International News (2012) Contents:-

London Chess Classic 2012

FIDE Grand Prix Tashkent 2012

FIDE Grand Prix London 2012

The Chess Olympiad 2012

The 65th Russian Chess Championship

The British Chess Championships 2012

Dortmund 2012

The Tal Memorial Chess Tournament 2012

World Chess Championships 2012

US Chess Championships 2012

Kramnik vs Aronian Match 2012

Games Section

Today, Sunday the 10th December 2012, Michael Adams after pulling off a great triumph a few days ago, by beating the World Champion also got a draw against the ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik to finish third in this extremely tough competition. The British number 2 to Luke Mcshane (note I think he will be back as British number 1 after this tournament) had a great competition  losing only to tournament winner Magnus Carlsen.

The other two British players put up a creditable performance in such a tough tournament

I am slightly disappointed Nigel Short isn't playing as usual, although if you want a trip to London he is available to play in simultaneous events held during the tournament. I will provide a game a day to analyse usually involving one of the three British players.

The players include the current World Champion Vishy Anand and a past World Champion, Vladamir Kramnik as well as the Wonder Kid World Number One Ranked Player Magnus Carlsen, past world champion challenger Levon Aronian, top woman player Judit Polgar and top American player Hikaru Nakamura, three of the top four British players are playing Luke Mcshane, Michael Adams and this years British Champion, Gawain Jones.

Another notable absentee is David Howell which is a big shame, although its great to see Gawain given a chance on the world stage.

Standings after Round 9 (Final)             (Games)
1   18.0  GM Magnus Carlsen    NOR 2848        8
2   16.0  GM Vladimir Kramnik  RUS 2795        8
3-4 13.0  GM Hikaru Nakamura   USA 2755        8
          GM Michael Adams     ENG 2710        8
5    9.0  GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2775        8
6    8.0  GM Levon Aronian     ARM 2815        8
7    6.0  GM Judit Polgar      HUN 2705        8
8    5.0  GM Luke McShane      ENG 2713        8
9    3.0  GM Gawain Jones      ENG 2644        8

notice that long term British number 1 Michael Adams is now number 2 to Luke McShane, also in the recent news English GM Simon Williams beat the world championship contender Boris Gelfand in a recent, top event, game. I was at a tournament in Dundee at the time else I would have given you the game on here.

Some of you may be confused how the World Champion isn't the number One ranked player but this is because the World Champion is decided in a series of games in a match one on one with a challenger. unlike say tennis the rankings of games are all equal whatever the level and are only dependant on the opponents ranking and the result of the games. Magnus Carlsen is still relatively young and he has taken the number one slot by consistently winning tournaments, but Vishy remains the man to beat one on one.

The next round of the FIDE Grand Prix has  finished, neither Michael Adams or Hikaru Nakamura are in this round held in Nov. 22nd - Dec. 4th Tashkent, Uzbekistan, but the popular American Gata Kamsky is.

1-3  6.5  GM Sergei Karjakin       RUS 2775
          GM Alexander Morozevich  RUS 2748
          GM Hao Wang              CHN 2737
4-6  6.0  GM Fabiano Caruana       ITA 2786          
          GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov  AZE 2764
          GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov   UZB 2696
7-9  5.5  GM Peter Svidler         RUS 2747
          GM Peter Leko            HUN 2732
          GM Ruslan Ponomariov     UKR 2741
10   4.5  GM Boris Gelfand         ISR 2751

11   4.0  GM Leinier Dominguez     CUB 2726
12   3.5  GM Gata Kamsky           USA 2762

The thing to say about the results is the poor showing of all western players except Fabiano Caruana, both Boris Gelfand and Gata Kamsky finished in a poor placing. The Russian pair of Sergei Karjakin and Alexander Morozevich gave a good account of themselves and would both be missed if they didnt get into a candidates tournament, Hao Wang did brilliantly to join those two, him being from China, in joint first place. 

London hosted the FIDE (The International Chess Federation) Grand Prix from the 20th September to 3rd October at Simpsons-on-the-Strand a historic chess venue, the scene of 19th century chess battles of the past. The Grand Prix is to be held over 1 year in 6 different venues all in a all-play-all once format with 12 players in each Grand Prix event taken from a list below of selected players.

