Happy Halloween from Houston, TX!

Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is a mostly national holiday celebrated on the evening of October 31; today it is often celebrated in the morning and afternoon as well. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o’-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies. (Source: Wiki)

Ivanchuk defeated Carlsen in the Blitz playoff to advance to Cap d’Agde Rapid Final.

Official website: http://www.capechecs.com/resultats/index.php?t=masters

Départage en 3’+2″ :

Vassily Ivanchuk	(2786)	-	Magnus Carlsen	(2786)	:	1-0
Magnus Carlsen	(2786)	-	Vassily Ivanchuk	(2786)	:	½-½

White to move and win.

Source: ChessToday.net

A Corus of Online Approval!

In a unique partnership with the Corus Chess Tournament, one of the world’s most famous chess festivals, Internet Chess Club (ICC) will be hosting a special satellite qualifier for one of the final spots in the 2009 ‘C’ Group.

16 invited players, selected by Corus in consultation with ICC, will fight it out in an online rapid knockout tournament, held on the weekends of November 1st & 2nd and 8th & 9th (starting at 10am Eastern Time each day), with the winner receiving the Corus ‘C’ Group invite, a round-trip ticket to Wijk aan Zee, Hotel & Breakfast plus $1,300 (1,000 Euro).

And its a true international line-up, with the 16 players spanning the globe and different time zones. From the USA through Canada to Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela, and from Scotland, England, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Azerbaijan and Russia, to even far away Australia all coming together as one over the internet.

The full field includes: GM Alexander Fier (Brazil), GM Eljtaj Safarli (Azerbaijan), GM Georg Meier (Germany), GM Mark Bluvshtein (Canada), GM Ivan Salgado (Spain), IM Sanan Giri (Russia), GM Eduardo Iturrizaga (Venezuela), IM Manuel Rodriguez (Cuba), IM Sevak Krikor Mekhitarion (Brazil), IM David Smerdon (Australia), IM Ray Robson (USA), FM Anish Giri (Russia), IM Robert Ris (Netherlands), FM Marcos Lamos (Brazil), WGM Dagne Ciuksytev (England) and FM Graham Morrison (Scotland).

And to ensure fair-play for all, at each location and for each match, an independent “proctor” will be in place to oversee the proceedings, many of whom being national chess officials, international arbiters, national arbiters and ICC administrators.

For further information of the tournament and the pairings, click here.

Contact: John Henderson, ICC Director of Marketing

1/2 finale Vendredi 31 à partir de 14h30

Anand deserved the title, says Kasparov
Manisha Mohite Friday, 31 October , 2008, 11:21

The visible and invisible “Seconds’ were both at work, on and off the board, but there was one more invisible power player, the highest ever rated player on this planet who wanted to give tips to Anand and also wanted him to retain the title.

Frederic Friedel, the owner of one of the biggest Chess software giant ChessBase is one of those whom Anand publicly dedicated his title to, made a startling revealation that Garry Kasparov indeed was following each and every game of the Match and was very keen that Anand win it.

Surprising that Anand and he had been bitter rivals at one stage of their career and had contested a PCA World Championship final in 1995 where Garry had beaten Anand.

Friedel further added: “Garry was calling me everyday after the Match and was literally clapping his hand and jumping with joy at Anand’s achievement. Such great was his enthusiasm!’’

And I think the reason he did this was because basically he likes Anand a lot and admires his skill They had lot of battles on chess board and though Garry lead a very vigorous and aggressive lifestyle, politically, personally and professionally, he is after all a human being and genuinely likes Anand.

When quizzed whether he passed the tips on to Anand, Freidel replied in the negative but added ’since Anand and his team were working like a well oiled engine, he did not like to distract or disturb the balance.’

“However, I did not bother much because Kasaprov had telephonic conversation with Anand himself before the match and if at all he wanted any help to be delivered, he did it himself,” added Friedel

Source: http://sify.com

Living chess game

Chess enthusiasts are invited to participate in a “living chess match” at 10 a.m. Saturday at W.T. Bland Public Library, 1995 N. Donnelly St., Mount Dora.

