International Chess 2014-

The new World Champion is the old World Champion, congratulations go to him- Magnus Carlsen is the reigning World Champion and despite some bad form he retains his title with some magnificent Chess. Commiserations to a great ex-champ in Vishy Anand though he has achieved so much in the Chess World.

Update on World Championship 2014: The date for the world championship between current World Champion Magnus Carlsen from Norway and ex-World Champion Vishy Anand from India has been arranged for the 7th November until the 28th November and is like the last match a best of 12 games series. The actual first game will be played on the 8th November, i will give annotated games on this site here and will give the results, day by day.

	Rating	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Points
Magnus Carlsen (Norway)	2863	½	1	0	½	½	1	½	½	½	½	1	--	6½
Viswanathan Anand (India)	2785	½	0	1	½	½	0	½	½	½	½	0	--	4½

Chess World Championship 2014 : At the end of this year, probably in November there is a return Match of Magnus Carlsen vs Vishy Anand for the World Championship. Their is much controversy over the match as it will be held in Russia and for only a relatively small amount of money (i think the total purse is less than a million dollars), although other places have put up more money and may trump the current leading bid. The politics in Russia make an event held in Russia loaded with significance.

Also controversial is the fact that the American-Italian player Fabiano Caruana has shown why it was folly to keep him out of the Candidates Tournament 2014 which Vishy Anand won, this being shown as corruption by the fact that Fabiano has finished way ahead of the strongest field ever brought together, in the 2nd Sinquefield Cup and way ahead of Magnus the current World Champion.

The British Problem Solving Championship started in July this year, the position below is from it and is White to move and mate in 2. Incidentally a fellow club member wrote down the position then forgot it but thought he could remember the position from memory. Trusting his judgment because he is a strong player, I sat down with him and looked at the given position but with the Knight on c7 instead of b8 and the Rook on c8 not c7 after deciding their cant be a solution we checked on the computer to see if it could find a solution as the computer looks at every move for about 6 moves (12plies- a ply being a half move by either side).

The computer stated it was mate in 5 so we assumed it wasn't the correct position given or remembered. Well this is the actual position below. See at the bottom of this web page for solution. Note that on the wrong position also their were white pawns on a3 and b4 instead of the Black pawn at b4 and no pawn at a3 although this plays little role.

The Chess Olympiad ( a competition of teams based around every nation on earth held biennially) started on the 2nd August 2014 in Tromso, Norway and as a Welshman it was a mouthwatering prospect of England playing Wales in the first round, the result of this was lets say not unexpected with a 4 - 0 drubbing by England on Wales but all the games were tighter than expected considering the differences in chess rating between them. The English team was mighty indeed, Gawain Jones, Nigel Short, David Howell and Matthew Sadler while the Welsh team which was defeated but not disgraced was Richard Jones, Tim Kett, David Sands and Francis Rayner. Rank Team Matches Points chess24 - your playground 

I am sorry I am not keeping up to date with the standings but after the final Round  the standings in the Olympiad are given below:-(only top 10 are given), England were the best British team as usual and finished in 28th despite Michael Adams getting the silver medal for board 1 and David Howell and Matthew Sadler coming 4th for their board. Both Nigel Short and Gawain Jones under performed. Nigel has had many successful Olympiads and can easily be forgiven and Gawain had very tough opponents on board 1.

2014 Candidates for World Championship Challenge Tournament

there is the Candidates tournament for 2014 going ahead now (13th March 2014) to decide who plays against the World Champion Magnus Carlsen later this year. It is a 14 round double round robin set up.

Final Ranking:-

1           Anand                                                           8pts

2           Karjakin                                                       7.5pts

3-5       ,Mamedyarov, Kramnik, Andreikin                 7pts

6-7        Svidler, Aronian                                            6.5pts

8           Topalov                                                         6pts

A rematch of Carlsen vs Anand is on the cards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are two major tournaments going on currently(2nd February), namely the Zurich Super Tournament which is the strongest in history -the first ever category 23 tournament no less. If you don't know what categories are they are a rating system of the strength of a tournament given according to average rating of competitors- a category of 23 means an average rating above 2800 which this is the first time its ever been achieved. The average rating is actually 2801 in this tournament as they have asked the top six players in the world to enter, and only them. The other tournament currently being held is the increasingly popular Gibraltar Festival.

 In the Gibraltar Festival, many top players participate including the likes of Vassily Ivanchuk(Ukraine), Gata Kamsky(USA) and our own Michael Adams, and Nigel Short. Their are many famous(in the chess world) players there including Kiril Georgiev(Bulgaria) and Pia Cramling(Sweden), the list of British players in the Masters Tournament(ie the top tournament played as a swiss*)  at the Festival includes the likes of Stephen Gordon, Lawrence Trent, Jovanka Houska, Alan Tate, Glenn Flear and  Robert Bellin. Mention should also go to the previously unknown to me, Martin Burrows and David Spence who are doing relatively well in the tournament mid way through.

