament goes.
The 41th Biel International Chess Festival will take place from July 19th to August 1st 2008.
The six grandmasters will start their tournament on Sunday 20th July, 14.00 local time (12 pm GMT).
Please click HERE for the Official site where you can find a link to LIVE CHESS too.
Biel is the only town in Switzerland in which French and German are both spoken on an equal basis. The street signs, for example, are written in both languages, and Biel has the open-minded mentality that comes from the mixture of two languages.
Alekseev wins Biel! Please click HERE to play through the games of round 10 and you can view the tie-break results here too.
Dominguez vs Carlsen round 9 final position Please click HERE to play through the games of round 9.
Biel International Chess …9th round (July 30th) pairings and results Alexander Onischuk – Evgeny Alekseev–0 -1
Leinier Dominguez – Magnus Carlsen–1/2
Yannick Pelletier – Etienne Bacrot– 1/2
Please click HERE to play through the games of round 8.
Image: Official site: Round 8: Alekseev vs Dominguez Biel International Chess: 8th round (July 29th): Pairings and results Evgeny Alekseev – Leinier Dominguez — 0 – 1 (oh dear!! He’s leading again and what about Carlsen!!)
Etienne Bacrot – Magnus Carlsen — 1/2
Yannick Pelletier – Alexander Onischuk — 1/2
Alekseev vs Dominguez round 8 move 16
Bacrot vs Carlsen round 8 move 24
Pelletier vs Onischuk round 8 move 12
Image: Official site…Carlsen vs Alekseev round 7
Please click HERE to play through the games of round 7. Biel International Chess : 7th round parings and results: 28th July Magnus Carlsen – Evgeny Alekseev — 0-1
Leinier Dominguez – Yannick Pelletier –1-0
Alexander Onischuk – Etienne Bacrot — 0-1
Carlsen vs Alekseev round 7 move 13
Dominguez vs Pelletier round 7 move 16
Onischuk vs Bacrot round 7 move 16
Image: Official site…round 6: Onischuk vs Dominguez Biel International Chess…round 6 pairings and results
Please click HERE to play through the games of round 6.
Alexander Onischuk – Leinier Dominguez — 0-1
Yannick Pelletier – Magnus Carlsen — 0-1
Etienne Bacrot – Evgeny Alekseev — 1-0
Image: Official site…Carlsen vs Dominguez…round 5
Please click HERE to play through the games of round 5.
Biel International Chess round 5 pairings and results. Evgeny Alekseev – Alexander Onischuk — 1/2
Magnus Carlsen – Leinier Dominguez –1/2
Etienne Bacrot – Yannick Pelletier — 1-0
Please click HERE to play through an annotated game of Carlsen and Pelletier by GM Cebalo.
Image: Official site — Magnus Carlsen against Alexander Onischuk — round 4 Biel International chess….round 4…pairings and results…. Yannick Pelletier – Evgeny Alekseev = 0-1
Alexander Onischuk – Magnus Carlsen = 1/2
Leinier Dominguez – Etienne Bacrot = 1-0
Dominguez vs Bacrot round 4 move 25
Onischuk vs Carlsen round 4 move 25
Onischuk vs Carlsen round 4 final position
Pelletier vs Alekseev round 4 move 14
Pelletier vs Alekseev round 4 final position
Tomorrow, 23rd July, is a day of rest.
Image: Official site…Dominguez vs Alekseev round 3
Round 3 : Biel International Chess –22.07.2008…pairings and results
Leinier Dominguez – Evgeny Alekseev — 1/2
Magnus Carlsen – Etienne Bacrot — 1-0
Alexander Onischuk – Yannick Pelletier — 1-0
Please click HERE to play through the games of round 3.
Carlsen vs Bacrot round 3 move 16
Carlsen vs Bacrot round 3 final position
Dominguez vs Alekseev round 3 move 14
Dominguez vs Alekseev round 3 final position
Onischuk vs Pelletier round 3 move 4
Onischuk vs Pelletier round 3 final position Standings after round 2:
Pairings rounds 4-9..27th July is a no-chess-day!
Image: Official site…Alekseev vs Carlsen round 2 Round 2: Results –21-07-2008 Evgeny Alekseev – Magnus Carlsen 1/2
Yannick Pelletier – Leinier Dominguez 1/2
Etienne Bacrot – Alexander Onischuk 1/2
Please click HERE to play through the games of round 2.
Alekseev vs Carlsen round 2 move 18
Alekseev vs Carlsen round 2 final position
Bacrot vs Onischuk round 2 move 16
Bacrot vs Onischuk round 2 final position
Pelletier vs Dominguez round 2 move 16
Pelletier vs Dominguez round 2 final position First round Results Evgeny Alekseev – Etienne Bacrot = 1-0
Magnus Carlsen – Yannick Pelletier= 1-0
Leinier Dominguez – Alexander Onischuk = 1/2
Please click HERE to play through the games of round 1.
Alekseev vs Bacrot round 1 final position
Carlsen vs Pelletier round 1 final position
Dominguez vs Onischuk round 1 final position Left to right: Dominguez, Bacrot, Onischuk, Pelletier, Alekseev, Carlsen.
Image: Chess.com
Image: Wikimedia
Image: europeforvisitors.com
Magnus Carlsen, Norway
Leinier Dominguez, Cuba
Evgeny Alekseev, Russia
Etienne Bacrot, France
Alexander Onischuk, United States
Yannick Pelletier, Switzerland
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.
Spoken by great men:"Give me 20 divisions of American soldiers and I will breach Europe. Give me 15 consisting of Englishmen and I will advance to the borders of Berlin. Give me two divisions of those marvellous fighting Boers and I will remove Germany from the face of the earth." - Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, Commander of the Allied Forces during WW2.
"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 
