In the 9th round of the Turkish Women Championship the leaders of the tournament Kubra Ozturk and Betul Yildiz won their matches and finished the race with equal scores. According to the regulations, they had to play a tie-break in order to determine the champion.

Betul Yildiz, who is eight-times Turkish champion, won the first game of the playoff, in which both players had ten minutes for the whole game and five seconds increment per move.

In the second game her team mate Kubra Ozturk managed to equalize a score. The fate of the first place was decided in Armageddon – Kubra Ozturk won the game and clinched the title. Busra Arig took the bronze medal.

Turkish Championship among men continues until 5th February. With two rounds to go Dragan Solak and Firat Burak are leading with 7 points from 8 games. The group of players follows half a point behind.

Official website / Live games

Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

Top chess players certainly aren’t clones.

Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest-rated grandmaster, is intense at the chessboard but seems to instinctively sidestep the storm and stress that buffeted champions such as Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov.

When asked whether he or Levon Aronian, the world’s second-ranked grandmaster, was the better player, Carlsen said he didn’t know but pointed out — for what it was worth — that his rating was a few points better than Aronian’s.

Carlsen doesn’t obsess about such things; he simply goes about playing chess.

With strong support from a family that often accompanies him when he plays, an income of more than

$1 million a year, and a father who is a businessman and helps in practical matters, the 21-year-old wunderkind leads a relatively worry-free existence.

At the board, it’s another matter.

Carlsen is as determined as anyone to win.

“Not winning a tournament is not an option for me,” he said.

He rarely gives anything away during a chess game. He is flexible and readily adapts to the vicissitudes of the struggle.

Carlsen’s credo was aptly expressed during a recent tournament: “I think your opponents become really afraid because you play on to the end. So they know they have to fight to the end.

“I think that’s correct in a way. You should have to fight for every half-point.”

Source: http://www.dispatch.com

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

#1 seed Texas Tech
#2 seed UTD
#3 seed UMBC
#4 seed NYU

Texas Tech University Knight Raiders Roster

Board 1: Grandmaster Georg “the German Precision” Meier (Germany)
Freshman – Finance
FIDE rating: 2671 – USCF rating: 2722
2011 European Team Championship Gold medalist, winner of the 19th Pamplona International, 2-time runner up of the SPICE Cup A group, #2 player on the German Olympiad team

Board 2: Grandmaster Elshan “the Knowledge Tree” Moradiabadi (Iran)
Graduate student – Business
FIDE rating: 2538 – USCF rating: 2594
Former National Champion of Iran, World Mind Sports Games Bronze medalist, #2 player on the Iranian Olympiad team

Board 3: Grandmaster Anatoly “the Rocket” Bykhovsky (Israel)
Sophomore – Finance
FIDE rating: 2536 – USCF rating: 2640
3-time National Youth Champion, 2-time Israeli Blitz Champion, 2-time SPICE Cup Champion, key member of the 2011 National Collegiate Chess Championship team

Board 4: Grandmaster Andre “the Shiny” Diamant (Brazil)
Sophomore – Economics
FIDE rating: 2494 – USCF rating: 2538
Former National Champion of Brazil, former top ranked Brazilian junior, member of the Brazilian Olympiad team, key member of the 2011 National Collegiate Championship team

First alternate: Grandmaster Denes “the Entertainer” Boros (Hungary)
Sophomore – Psychology
FIDE rating: 2482 – USCF rating: 2524
Former Hungarian youth rapid champion, former member of the Hungarian Youth Olympiad Gold medalist team

Second alternate: International Master Vitaly “the Diplomat” Neimer (Israel)
Freshman – Finance
FIDE rating: 2381 – USCF rating: 2421
Former Israeli Youth Champion, World under 14 and 16 runner up, Certified Chess Trainer

Head Coach: Grandmaster Susan Polgar
Coach: FIDE Master Paul Truong
Team Assistant: IM-elect Faik Aleskerov

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

Tradewise 2012 has rocked the world of chess and made history this week. Hou Yifan from China at 17 years of age played the best result by a female player in the history of the game. The world of chess will be talking about her achievements in this tournament for many years to come – she not only beat, up till now the best woman in the world, Judit Polgar, but four top players way above her own rating. The final round was thrilling as everyone waited to see if GM Nigel Short, who by his own admission plays his best chess on the Rock, would make it an awe-inspiring finish – as he played against Hou Yifan in the play-off. And he was victorious just after an hour and five minutes regaining the title he first won in 2003. At the official gala dinner Chief Minister Fabian Picardo presented the figure for the official website hits over the 10 days, a staggering quarter of a billion hits – this statistic he said best illustrated the huge success of chess in Gibraltar.

Thanking sponsors Gibtelecom, responsible for the technology used to make this happen, he wittingly remarked, “can the person organising the web presence please contact me at the end so they can help organise my next on line election campaign, and with this we are going for the presidency of the United States.”