*- a swiss system is a pairing system based on players being paired against someone on a similar number of points as themselves throughout the tournament.

Results update:-

Candidates Tournament

The challenger will be the winner of the 2014 Candidates Tournament, which will take place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from 12 March to 30 March 2014. The participants, in order of rules announced by FIDE, will be:

Qualification path	Player	Nov 2013 rating
Loser of the World Chess Championship 2013 match	Viswanathan Anand	2775
The top two finishers in the Chess World Cup 2013	Vladimir Kramnik	2793
	Dmitry Andreikin	2710
The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13	Veselin Topalov	2774
	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2757
The next two highest rated players who played in the Chess World Cup 2013 or the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13 (average FIDE rating on the 12 monthly lists from August 2012 to July 2013)	Levon Aronian	2801
	Sergey Karjakin	2756
Organizing committee's wild card (FIDE rating in July 2013 at least 2725)	Peter Svidler[5]	2752

The first replacement is Fabiano Caruana, by virtue of his third-place finish at the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13.

The tata steel tournament finished in the Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee, this time around Magnus Carlsen (the new World Champion) was not playing in it.

there are two sets of grandmasters the top section (A) is given below with their photos while the Section (B) includes the great Jan Timman

Contestants:Section A-

 Standings after Round 11 (Final)
   1  8.0  GM Levon Aronian       ARM 2812
 2-3  6.5  GM Anish Giri          NED 2734
           GM Sergey Karjakin     RUS 2759
 4-6  6.0  GM Fabiano Caruana     ITA 2782
           GM Leinier Dominguez   CUB 2754
           GM Wesley So           PHI 2719
   7  5.5  GM Pentala Harikrishna IND 2706
 8-9  5.0  GM Loek Van Wely       NED 2672
           GM Hikaru Nakamura     USA 2789
  10  4.5  GM Boris Gelfand       ISR 2777

11-12 3.5  GM Richard Rapport     HUN 2691
           GM Arkadij Naiditsch   GER 2718

Update(27/1/2014) :No surprises with the winner (Levon Aronian from Armenia), who, with a score of 8/11, is many peoples favourite to win the candidates tournament in March 2014, the big surprise is second place, with Anish Giri, the local Dutch player doing strongly to give a score of 6.5/11. Hikaru Nakamura was struggling with 5/11 and Boris Gelfand had a howler although it is a strong tournament. A game from the 2nd round between Levon Aronian vs Fabiano Cuarana is given here.

A mention should go to Wesley So, Pentala Harikrishna and Loek Van Wely for not, just, making up the numbers but putting up a strong performance. I say that because although they are extremely talented individuals they still often seem overawed by their more famous counterparts, not this time!!!

Section B: Jan Timman finished 2nd although he trailed winner Ivan Saric from Croatia by 1.5 points, the winner  had 10 points from (an unlucky) 13 rounds. Jan Timman is incase you didn't know, a great name from the past who came close to challenging for the world title on many occasions, he is Dutch, aged 62 and was for a long time considered the West's best player or literally 'the best from the West' as Soviet players called him.

Hastings 2013-2014:-

Over the new year period the Hastings International Tournament is held- this was won by several players including Britains own Mark Hebden on 6.5 pts, the full list being

A notable name for the future in the tournament was Marcus Harvey who has been making a name for himself in weekend tournaments recently winning a few ahead of Grandmasters- he is a junior and has even had the dubious honour of playing myself in the Bedford Open, anyway he finished on 5 pts.

A photograph of a South Lakes Congress Stalwart, IM Jonathan Hawkins at the Hastings Tournament 2013-2014

solution to BPS championship puzzle= 1.Nd1(threatening Ne3 Mate) 1...exd1=N (note other moves don't work either if e1=Q to defend d6 square then Rf2 double check creates mate and 1...Rd5 to give escape square for king on e5 fails to Rxe2+mate  ,and 1...d5  or 1...Bd5 unpinning the rook on e5 to defend the e3 square both also unpin the Queen so 2.Qf8 is mate for White, while 1,,,Rxc5 is mate because of double check with 2.Rxc5+mate, otherwise the Bishop could defend with Bd5 or pawn but the rules of chess state that if a king is checked by two pieces at once it must move out of both checks and not into an attacked square and if that isn't possible then it is check mate- the difference being with ordinary check by one piece is that the defender cant interpose any piece unless it covers both piece checks.) 2.Rf2 double check and mate.

note / you need to either get black to block the a8-h1 diagonal with a discovered check with the rook on e2, or double check with the rook from f2 and Bishop on b1, the nd1-e3 threat forces Black to allow either.