The three best results will be counted for the final ranking, out of four possible entries.

The winner and second placed player overall of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014. (Not to be confused with the March 2013 Candidates Tournament which will also take place in London. The winner of this 8-player double round-robin will play the reigning World Champion, Viswanathan Anand, in the World Championship Match currently scheduled for November 2013.)

The big news is that their is now a British player in the competition. Michael Adams has replaced Peter Svidler at the last moment as a Grand Prix event player. Also Sergey Karjakin has pulled out of the London leg and been transferred by the great Bulgarian Veselin Topalov. I don't know which of the Madrid or Berlin legs Karjakin will replace Topalov.

The Englishman Michael Adams has finished in 7th to 8th place. He played wonderful chess throughout but the competition was of the highest level. The joint winners were Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, Boris Gelfand of Israel and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. The tournament provided some great chess and was exciting to watch. I think congratulations go to the the three winners but also to the organisers who made this event posible.

Armenia vs China Round 7 Chess Olympiad -Istanbul 28th Aug to 9th Sept 2012

The Chess Olympiad has finished in Istanbul- 4 man national teams from all around the world played against each other and each of the Four Home Nations (besides Northern Ireland who don't appear to have a team) has a team. England did well in 17th place just 4 points behind Russia who were leading after but were pipped by Armenia, Scotland are in 76th, Wales 106th, Jersey and Guernsey submit a team but struggled. (final positions are shown after all 11 rounds, below). A game is included from Czech vs England by Nigel Short on board 3, England won the match 1.5-2.5.

Grand Final of the 65th Russian Chess Championship for men and 62 th of the Russian Championship Women's Chess Championship held from 2 to August 13, 2012 in Moscow at Europe Square, Building 2, the hotel "Radisson Slavyanskaya"

In the men's tournament are involved: the world champion in rapid chess Sergey Karjakin (2785), World Champion Blitz , Alexander Grischuk (2763), champion of Russia and World Cup winner , Peter Svidler (2749), European champion Dmitry Yakovenko (2722), winner of the Team Championship the world in 2010 as part of the Russian national team , Nikita Vityugov (2705), champion of Russia in 2006 Evgeny Alekseev (2673), European champion in 2011 , Vladimir Potkin (2651), the strongest young grandmasters of the country , Dmitry Andrejkin (2715), Sanan Syugirov (2635) and Daniel Dubov (2594).

note-words taken directly from the official Russian website

Standings after Round 9 (Final)

1-6 5.0 GM Dmitry Andrejkin RUS 2715

            GM Sergey Karjakin RUS 2785

            GM Peter Svidler RUS 2749

            GM Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2722

             GM Vladimir Potkin RUS 2651

             GM Evgeny Alekseev RUS 2673

7     4.5 GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2763

8-9  4.0 GM Daniil Dubov RUS 2594

          GM Nikita Vitiugov RUS 2705

10   2.5 GM Sanan Sjugirov RUS 2635

 

The youngster Dmitry Andrejkin really surprised many and won the tournament, a name to look out for in the future no-doubt, he is only 22 and has won many tournaments already including the World Junior Championship in 2010. A win of Andrejkin's from the Russian Championship can be seen here.

North Shields

The British Championships 2012 were held in North Shields which is near Newcastle and Whitley Bay which I slanderously confused with Whitby by saying Dracula famously landed there before being corrected. Ooops. The main competition included a number of masters-I(Alan Llewellyn) was there in person entering a subsidiary competition(ie the under 140 grade championships) running at the same time, although it ran just for the first week and in the morning not the afternoon like the main event. I  met the Grandmaster Keith Arkell, who finished 6th in the main competition, and I met Federation Master Julian Way who was in the very strong Major Open competition there and they we're very nice, I have seen Daniel O'Dowd, of Austin Friars there and Ian Mackay also of Austin Friars but I only saw the laters results not the man himself. George Horne of Barrow also went in a weekend event, and I understand Neil Jones and a few others from Cumbria went the second week also.

