Chessdom reports: Karjakin finishes sole first at the Norway Chess Tournament.
Sergey Karjakin finished half a point ahead of the world number 1, challenger to the crown, and host country player Magnus Carlsen.
Webster U freshman GM So leads Calgary by full point after 5
Susan Polgar: Webster U freshman GM So leads Calgary by a full point after 5.
He has to, he’s the highest rated player in that tournament.
Anand vs. Carlsen: World Championship 2013
So it’s gonna be Magnus Carlsen challenging Viswanathan Anand for the World title come November 2013. Who are you rooting for?
I’ll go for the youth, of course.
Bilbao Rd7: Carlsen joins Caruana in lead. Magnus Carlsen on a roll with the back-to-back win in Round 6 and 7 against Caruana and Vallejo, respectively, the first two games in the Bilbao Leg.
Carla Rae Jepsen, the artist of the popular song “Call Me Maybe”, is a chess geek. Now, who wants her for an opponent across the chess board? I do.
Short Story. Bobby Ang discusses about the “computerization” of GM Eugene Torre and his rivalry with Nigel Short of England. For one, I didn’t realize that the rivalry was for real until I read this article. That’s why Torre’s victory vs. Short in the recent Olympiad was such a big deal.
Hiarcs Chess Explorer Video Quick Tour
The Hiarcs team recently posted two videos (one for Mac and another for Windows) to give a quick tour of their products. The Hiarcs Chess Explorer applications for both platforms virtually look the same and share the same functionalities.
I have a Mac and purchased the Mac version, and here’s the quick tour:
Yet, I have to reiterate my feature requests I hope we get in the next version:
- Engine match and engine tournaments;
- Ability to publish PGN games to be replayable in HTML through javascript;
See also Hiarcs Chess Explorer for PC video tour.
GM Wesley So of the Philippines gained 10 ELO rating points during his stints in September 2012 and climbed to No. 74 from 84 last month. His new rating for October 2012 is 2677 (from 2667). See the full list of Top 100 Players.
Sao Paolo-Bilbao Masters 2012 Update: Caruana Leads at the End of First Leg
Photo credit: www.bilbaomastersfinal.com
With 3 wins and 2 draws, Fabiano Caruana leads the pack of 6 top players in the Sao Paolo-Bilbao Grand Slam Final 2012. He started the campaign with a win in Round 1 against Magnus Carlsen (replay game here), followed by two more wins against Sergey Karjakin and Francisco Vallejo Pons in Rounds 2 and 4, respectively.
After chess olympiad feat Torre upbeat on SEAG bid:
Eugene Torre and fellow GMs Wesley So, Mark Paragua, Oliver Barbosa and Oliver Dimakiling, who really made heads turn in Istanbul, will try to find all the winning lines in the next SEA Games.
As early as now, Team Philippines should already be concocting that special winning strategy against Vietnam. Vindication is sweet, I’d say, and it’s never too late.
Grandmasters can play ball
Photo by Albert Silver, Chessbase
It is but on rare occasions we get to see Grandmasters playing sports other than chess.
Participants of the Sao Paolo-Bilbao Grand Slam Final 2012 dressed up in rubber shoes and jerseys to play basketball the day before the opening ceremony. In the picture above you’ll see Levon Aronian tries to get past the defense of Sergey Karjakin while Magnus Carlsen waits in the background.
More photos in the Chessbase website.
A FIDE Master Title for Elite GM’s
William of OnlineChessLessons.net offered a strong argument why FIDE should introduce an official Super-GM title for 2700+ rated chess players.
In 1972 there were 88 GMs and in 2012 there are now over 1200 GMs! However the vast majority (around 95%) of Grandmasters are rated between 2400 and 2699 FIDE. After the recent Chess Olympiad 2012 in Istanbul, there are now a total of 50 Super-GMs rated over 2700 FIDE.
Read more about Should FIDE have a Super-GM title for 2700+ GMs?
Personally, I’m in favor of his proposal of an official distinct FIDE title awarded to “elite” GM’s in order to separate them from, well, the not-so-elite ones. FIDE may not necessarily use a 2700 ELO rating cut-off, but they could devise certain criteria for eligibility.
However, I advise against the use of the “Super-GM” name. Why? Keep on reading »
Tiviakov and Barbosa share first place in DYTM Raja Nazrin Shah International Open. Why do these headlines emphasize the “sharing of the place”, when there’s a tie-break system to follow? A first place is a first place, a second is a second, regardless of the initial tie-break scores — i.e. the win-loss card. Nevertheless, congratulations to GM Oliver Barbosa. Good job, indeed!
Houdini is now a proud sponsor of the Webster University #1 ranked chess team. So they give each player of Webster a free copy of the Houdini UCI engine? I wonder what else?
Barbosa, Paragua off to good start in Malaysia chess tourney — a regional tournament we have to watch closely.
The SPICE Cup Invitational 2012
The SPICE Cup Invitational is happening in St. Louis, Missouri from October 16 to 20, 2012. It is expected to be a Category 18 tournament, just four notches below the highest FIDE tournament category.
The participants for this event (Invitational category) are six members of the Top 100 FIDE Ratings List (with their respective September 2012 ELO ratings and countries):
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 2697, France;
- Ding Liren, 2694, China;
- Le Quang Liem, 2693, Vietnam;
- Csaba Balogh, 2668, Hungary;
- Wesley So, 2667, Philippines;
- Georg Meier, 2656, Germany.
We at ChessHive, being fans of Wesley So and Philippines chess, will certainly bring the updates as they unfold. So stay tuned!
The SPICE Difference. Personally, I’m thrilled about the outcome of this program. I hope it’ll be successful, and the participants, including our very own Wesley So, will see real improvements in their games as well as their personal lives.
According to the Hiarcs team, engine-vs.-engine match as well as engine tournaments are planned for future versions of Hiarcs Chess Explorer. Great! Hope the upgrade comes free.
Sao Paolo – Bilbao Grand Slam Final 2012
The Grand Slam this year will be held again in Sao Paolo in Brazil and Bilbao in Spain. It won’t be a grand slam if it were not participated by the heavy weights in the world of chess:
- Viswanathan Anand, India, current World Champiion;
- Magnus Carlsen, Norway, currently the world’s No. 1 in ELO Rating;
- Levon Aronian, Armenia, world’s No. 2 and member of the champion team in the Istanbul 2012 Chess Olympiad;
- Sergey Karjakin, Russia, world’s No. 7;
- Fabiano Caruana, Italy, world’s No. 8; and
- Francisco Vallejo Pons, Spain, the pride of one of the host countries of this tournament.
The first round-robin matches will happen in Sao Paolo from September 24 to 29, while the final rounds in Bilbao from October 8 to 13, 2012. Check out the website.
ChessHive will bring you the updates about this grand event, so stay tuned.
When i was pondering about the domain name I used for this site, I wasn’t aware of the technology blog called TechHive.com. Any resemblance in the name is by mere coincidence.