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Election news: Yazici on the attack
22.05.2010
– The battle for FIDE presidency is getting more vicious. Leading the battle on the side of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is the President of the Turkish Chess Federation, Ali Nihat Yazici, who has published a number of pieces on the TCF web site against challenger Anatoly Karpov. In his latest piece Yazici states his reasons for switching from opponent to friend and ally of the incumbent President.
Excerpts and links.
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Breaking news: Men in black seize Russian Chess Federation
21.05.2010
– Last week the RCF nominated Anatoly Karpov as their candidate for the Presidency of FIDE. This was verbally contested by the supporters of incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Today black suited men from the private security firm “Peper” arrived at the Federation’s offices, kicked out the regular security guards and sealed off some rooms in the building.
Report in True/Slant + Karpov's reaction.
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US Championship – four players in contention
21.05.2010
– With one round to play before the field splits for the three-round quad finale, four of the top five seeds have the best chance of qualifying. Round six landed Gata Kamsky, Alex Onischuk, Hikaru Nakamura and Yury Shulman – 80 percent of the US Olympiad Team – atop the tables. All are undefeated with three wins and three draws each. Report by Mike Klein with
beautiful portraits by Betsy Dynako.
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Feathers ruffled in the Hera Variation
20.05.2010
– In the
February
issue of ChessBase Magazine Efstratios Grivas has started a series of articles
dealing with his own system - the Grivas Sicilian, which occurs after 1.d4 c5
2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6. In the first part the Hera Variation
was up for discussion: 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Qe2. 15-year-old talent Ray Robson chose it
in his game against Alex Yermolinsky, 52. Presumably Robson was unaware of Grivas'
evaluation that Black has no real problems after 7.Qe2. But things turned out
even worse than that: the oldie ripped open White's castled position and was
winning after 16 moves.
Robson-Yermolinsky annotated.
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Anand's helpers in Sofia – Part Two
20.05.2010
– In the second part of his interview on Playchess.com
the old and new World Champion Vishy Anand talks about hardware – we now
know that his opponent Veselin Topalov had access to an IBM super-computer with
8792 processors! – and how best to use computers for your preparation.
He also compares them to human assistants, of whom Vishy had
the very best.
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GM Daniel King's Power Play Radio Show
19.05.2010
– On Thursday May 20th GM Daniel King will teach us a little about
tactics and strategy, with hot tips on how to improve your play. His lecture
starts at 8:00 p.m. server time CEST (= 2 p.m. NY, 10 p.m. Moscow). Most of
you will know Daniel as the author of the famous "power play
series" as well as commentator of high class tournaments. Entry fee: 50
Ducats, Premium users free!
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GP in Astrakhan: Eljanov back in the lead
19.05.2010
– It's been a bit of a roller coaster, but after nine rounds and a fighting black piece victory over Teimour Radjabov, Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov is back in the sole lead at the FIDE Grand Prix. Four GMs – Jakovenko, Mamedyarov, Gashimov and Leko – follow half a point behind, notably with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who had a bad start, amongst them. Friday is a free day.
Round nine report.
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US Championship – Kamsky and Onischuk in the lead
19.05.2010
– After four rounds there were seven players jumbled at the top of the tables. Only two were left after round five had finished: GM Gata Kamsky and GM Alexander Onischuk. The second and third seeds, both won as White and are all alone at 4/5. A pack of four GMs is half a point shy of the leaders. IM Irina Krush, the only female participant, has a 2657 GM performance.
Round five report.
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Anand in Playchess – the helpers in Sofia
19.05.2010
– The team of World Championship challenger Veselin Topalov reportedly spent a large sum of money to secure a 112 core computer cluster running at mind boggling speed. "How did the reigning champion counter this awesome hardware advantage," we asked. Anand answered this question in a candid and very detailed interview broadcast on Monday Playchess.
He used a human cluster!
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Fundraiser in New York – echo in the press
19.05.2010
– A one-night binge in the Trump SoHo Hotel brought chess into the highlights
of the international press. Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen [memo: he must
change that to Karlsen!] generated a large number of international reports,
almost outshining the World Chess Championship in Sofia. Not unexpectedly the
stories reflect the challenger's side of the ticket.
Press links.
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FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan: Inarkiev loses the lead
19.05.2010
– Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov was alone at the top of the table since round six, but in round eight he lost to his compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov in round eight. In that round Vladimir Akopian sweetened this three losses so far with a first victory, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also won his first game in this tournament when he beat Evgeny Alekseev. Four GMs share the lead.
Round eight report.
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Big Karpov fund-raiser in New York
18.05.2010
– Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen – two former and one very likely future world champion – took part in a launch party and fundraiser in the spectacular Trump SoHo Hotel in New York. It is for Karpov's bid to become President of FIDE. There were chess games as well as entertainment and champagne, which introduced a slight complication in the festivities.
Pictures and video.
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