It is not necessary to know how to play chess to participate.

A dramatic living-chess match takes place every two years in Marostica, Italy, derived from a local legend of 1454, when the Venetian Republic forbade dueling to the death with swords.

To win the hand in marriage of the daughter of a lord, two suitors had to challenge each other to a game of chess instead of swords. It was then decided to use live players, marked as the black and white teams.

Details: 352-735-7180, Option 5.

Chess ‘grandfather‘ honored for decade of tutoring
King for a knight
By Laura Crimaldi
Friday, October 31, 2008

A “foster grandfather” will be honored tonight for volunteering to teach Quincy kids chess - using his own handmade chess pieces.

Four days a week for 10 years, Yasha Khibkin, 69, has spent several hours tutoring math and teaching chess, checkers and Chinese checkers to 52 children in kindergarten through fifth grade. The boards and pawns, bishops, knights and other pieces he uses are handmade by Khibkin, who prefers his creations of paper mache, paint and lacquer over plastic, store-bought pieces.

“He is a huge asset to us,” said Kyle Randall, the after-school program director.

Officials at Action for Boston Community Development agree. They are honoring Khibkin at the anti-poverty agency’s annual Community Awards Dinner.

“He’s a very nice guy. He’s charming,” said ABCD President and CEO Robert M. Coard.

The foster grandparent program was established 35 years ago, and Coard said there are 145 volunteers at ABCD sites, including 20 men.
Male volunteers are especially appreciated, Coard said, because “a lot of kids in Boston and the inner city live in female-headed households.”

Khibkin, who emigrated from Uzbeskistan with his wife, Raisa Rivkiua, and two children in 1997, said being a foster grandparent helped him learn English. He soon began to draw on his experience as a mathematics and physics teacher to help young children learn their multiplication tables and count without using their fingers. Chess came naturally, too.

“Every move in chess is very thinkable,” said Khibkin. “It is logical, like mathematics.”

Khibkin became a citizen in 2002.

“The United States helped change me, changed my life. Therefore I must help my country,” Khibkin said. “We’re free here, you understand. No one understands like those who came from the Soviet Union.”

Source: http://news.bostonherald.com/

Quarterfinal matchups and results:

Départage en 3’+2″ :

Hikaru Nakamura	(2704)	-	Maxime Vachier Lagrave	(2716)	:	1-0
Maxime Vachier Lagrave	(2716)	-	Hikaru Nakamura	(2704)	:	0-1

Semifinal matchups:

1/2 finale Vendredi 31 à partir de 14h30

Chess puts republic on the map
October 30, 2008, 8:44

The President of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, had a dream to make his tiny homeland in Russia’s southern steppes the chess centre of the world.

Ilyumzhinov, who is a passionate chess player, president of the FIDE world chess association, a billionaire and so far the only president of Kalmykia, has put a lot of effort into making it come true. Today the game is everywhere in the republic’s capital, Elista.

In 1996, Kalmykia hosted World Chess Championship with Grand Masters Topalov and Kramnik going head to head.

Two years later, an entire chess city was built to house the World Olympiad. Nowadays, it provides workshops with former champions and private tuition for a select few.

“Becoming a great chess player requires hard work and discipline,” says Russian Fast Chess Champ of 2004, Dolgan Niudleev.

“Illyumzhinov has done so much for the game here. Without him, none this would be possible.”

The rest of the sprawling, gated complex is largely empty most of the time, but it regularly houses conferences and important guests, like the Dalai Lama of Vladimir Putin.

The rows of suburban terraces are available for purchase, but Kalmykia is a republic without a middle class. It’s economically stunted and with staggeringly high unemployment. Some argue the money could have been better spent.

“The chess city uses a huge amount of electricity and heating and needs constant maintenance. No one even uses or needs it,” says journalist Valery Badmayev.