Opening the night’s proceedings, Mr Picardo commented, it was an honour and privilege to be at the festival adding, “I want to start tonight’s address to you by apologising for being the first Chief Minister of Gibraltar that attends this event. I believe there should have been a Chief Minister here from the beginning of the event and it is my absolute pleasure to be here in my capacity as the representative of the people of Gibraltar. To show you by my presence the support of the Government of Gibraltar to the event that has flourished so successfully as a result of an idea that came to Brian so many years ago.”

“You will find us,” he stated, “a very willing participant and assistant in coming years whilst we are enabled by the people of Gibraltar as their government. With 363 individual chess players in Gibraltar there is no room at the inn. So it is up to us so that we can deal with the phenomenal success that Brian has created, that the sponsors have helped to make a reality, and to assure of a very warm welcome next year.”

Paying tribute to organiser Brian Callaghan, he said, politics was a little bit like chess.

“It is not always easy to get your queen to checkmate or stalemate the king. I think it is fundamentally important to leave you with these words. I think Brian Callaghan has managed to turn many, many pawns into queens through the success of this event and I would ask you to give him the warmest round of applause having created the best open tournament in the world.”

Nigel Short not only took the first prize but also won the special Commonwealth prize in this Diamond Jubilee year presented by the Governor Sir Adrian Johns and Bruno Callaghan. Hou Yifan, who came second overall in the tournament, also took the top Women’s prize and the Junior Award. Vicktor Korchnio won the Senior Award, and Best Game was awarded to Emmanuel Berg.

GM Nigel Short from England began his winner’s speech by asking for a Gibraltar passport.

“I don’t know what it is about this place. I get such a good feel at this tournament, it is so well organised that it helps me play better. I really could not imagine that I could be up here this evening making the speech. I was ranked 15th and I thought, my goodness we have come a long way in 10 years. I have not played every year, it is my fifth year. I played in the first year and it was a good little tournament with 60 players, and I was the star, and now I am just one of many superstars. There are many real giants of the game who I am honoured to play against. It is a great event. I am glad to have seen it grow and I really do believe that this is the best open tournament in the world,” he declared.

But Mr Short who had felt the might of the young Chinese player in the play-off just a few short hours earlier insisted he was not the story of the event although his victory had been very special. The story was the result of the young girl from China whom, he said, had put in a remarkable performance and shown what a world class player she is.

“Maybe,” he suggested, “what we are seeing here is the start of something new in women’s chess. I have in front of me Judit Polgar who has been forever, basically, the representative of women’s chess – the star above stars. This is nothing against Judit, who I respect greatly, but I am glad she now has some competition. Long live Gibraltar. Long may this event go on. I’ll be back next year.”

For tournament organiser Brian Callaghan, with world press headlines describing this as the best open ever, its success was clear, this had been an historic year coupled with the Government’s assurances of proactive support to chess in Gibraltar.

“What an amazing tournament we have had. It’s about having fun and playing serious, very serious chess. The chess you have played in Gibraltar this year has reverberated around the world,” he emphasised.

There was a special tribute for first Gibraltar tournament director Stewart Reubens involved since 2003.

Closing the gala was president of the English Chess Federation CJ de Mooi who stressed that although the festival may be under the English Chess Federation its success was solely due to the Gibraltar organisers of the event.

James Humphreys from Tradewise Insurance, said the festival had again shown the world the commitment and dedication this small territory had for the game – “our chess festival is by far the largest appearance Gibraltar puts in on any sporting world stage and with this understanding alone the event can and must be seen as an important ambassador for Gibraltar as a whole.”

The senior festival now gives way to another weekend of junior chess today and tomorrow. In August it looks forward to the second Gibraltar International Junior tournament.

Source: http://www.chronicle.gi

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

A six-year-old boy from Oxford is taking part in his first adult chess tournament after becoming obsessed with the game.

Callaghan McCarty-Snead took up chess last summer because he suffers from bad asthma.

Now he is captain of his chess team at SS Philip and James Primary School, playing against children who are two years older then him.

He also regularly beats his father Steve at chess.

Mother-of-five Sarah McCarty-Snead said: “Neither of us used to play chess.

“We were looking for a game or a sport Callaghan could play indoors.

‘Youngest grandmaster’

“We bought Lego chess, a computer game, and he quickly progressed through all the levels. He would just spend hours playing it.”

Callaghan was so enthused by chess that his father helped set up a chess club at his school.

He regularly plays against children two or three years older than himself.

Mr and Mrs McCarty-Snead have also employed a chess instructor to teach him the finer points of the game.

“His goal is to be the youngest grandmaster,” said Mrs McCarty-Snead.

“He practises daily for hours, he’ll wake up at [5am or 6am] at the weekends to go to a tournament and play all day, then he’ll want to carry on playing chess when he comes home.”

Callaghan is also teaching his four-year-old sister to play chess.

He will be taking part in the 35th annual Kidlington Chess Congress all day.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

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