It was a great atmosphere especially catering for the chess enthusiast, the competition results from the main competition are included below:-

for further results see the official website on :- www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk -note-Gawain Jones won it by winning the two rapid play tiebreak games, i'm sure he's Welsh not English with a name like that!!!!, Jovanka Houska was the female champion. A game from the Championships between Gawain and an up and coming player that we know well in these parts from the South Lakes Congress(ie Jonathan Hawkins) can be seen here.

Dortmund Skyline

The regular Dortmund Tournament was held in Germany (July 2012) with many strong grandmasters playing, it is a 9 round event and after the final round, Fabiano Caruana the Italian who can also claim to be from USA continued his progress in winning the event.

Standings after Final Round : 1-2 6.0 GM Fabiano Caruana ITA 2775 

                                                         GM Sergey Karjakin RUS 2779 

                                            3-4 5.5 GM Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2726 

                                                         GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2799     

                                            5-6 5.0 GM Arkadij Naiditsch GER 2700 

                                                         GM Peter Leko HUN 2730 

                                            7     4.0 GM Georg Meier GER 2644 

                                            8     3.5 GM Daniel Fridman GER 2655 

                                            9     2.0 GM Mateusz Bartel POL 2674 

                                            10   1.5 GM Jan Gustafsson GER 2629

The strongest tournament of all time (if you believe the ratings, which many don't) has been held in Moscow in June 2012 (ie the Tal Memorial tournament held for 8 years now in honour of the greatest tactical Soviet Union genius Mikhail Tal) and a British player is included in the tournament. Luke Mcshane might not have done brilliantly but it is a tough tournament and Luke is an improving player. Luke has beaten the Armenian 2nd world ranked player, Aronian but has struggled to emulate this with the other strong players in the tournament, after the final round (of 9) the standings are thus:-notice that although Luke finished in eighth and ninth places he only finished with 1.5 less points than the World Number one who won the tournament.

 

1      5.5 GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2835

2-3   5.0 GM Fabiano Caruana ITA 2770

              GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2784

4-7   4.5 GM Alexander Morozevich RUS 2769

              GM Levon Aronian ARM 2825

              GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2801

              GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2761

8-9   4.0 GM Hikaru Nakamura USA 2775

              GM Luke McShane ENG 2706

10    3.5 GM Evgeny Tomashevsky RUS 2738

 

After a valiant struggle in the rapid play tie-break games Vishy Anand remains as Chess World Champion. This was after the 2 hour each long time control games finished even, after 12 rounds, and the amazing thing with these games wasn't the level of the chess which has been, it is fair to say, higher in the past, but it is the complete lack of error on both sides. Boris Gelfand raised his game to make him a credible challenger and came close to defeating Vishy, but Vishy showed that his defence is just as good as his offence and he must be pleased with his performance, after 5 years as champion.

The complete list of games (from the World Championship) with some annotation are included in the games section below.

Meanwhile at the same time Hikaru Nakamura became the US Chess Champion by finishing 1 clear point ahead of the field. Also a point of interest is that the US Champion is now ranked higher than the world champion for the first time since Bobby Fischer was around.

Standings after Final Round (FIDE) (USCF)
1 8.5 GM Hikaru Nakamura USA 2775 2848

2 7.5 GM Gata Kamsky USA 2741 2804

3 6.5 GM Alexander Onischuk USA 2660 2736
=4 6.0 GM Yury Shulman USA 2571 2666
=4 6.0 GM Varuzhan Akobian USA 2625 2709

=4 6.0 GM Aleksandr Lenderman USA 2587 2656
7 5.5 GM Ray Robson USA 2614 2674

8 5.0 GM Robert Hess USA 2635 2717
=9 4.0 GM Gregory Kaidanov USA 2594 2667

=9 4.0 GM Alejandro Ramirez USA 2593 2668
=11 3.5 GM Yasser Seirawan USA 2643 2723

=11 3.5 GM Alexander Stripunsky USA 2562 2700

The ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik (the Russian, a world champion from 2000-2007) was involved in a match, recently, with Levon Aronian, the Armenian it is a total of six games held in Zurich, Switzerland- the final score was:-

Games Section