But Illyuzhinov is convinced that chess can have great social and educational benefits. The game has even made its way into the national curriculum and is compulsory for all children until the age of 12.

The president says: “Chess is my philosophy, my idea. People must first think and that move.”

It’s an idea that’s been a part of Kalmykian culture for centuries, but the extent to which chess’s more recent rebirth is a genuine grass-roots revival, or simply contrived egoism, is far from black and white.

Source: http://www.russiatoday.com/

The 2008 World Youth Chess Champions
www.chessasia.net

All good things must come to an end and so the World Youth Championships held in Vung Tau, Vietnam concludes tonight with yet another spectacular closing and prize giving ceremony tonight.

But we can already salute the 2008 World Youth Champions!

Open 18 - IM Ivan Saric (Croatia) 8/11
Girls 18 - WGM Valentina Golubenko (Croatia) 9/11

Open 16 - IM Adhiban (India) 9/11
Girls 16 - WFM Nazi Paikidze (Georgia) 9/11

Open 14 - Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (India) 9/11
Girl 14 - WIM Padmini Rout (India) 10/11

Open 12 - Sayantan Das (India) 9.5/11
Girl 12 - Zhai Mo (China) 8.5/11

Open 10 - Jan-Krysztof (Poland) 9.5/11
Girls 10 - Aleksandra Goryackina (Russia) 9/11

Open 8 - Tran Minh Thang (Vietnam) 10/11
Girl 8 - Zhansaya Abdumalik (Kazakhstan) 10/11

India is the biggest winner and the easy overall winners with 4 Golds followed by Croatia with 2 and Georgia, China, Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan and hosts Vietnam with one a piece.

Full results can be found here: http://chess-results.com/tnr15980.aspx?lan=1

President congratulates Anand on winning World Chess Championship
Oct 30th, 2008

New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) President Pratibha Patil Thursday congratulated grand master Viswanathan Anand for winning the World Chess Championship.

In her message, the president said that she was “delighted to learn about the victory and that Anand’s consistent performance throughout his long and successful career is testimony to his hard work and dedication towards the challenging game of chess.

The president has also wished him success in the future, a release issued by Rashtrapati Bhawan said.

Anand drew the 11th game of the 12-game World Chess Championship final with white pieces against Vladimir Kramnik to take an unbeatable 6.5-4.5 lead and retain his world title at Bonn, Germany.

Source: http://www.sindhtoday.net/

Vishy joins a rare league
10/30/2008 11:58:56 AM

Anand with this great win, has joined a rare league of chess champions. Here’s a look at the elite list of Chess wizards in whose company the Indian Grandmaster now finds himself.

The world of 64 squares could just be highly insipid to a common man. Outsmarting Vladimir Kramnik in the Battle of Bonn, Vishy Anand has now joined the league of extraordinary gentlemen.

A highly eccentric American made news beyond the blocks. Bobby Fischer’s controlled madness was a rage of the seventies.

Ironically, a Russian was to follow suit. Anatoly Karpov was calculated, studious and just about perfect picture for the champion.

So, the world of chess revealed that madness was not a flash in the pan.

In came another Russian who pioneered the sport in the modern era. Gary Kasparov was sharp, witty and eccentric like no other, a little Fischer was hidden in him too.

So we weren’t surprised when the world of chess welcomed a man from the land, where the game originated thousand years back.

Vishy got better off his Russian challenger, clinched the world crown second time in a row, and became the undisputed king of chess of the 21st century.

Source: http://www.timesnow.tv

Cap d’Agde quarterfinal matchup:

Départage en 3’+2″ :

Vassily Ivanchuk	(2786)	-	Teimour Radjabov	(2751)	:	1-0
Teimour Radjabov	(2751)	-	Vassily Ivanchuk	(2786)	:	0-1

World Chess Championship 2008:
Statement by the organizer Universal Event Promotion

The Universal Event Promotion (UEP) would like to state herewith that the World Chess Championship 2008 was a great success. The resonance that followed this Championship was worldwide enormous. The battle for the highest chess title, taking place in Germany first time after 74 years, between Viswanathan Anand from India and Vladimir Kramnik from Russia, has attracted a huge attention and interest in Germany and all over the world.

Spectators interest

World Chess Championship has hosted 3.780 spectators in these eleven rounds who purchased their tickets to witness the match. 4.400 tickets were available to be sold for eleven rounds, so that 85,9 % of the tickets have been sold. We would like to mention that UEP could offer not more than 400 tickets per day, due to the fact that the event hosted many journalists and also organization as well. During some of the rounds the playing hall was completely full with spectators and there was still a queue of people who wanted to purchase the entrance tickets.

Media coverage

During three weeks the World Chess Championship 2008 was fully covered by the mass media from all over the world in different formats. Many journalists from main international news agencies, well known newspapers and magazines, TV and Radio channels and Internet websites came to Bonn to cover the Championship live. 427 journalists from 28 countries were officially accredited for the World Chess Championship. A huge interest to the match was shown of course by the mass media of Germany and the countries of the competitors: India and Russia.

Thousands of articles and reports were published in respect of the match all over the world. Such worldwide well-known huge news agencies as Associated Press, Reuters, DPA, SID were providing the day-by-day reports to many people from many countries through other mass media they work with.

Such big German TV channels as ARD, ZDF and others sent their teams to Bonn to witness the match, and also the Indian and Russian TV teams. Reuters TV was sending out their reports on the match to the mass media all over the world.

The same coverage was made in Internet. Articles and reports on the Championship were also published on many web sites of well known mass media. Internet

The live coverage from each round was given free on a daily basis for the attention of all chess fans on the official website of the World Chess Championship – presented with the Corporate design. Ten servers that were provided by UEP have counted 1.271.000 visitors who were watching the match live. 45 other international media portals used the World Championship applet to provide the transmission of the games live. Taking into account all these figures, one can assume already that during the whole event between 20 and 30 millions visitors followed the games of the World Championship live.

One of the innovations that were presented at the World Chess Championship 2008 was the FOIDOS.TV broadcasting system. UEP has given before the rights for broadcasting the championship live on Internet to the Chess Media Services (CMS). Therefore, CMS has for the first time used the new chess broadcasting system at this Championship. All chess lovers all over the world had the opportunity to pay and watch the FOIDOS.TV –several cameras were installed in the playing venue, showing both participants, game live, pictures and live comments of the official commentators in four languages: English, German, Russian and Spanish. UEP is convinced that such a system to broadcast has obviously a great future in the commercialization of chess events.

Partner

UEP has obtained the recognition in many respects. Many international experts have expressed their absolute assurance of a success of this event, underlining that this was the best-organized and presented chess event so far. FIDE Honorary President Mr. Florencio Campomanes, who was present at the event, basing on his own experience, has confirmed that the match was very well organized. He said: “I am very much delighted. UEP has done all its efforts to give to chess a new dimension. I am looking forward for the future possible cooperation between World Chess Federation and UEP”.

UEP would like to express that the event of this high level could only be possibly organized with the help and cooperation with professional partners. Therefore, UEP would like to thank the Finance Minister of Germany Mr. Peer Steinbrück – the patron of the match, the main sponsors Evonik Industries and GAZPROM, the World Chess Federation FIDE, Art and Exhibition Hall of Federal Republic of Germany and the City Bonn for their close and efficient cooperation.

Concluding our statement, we would like to give you one remark as an example from many statements made about this World Chess Championship. We are very pleased to quote an extract from an article written by the chess legend Dr. Robert Hübner, well-known German chess player, in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Mr. Hübner stated in his article that the presentation of the World Chess Championship was organized in a way, so that all attention and concentration were paid only on what is going on the board, and not to other non-chess issues. Hübner expressed his wish, that this is an example of chess organization which should be followed by others.

[Universal Event Promotion GmbH. UEP Statement World Chess Championship. October 29, 2008.]